does what I write matter,
or is what matters only the process and the fact that I have written it?
does it matter if someone reads it and understands,
or is what matters only that someone read it and might understand it one day?
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Transferable Skills
I have many:
eating, sleeping, breathing, talking, moving, thinking.
I can do these in most places and in most situations if the feeling takes me.
Really, wtf does 'transferable skills' really mean? It's just another bullshit idea to justify the existence of bullshit schemes by a bullshit government (all governments, their party name is irrelevant).
I read an interesting article in the Guardian, entitled "Why doesn't Britain make things anymore?" I work in the service sector (for now) and each shift fills me with a little more dread about the fate of mankind and the economy. Pushing sales, finding missing stock that amounts to the price of a brand new family car EVERY WEEK! Pushing sales to people who will buy it with a credit card, who will pay off the minimum amount every month. Staff being treated appallingly by senior staff who believe that your life should revolve around the store. People not getting their break and working 12 hour shifts, in retail ffs, hardly life or death situations of someone takes a lunch hour you would imagine.
The government wants us to work like this, and to consume like this, but it is not sustainable. When I leave my job in the next couple of weeks, I will not be replaced, my hours will not go to another member of staff, they will disappear into the ether and the company will save £460 per month as a result. That is one less job that could have gone to someone who wants it, one less job in the government's beloved service sector, from which I have found they want to learn 'best practice. My new job is in a local library, and in the job description they said something about learning from retail 'best practice'. After 10 years in retail, I can confirm there is no such thing as 'best practice', just dog eat dog, exploitative and underhand tactics where the mind is worth nothing and the use of your own common sense is frowned upon.
Without a sense of irony, my store offers apprenticeships in customer service, counters and bakery. What are these worth in the real world? If you have no level 2 qualifications I would suggest you go to evening classes and get a GCSE in English and Maths, instead of filling out bullshit worksheets on health and safety and labeling the store's fire exits (which you do not need to study for an apprenticeship to know). Plus, what physical skills are there to learn in a supermarket? In the bakery everything comes in frozen and is simply warmed up in the ovens. On the meat counter the most challenging aspect is cutting a steak to a certain thickness; no carving up animals, that has already been done further back in the production line. And as for customer service? Don't make me laugh! Do you really mean learning how to deal with stressed customers can get me a qualification? A* all round for me then!
eating, sleeping, breathing, talking, moving, thinking.
I can do these in most places and in most situations if the feeling takes me.
Really, wtf does 'transferable skills' really mean? It's just another bullshit idea to justify the existence of bullshit schemes by a bullshit government (all governments, their party name is irrelevant).
I read an interesting article in the Guardian, entitled "Why doesn't Britain make things anymore?" I work in the service sector (for now) and each shift fills me with a little more dread about the fate of mankind and the economy. Pushing sales, finding missing stock that amounts to the price of a brand new family car EVERY WEEK! Pushing sales to people who will buy it with a credit card, who will pay off the minimum amount every month. Staff being treated appallingly by senior staff who believe that your life should revolve around the store. People not getting their break and working 12 hour shifts, in retail ffs, hardly life or death situations of someone takes a lunch hour you would imagine.
The government wants us to work like this, and to consume like this, but it is not sustainable. When I leave my job in the next couple of weeks, I will not be replaced, my hours will not go to another member of staff, they will disappear into the ether and the company will save £460 per month as a result. That is one less job that could have gone to someone who wants it, one less job in the government's beloved service sector, from which I have found they want to learn 'best practice. My new job is in a local library, and in the job description they said something about learning from retail 'best practice'. After 10 years in retail, I can confirm there is no such thing as 'best practice', just dog eat dog, exploitative and underhand tactics where the mind is worth nothing and the use of your own common sense is frowned upon.
Without a sense of irony, my store offers apprenticeships in customer service, counters and bakery. What are these worth in the real world? If you have no level 2 qualifications I would suggest you go to evening classes and get a GCSE in English and Maths, instead of filling out bullshit worksheets on health and safety and labeling the store's fire exits (which you do not need to study for an apprenticeship to know). Plus, what physical skills are there to learn in a supermarket? In the bakery everything comes in frozen and is simply warmed up in the ovens. On the meat counter the most challenging aspect is cutting a steak to a certain thickness; no carving up animals, that has already been done further back in the production line. And as for customer service? Don't make me laugh! Do you really mean learning how to deal with stressed customers can get me a qualification? A* all round for me then!
Monday, 14 November 2011
films that I haven't seen
a list, non exhaustive, as follows:
Melancholia
Capote
Jane Eyre
You and Me and Everyone We Know
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hamlet (Olivier)
Thelma and Louise
Gone With The Wind
Titanic (no loss)
Sex and The City (see above)
The Maltese Falcon
A Clockwork Orange
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Man Who Wasn't There
Oliver
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Silence of the Lambs
Calamity Jane
Rocky (all)
Rambo (all)
I have managed my life quite adequately so far without watching them, although I feel some may eventually make their way into my DVD player, although I can happily die without ever watching Titanic, Rambo, Rocky and Sex and the City (both outings).
Melancholia
Capote
Jane Eyre
You and Me and Everyone We Know
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Hamlet (Olivier)
Thelma and Louise
Gone With The Wind
Titanic (no loss)
Sex and The City (see above)
The Maltese Falcon
A Clockwork Orange
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Man Who Wasn't There
Oliver
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Silence of the Lambs
Calamity Jane
Rocky (all)
Rambo (all)
I have managed my life quite adequately so far without watching them, although I feel some may eventually make their way into my DVD player, although I can happily die without ever watching Titanic, Rambo, Rocky and Sex and the City (both outings).
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