Just A Bit Of A Rant About Employment

I’ve just received confirmation that all staff will be expected back in the office, on full working hours, from the 8th of March. I guess it’s back to 90 minute, traffic hell, commutes to and from work and skipping lunch breaks because of the extra pressure to perform that being in the office brings with it. 

Now I’ve got used to it and adjusted my body clock to account for it, losing those 3 hours from my day and my 30 minute workouts over lunch are really going to hit both my mental and physical health hard. 

So much for the pandemic permanently changing office work for the better, it seems far more likely to me that it’s going to change it for the worse.

If you don’t want to read the rantings of a perpetually working class, over opinionated, generation rent, aging millennial (yes, I am currently wearing skinny jeans… fucking zoomer.) I’d suggest you stop here… Otherwise, have at it.

I might not be a business analyst, but I’ve worked in industry for a long time and have weathered many a storm and remained relatively unscathed whilst doing so. This is thanks to being quite technically minded, trying my best to be an “information sponge”, having a reasonable level of insight into how things work and being a good judge of things to come. As I see it, thanks to business closures, caused by a mixture of the government mismanaging both the pandemic and brexit, it’s going to give the surviving employers greater scope to work their employees harder than ever. Surviving employers are going to want to take advantage of diminished competition to expand their market share and claw back lost revenue, but they’re going to want to do it without increasing costs because of the long term uncertainty that brexit has caused. 

This is likely to lead to them relying on a mixture of expendable “zero hour” contracted agency staff and expecting their existing full time work forces to increase productivity. A decrease in the amount of competition for employers generally leads to an increase in the amount of competition for employees, essentially a hell of a lot more people are now competing for a hell of a lot less jobs. Couple this with the fact that there’s now a massive influx of very talented, very experienced individuals who are currently unemployed and will be looking to start a new job ASAP and you have a situation where previously indispensable, relatively well paid, staff are now fairly easily replaced by equally capable people who are willing to accept lower pay out of desperation.

The foreseeable future is looking bleak from an employee standard point. The glass ceiling is going to be lowered, expanded and reinforced. Anyone below it will find themselves pushed into a more cramped, more competitive, higher stress environment. They will find themselves working harder and longer hours for the same or lower rates of pay. People at the lower end of the scale will find themselves suffering from stress caused by poor work/life balance, job insecurity and financial strains.

People above the glass ceiling will almost certainly experience the opposite of this, widening the gap between rich and poor. Basically because it’s been made harder for low level workers to break through, competition for high level jobs will decrease and therefore high level job security will increase. Meanwhile lower levels of business competition and an increased level of productivity to fill this void, whilst working to keep costs as low as possible though pressure on the workforce, is likely to create higher profits and therefore higher pay or bonuses to those upper echelons. 

Needless to say our current conservative government will be working hard in the background to ensure that this is the case, slowly chipping away at employee rights whilst firming up the control an employer can exert over their staff. As is generally the case with conservative policies, this will help to strengthen the stranglehold that large business concerns have over the economy, making it ever harder for smaller, independent businesses to compete on any level.

Basically if you’re already rich, and you’ve weathered the covid storm, you’re going to be doing great. If you’re poor, you’re basically screwed and as long as you continue to work, spend, repeat, whilst you’re capable at least, the government couldn’t give a damn if you sink or swim, live or die.

Ok, rant over… I’m perpetually tired and my bones hurt.

A While Ago This Image Came Up On My Tumblr Dash...

A while ago this image came up on my Tumblr dash and, being currently somewhat dissatisfied with my employment/general living situation, I ended up going off on a bit of a self indulgent rant. I re-read it this morning and came to the conclusion that it's a perfectly valid opinion, though it doesn't contain any information that most people aren't already aware of, so I've decided to post it on here too:

There's a fairly simple explanation, traditionally as people get older they get richer. Conservative values and policies generally benefit the rich, so the older people get the more they benefit from being conservative. That is not happening with this generation, largely thanks to conservative values and policies, the financial landscape has changed. Rates of pay at the lower end of the job market have stagnated, the majority of employers are no longer interested in their employees happiness and general well being, as they’re seen as an easily replaceable commodity. Meanwhile, house prices, and housing costs in general, have risen at way beyond the rate of inflation, meaning that many young people can no longer afford to get on the housing market and are forced into the rental trap. Couple this with rises in the general cost of living and it's gotten harder, and continues to get harder, for normal, working class, people to make and retain money. Basically we're poor, we’re getting to a stage in our lives where we should be seeing our hard work pay off, but we're not and as such conservative values and policies do not benefit us in anyway and are, more than likely, only making things worse.

Dieting and the Rising Cost of Living

So this started life as me moaning about being poor and ended up going off on a slight tangent: When you’ve been dieting for months, and have basically been living off porridge oats, lettuce, cucumber and 20p tins of tuna, you finally reach your target weight/size and realise that the cost of living has increased by so much that you can no longer afford to replace the clothes that are now several sizes too big for you and, since your wages haven’t gone up at all, you can’t even afford a sustainable and healthy calorie intake that would allow you to maintain your current weight.

It’s strange how the extremely rich, and extremely well paid, people working at the top levels of government seem to think that the minimum wage is a ‘living’ wage. These people have never and will never experience life at the low end of the pay scale. I work full time, I work in a fast paced, mentally draining environment, I come home tired every single night, I’m actually paid above the national minimum wage and what I earn would barely be enough for a single person, living on their own, to survive on never mind actually have a decent quality of life on. I honestly don’t know how the minimum wage could ever be referred to as, or actually considered to be, a 'living’ wage.

Coffee Shop Rant

Unless you're an espresso worshipper, and I most certainly am not, it seems like Birmingham is a bit of a dead zone on the coffee front. On Monday afternoon I tried several different independent coffee shops and not one of them could offer me a standard drip filter, a pour over or even a simple cafetiere for my trouble.

To be fair to one of them, Yorks Cafe on Colmore Row, they had simply sold out of filter coffee and whilst they did offer to grind some beans and brew a fresh pot, this was the last place I called, I was already running a little late for my train and I didn't really have the time to spare to wait. All the others, however, simply didn't sell filter coffee and could only offer me an 'americano' as if somehow a watered down, largely tasteless espresso is a valid alternative to a well brewed mug of old school coffee.

Don't get me wrong I understand that making espresso is almost an art form in itself, and that a half decent espresso machine is hugely expensive and that most of the modern fashionable coffee choices start life as a shot of espresso. What I don't understand is why refer to yourself as a coffee shop if the only coffee you serve is a variant of espresso, surely at that point you're actually an espresso bar? By a strange coincidence the only place to offer me the option of waiting for a fresh brewed pot of coffee is the only place, of the few I visited, used to identify itself as an espresso bar.

Next time I'm in Brum I think I'll pop to Yorks, and, if they're out of filter, I'll ask them if they mind brewing a fresh pot, I'll order myself one of their awesome looking handmade doughnuts, I'll sit in, wait for my coffee and spend a few minutes people watching.

Random Rant

People assume that because I have an interest in and feel an affinity towards Norse mythology, the stories, the symbolism and artifacts relating to Norse mythology that I practice a pagan religion. I can't say that I get offended by this because I don't, I feel that we are all entitled to our own beliefs, no matter what they are. I also believe, however, that those beliefs are a private thing and should not be forced upon the general population in any way, shape or form.

I understand that certain religions require certain things from there practitioners, but I feel that religion should not take priority over the laws and policies of the land, nore should those laws and policies be written, affected by or adjusted to suit any religious point of view, not matter which religion that be. If one person can't wear something that obscures their facial features then no one can, if one person is not allowed to wear jewellery the no one can, if one person can't carry a weapon then no one can. There should never be a situation where it is one rule for one person and another rule for someone else. Everyone is equal, everyone is entitled to the same rights and everyone should be subject to the same laws and the same rules and the same policies regardless of beliefs, skins colour, sex, age or background.

Work Related Rantings

So the end of my first weekend, which has gone far too quickly, after my first full week of work and I wish I could say it was all going well. I hate it, I hate the work, I hate the machine I work with, I hate the fact they expect me to know what I'm doing without being shown, I hate the number of hours, I hate the barely minimum wage pay, I hate the building and I hate the people (ok not all of them, some of them are nice enough). I got through a bottle of bourbon this week and that was purely to make myself feel like a human again when I got in from work, a quarter bottle every night except the one night when I went out to the pub and drank much more than that.

People tell me I should try and have a more positive outlook on life, but I have trouble developing one because when I look at life in general, not just mine, and the state of the world all I can see is pain and misery and suffering. Even in the, so called, rich countries the vast majority of people spend the vast majority of their lives working for the very few people who have all the wealth and ultimately seeing nothing for it but an early grave or an old age full of pain and frailty. I don't want that to be me, I hate the thought of that being me, but I know that there's no way that I can avoid it without dying young. I'll never be one of the privileged few, I'll never have anything, I'll never amount to anything, I will die a tired, dried up old man who spent his life scrimping and saving just to exist.

Mother, I'll Tell My Children Not To Walk Your Way. I'll Tell My Children Not To Hear Your Words What They Mean, What They Say.

My mother is a two faced, heartless bitch. She is a liar, a drunk and a lay about and I frequently find myself having to run errands for her and having to cover for her (although not requested to or even appreciated for doing) with both my dad and siblings. Having her as a mother has left me stunted and unable to function in normal society. I don't have empathy, I struggle to understand people and their motives on even a basic level, I can't trust people, I can't look at people without being paranoid they hate me and are plotting or insulting me behind my back, I am constantly self concious and afraid, however over the years this has given me the ability to detach my mind from my own feelings and opinions, giving me a certain degree of neutrality.

I am the first born of 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. I am 27 years so by, more or less, all trains of thought on the subject (with the exception being my own) I am considered an adult, a man. I have a partner and we have been together for a little over 6 months, we're very happy together and are at a stage in our lives and our relationship where neither of us can see a future without the other. This has recently led us into discussing our future and, inevitably, to discuss having children. Both me and my partner want kids within the next few years and obviously with each other.

Talking to my partner about children started me thinking about my childhood and the emotionally detached way my mind works has prompted the realisation that all my life my mother has treated me differently from the others. She has been emotionally distant, unsupportive and, at times, even openly cruel and unkind, whilst all the time being, more or less, the opposite with my siblings. So much so, infact, that the elder of my 2 brothers has a fully furnished flat, a moped and a car to show for it.

You my be excused for thinking this post is self pitying and whiny, but, i asure you it is not meant to be that way. My concern is not for myself, as I am already aware of my more than ample failures and shortcomings, it is for her existing grandchildren and for any children I and the rest of my siblings have in the future. I have, on several occasions, found myself sitting with my nephew because my mother is passed out drunk while she is meant to be looking after him for the day and just last week I found myself constantly checking up on my month old niece because my mum had been drinking heavily whilst she was looking after her over night. My nieces and nephews parents don't know about these occasions and probably never will because I find it difficult to deprive my parents of their grandchildren. Particularly my dad who works extremely hard to keep the family afloat and takes great pleasure in seeing both his grandchildren, although the opportunity does not often arise. I don't want to risk my kids or any other kids from experiencing her the way I have over the years and I certainly don't want to risk children to her care while she is under the influence of alcohol. I feel that when I do finally have children that I am not going to be able to justify allowing them to stay with my parents for fear of how my own mother will be.