Work Experience Etiquette
Discussion
I work for an events company and when not on events am in the office (thankfully), others work in the workshops building and repairing bits and bobs.
We took on a work experience lad through the job-centre, up to 8 weeks, costs the company nothing, he gets benefits still (and travel etc if required) and if not employment at the end of it, hopefully at least a decent reference. His work experience is the workshop side of the business, rather than events etc.
Other than giving him a lift in/home a couple of times (picked him up one day when he was late to meet his scheduled lift), I've not seen much of him as the boys are full-time in the unit away from the office. He seems a nice enough lad, but the feedback I'm getting is he spends a lot of time on his phone rather than hands-on, texting/facebook/young-folk stuff I imagine.
Now, I'm sure I'd personally get pretty bored of working for nothing - especially for 8 weeks, but this is a few days into his work experience and already he spends ages on his phone.
The boss has already gone from "give me a good reason why you won't get a job at the end of the period" to "give me a good reason why I won't give you a reference at the end of it" so guess it's getting noticed.
Should I take the lad to one side and have a word, there really is an opportunity for a job at the end of it, or should I just be grateful we get a limited amount of free work? If he's not any good, maybe the next one will be. By the sounds of things, there's a waiting list of willing (or at least enforced) participants to the scheme - they've even asked if we can take on more than one at the same time.
Part of me thinks we should be grateful we get free labour, even if not much, part of me thinks he's taking the pee. Any suggestions?
We took on a work experience lad through the job-centre, up to 8 weeks, costs the company nothing, he gets benefits still (and travel etc if required) and if not employment at the end of it, hopefully at least a decent reference. His work experience is the workshop side of the business, rather than events etc.
Other than giving him a lift in/home a couple of times (picked him up one day when he was late to meet his scheduled lift), I've not seen much of him as the boys are full-time in the unit away from the office. He seems a nice enough lad, but the feedback I'm getting is he spends a lot of time on his phone rather than hands-on, texting/facebook/young-folk stuff I imagine.
Now, I'm sure I'd personally get pretty bored of working for nothing - especially for 8 weeks, but this is a few days into his work experience and already he spends ages on his phone.
The boss has already gone from "give me a good reason why you won't get a job at the end of the period" to "give me a good reason why I won't give you a reference at the end of it" so guess it's getting noticed.
Should I take the lad to one side and have a word, there really is an opportunity for a job at the end of it, or should I just be grateful we get a limited amount of free work? If he's not any good, maybe the next one will be. By the sounds of things, there's a waiting list of willing (or at least enforced) participants to the scheme - they've even asked if we can take on more than one at the same time.
Part of me thinks we should be grateful we get free labour, even if not much, part of me thinks he's taking the pee. Any suggestions?
I think you should take him to one side and spell out the facts about being at work to him. He is not there to arrange his social life he is there to do a job. He is getting some training free of charge and possibly some sort of employment at the end of it. If you do not get him to change his ways now then he is likely to just go into a downward spiral until he can’t get a job and is of no good to anyone.
It’s only trying to do him a favour which is in his interest.
It’s only trying to do him a favour which is in his interest.
I worked at 3 seperate places for work experience and was exactly like the lad you describe at my first one.
On my last day, one of the workshop lads had a bit of a go at me as I 'clearly didn't want to be here and had no interest in learning, so why put my name down for this experience?' to which I told him to f
k off.
I got absolutely bked at school and went into the next two with a much better attitude and got offered a weekend job on the 2nd one.
Have a word, he probably doesn't realise what is on offer to him and as I did, he probably just thinks the school have sent him somewhere for a little while to 'experience the real world' and probably thinks 'this is easy, I can play on my phone and do what I want and nobody cares'.
On my last day, one of the workshop lads had a bit of a go at me as I 'clearly didn't want to be here and had no interest in learning, so why put my name down for this experience?' to which I told him to f
k off.I got absolutely b
ked at school and went into the next two with a much better attitude and got offered a weekend job on the 2nd one.Have a word, he probably doesn't realise what is on offer to him and as I did, he probably just thinks the school have sent him somewhere for a little while to 'experience the real world' and probably thinks 'this is easy, I can play on my phone and do what I want and nobody cares'.
Donatello said:
I worked at 3 seperate places for work experience and was exactly like the lad you describe at my first one.
On my last day, one of the workshop lads had a bit of a go at me as I 'clearly didn't want to be here and had no interest in learning, so why put my name down for this experience?' to which I told him to fk off.
I got absolutely bked at school and went into the next two with a much better attitude and got offered a weekend job on the 2nd one.
Have a word, he probably doesn't realise what is on offer to him and as I did, he probably just thinks the school have sent him somewhere for a little while to 'experience the real world' and probably thinks 'this is easy, I can play on my phone and do what I want and nobody cares'.
This is about right. On my last day, one of the workshop lads had a bit of a go at me as I 'clearly didn't want to be here and had no interest in learning, so why put my name down for this experience?' to which I told him to f
k off.I got absolutely b
ked at school and went into the next two with a much better attitude and got offered a weekend job on the 2nd one.Have a word, he probably doesn't realise what is on offer to him and as I did, he probably just thinks the school have sent him somewhere for a little while to 'experience the real world' and probably thinks 'this is easy, I can play on my phone and do what I want and nobody cares'.
I can remember when i was 15 i went to W/E for the first time and thought it was a bit of a doss. How wrong was I. The farther of the guy that owned the company, straighten me up and told me how things worked and that i'm not there to piss about. Best lesson i learnt from that talk and ended up with a job with them, working Saturdays.
I think you should have a word with him, so that he knows what is expected. I doubt the school would have really emphasised that point.
Appreciate the input guys. The boss went down the unit this afternoon to check on progress (& let them finish early as a treat) to find the work-experience lad had gone home at lunchtime. He's 19 so not exactly a school kid - the job centre call it work-experience, but guess it's a placement to tick a box for someone's targets somewhere.
TRB said:
Appreciate the input guys. The boss went down the unit this afternoon to check on progress (& let them finish early as a treat) to find the work-experience lad had gone home at lunchtime. He's 19 so not exactly a school kid - the job centre call it work-experience, but guess it's a placement to tick a box for someone's targets somewhere.
Workfare?He sounds like the typical benefit lifer that has been made to go on this in order to keep his benefits.
We had a number of w/e lads and full time apprentices in over the years(school leavers age) and they all seem to be the same, all they care about is facebook and youtube, constantly on their phones all day. You can see it when driving down the road, all the kids have ipods in and are texting as they walk without looking.
I think you get either 1 of 2 responses from the young inexperienced workers today when you have a 'word'.
Its either going to be a fk off or they are going to get a huge reality check that they are not in school anymore, and they soon adapt and start putting the effort in.
We had a number of w/e lads and full time apprentices in over the years(school leavers age) and they all seem to be the same, all they care about is facebook and youtube, constantly on their phones all day. You can see it when driving down the road, all the kids have ipods in and are texting as they walk without looking.
I think you get either 1 of 2 responses from the young inexperienced workers today when you have a 'word'.
Its either going to be a f
k off or they are going to get a huge reality check that they are not in school anymore, and they soon adapt and start putting the effort in.An update...
I was off last week with the kids over half term...
No sign of the work experience lad today. Apparently he was off ill towards the start of last week, the guvnor text him yesterday asking if he was due back this week or at all..
lad replied saying it was a good job, but something 'inside him' said no!
In a way it's a shame as this lad is a clear example of someone where nobody has ever given him a chance and we offered him just that, but guess it wasn't to be.
I was off last week with the kids over half term...
No sign of the work experience lad today. Apparently he was off ill towards the start of last week, the guvnor text him yesterday asking if he was due back this week or at all..
lad replied saying it was a good job, but something 'inside him' said no!
In a way it's a shame as this lad is a clear example of someone where nobody has ever given him a chance and we offered him just that, but guess it wasn't to be.
Sounds like a dreadful product of over active loins, that lad does. Have a word with him because he clearly has no respect for anyone at work and thinks he can just do whatever. He won't learn unless someone tells him - firmly - or else we'll just end up with a another fat, unemployed, flatulent benefits scrounger with no understanding of the real world who will be living quite contentedly off our money.
craigjm said:
I really don't understand these young people who clearly do not want to work. How boring must it be living off benefits and having nothing to motivate you to get out of bed each day?
The difficulty is craigjm this young people probably can't understand why anyone would want to work.The problem is that work is seen as too hard, too boring - and why would you bother.
I think we need to look at how we see work as a society - its a mindset thing i think - and we need to develop an education system that prepares young people for life - i don't mean simply given them a nice piece of paper to show that they have managed to learn some maths/english good enough to pass an exam.
No i mean - prepare them for the real world outside and beyond school - and the eduction system should be about developing a culture among young people of actually achieving their full potential and working hard to achieve their full potential.
Work needs to be seen by young people as the right option - the right thing to do - the cool thing to do.
Developing pride in your work is what needs to happen - and respect needs to be shown towards the people who actually get out there and work.
Id like to develop a culture in the educational system - where young people are insipired to look up to those people who work hard for a living and as such be proud to be able to go out and work.
Sorry for rambling on - ive probably missed the mark.
Sir Fergie
I don't think you're too far off the mark Sir Fergie. It IS a hard graft job even for those of use who get paid. We took the guy in, a genuine chance of a job at the end of it and he didn't seem interested.
There does seem to be a lot of people interested in the experience, so hopefully we can find someone who makes the most of the chance we give them.
There does seem to be a lot of people interested in the experience, so hopefully we can find someone who makes the most of the chance we give them.
At my last job we had something similar, the Job Centre paid their wages for 3 months, and the following 3 months paid for half their wages just to get them in a job, experience and obviously to make the figures look good.
There were so many passed through I can't remember all of them but I think only one or two lasted any longer than a week. One said he was going to the shop across the road to get a roll for his break on his FIRST DAY and dissapeared never to be seen again!
There are far too many people about today who have never seen any of their parents work, whereas taking myself as an example both my parents worked, struggled along but somehow we managed to have a nice enough life but it wasn't by any means lavish. Everything my parents have they have worked their arses off for and I respect that.
I hear of far too many young people nowadays who think a job is beneath them in terms of the work, wage, hours (starting time usually!) etc.
I'm not sure what the solution is but it's a generation or two away if we found the solution.
There were so many passed through I can't remember all of them but I think only one or two lasted any longer than a week. One said he was going to the shop across the road to get a roll for his break on his FIRST DAY and dissapeared never to be seen again!
There are far too many people about today who have never seen any of their parents work, whereas taking myself as an example both my parents worked, struggled along but somehow we managed to have a nice enough life but it wasn't by any means lavish. Everything my parents have they have worked their arses off for and I respect that.
I hear of far too many young people nowadays who think a job is beneath them in terms of the work, wage, hours (starting time usually!) etc.
I'm not sure what the solution is but it's a generation or two away if we found the solution.
TRB said:
I don't think you're too far off the mark Sir Fergie. It IS a hard graft job even for those of use who get paid. We took the guy in, a genuine chance of a job at the end of it and he didn't seem interested.
There does seem to be a lot of people interested in the experience, so hopefully we can find someone who makes the most of the chance we give them.
To be honest - it gets harder to change the attitude towards work for the better the older someone gets.There does seem to be a lot of people interested in the experience, so hopefully we can find someone who makes the most of the chance we give them.
But its something id like to see someone work on - its a big question - you take a group of say 16 year olds from a particular school. How do you actually (while they are still in the school environment) get them inspired to actually want to work and do well for themselves.
That is the key - sending out to companies like yours on work placements - so they can keep their benefits - isn't the answer - because it seems manhy of them can't appreciate the opportunity they have for the 8 weeks or whatever to get out there - make a name for themselves in a company and get noticed in a positive manner -by working very hard and doing good work.
I have to admit - i am naturally quite a lazy person - i have to drag my arse out to do a days work and do productive and useful things. Yup at 7 am each morning i haul myself out of bed to milk cows and other farming type stuff. Sometimes i wonder why the f
k i do it - the bed is quite comfy and warm etc.But when your living on a farm - theres a bigger picture - youve got cows and stuff - and you want the farm to do well - and in my case id like to see it continue for as long as possible.
Problem though - is how the f
k do you make working in Tesco exciting - personally - i can't stand the place (tescos) for the 20 minutes it might take me to do a shop there - never mind working there.Would having a Sgt Major type constantly barking orders at them until they do what they are told - be in breach of their human rights do you think
.On a serious note - we can't afford a culture of benefits lifers who never do a days work in their lives - yet are perfectly able for work if they could get up of their arse to do it.
Sir Fergie
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