h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for your wise words on the notion of work.
As one who has spent more hours doing what I love instead of what would pay me a living, I am indebted to you for the affirmation.

And encouraged by your example, I would ask that the next time you get into a flame war, let me know. I'd really enjoy a good 'workout', having a go at them. The place just isn't the same without Colonel Sellers...



~jwf~

Thank you greatly, jwf! I'm honoured that you agree with me, and I'll certainly bear your offer of support in mind if I run into trouble on this issue again. As a matter of fact, in the flame war of which I wrote, several people chipped in and no-one agreed with the person who was giving me a hard time. So the whole episode confirmed my great affection for h2g2!

I w*rked at a McDonalds right after I flunked out of college and was in a very depressive state. It didn't do me any good and I still have trouble eating the fries to this day. I toil now at a very low paying j*b now but I'm living in an area of the world where I'm on vacation every minute I'm not at w*rk. It also helps that my wife has a good j*b with $$$ and benefits. W*rk is something you do to take your mind off of what really matters, just because you are w*rking to eliminate childhood diseases doesn't mean you're any better than the guy who cleans the grills at McDonalds every night. Find your passion then figure a way to endulge as much as possile. If I had my way, I'd be a professional judge at British Beer Festivals!

for Ormy!
send me your address and I'll buy you one for real!

I'm sad to read that you had such a rotten encounter re the 'work effick thingee' Ormy and wish to offer my moral support and say that I completely sympathise with your situation and certainly wouldn't condemn you for returning to your family and friends in Bradford. Good for you in having the courage to leave an unsatisfying job that didn't pay enough for you to live in your area of employment in the first place!

I'd like to have been able to give the annoying person a piece of my mind too as I don't appreciate being labelled a scrounger or sponger from the State either and would like to bore the pants off you with my own experiences.

The life I currently live is one that twenty years ago I would have considered the ultimate nightmare. In those days I didn't even know anyone in receipt of unemployment benefit and to be without paid employment was an alien, horrifying and shameful prospect that only happened to other people.

My ultimate nightmare was realised when first my son was diagnosed as having autism (I'd always been terrified of having a child with a disability) and then my husband became too ill to work, so that we officially became 'scroungers from the State'.

Being told by friends that this eventuality was what we'd each paid our National Insurance stamps for during our almost twenty years of employment didn't make me feel any better, especially when I had to queue at the Post Office or hand over my milk tokens in a supermarket only to have the checkout girl shout at the top of her voice "How much are these milk tokens worth?"

It is still embarrassing for me when people ask what either John or I 'do' and the best I can say is that the last ten years have been character forming. In spite of all that life has thrown at us, John and I are closer than ever. In addition, I like to think that our children have a happy and stable (albeit slightly insane) home life.

Nowadays I work as a volunteer with the British Red Cross in one of their charity shops (I've been with them for seven years - they're unable to get rid of me!) and study part-time in a local college, both of which fit neatly in and around school hours/holidays, etc. In fact, I've just received my City & Guilds Level 2 certificate in Word, Database and Spreadsheet and have completed a PowerPoint course and next week sit a C&G Desktop Publishing exam. It may not be much but for a middle-aged, hormonally challenged housewife and mother, it's a start!

Much to my surprise, I have been offered paid employment on a number of occasions (a fantastic ego boost if nothing else) but sadly due to logistics, I was unable to commit to a full or part time job as I have to be home to look after my children and husband who is frequently too ill to do so himself. In fact it was a Benefits Agency employee that told me that I'd be worse off were I to work as I'd loose my Carer's Allowance, First Class National Insurance stamp and Income Support. He then suggested that I study, for which I'll be forever grateful and would give the chap a huge were I to meet him again.

Thank you greatly for the support, both of you - and for the , Britwannabe! Yes, I wouldn't mind that job, either! I'll happily send you my address if you let me know how, but sending a through the post might prove difficult (and messy!).

Gwennie, I really was very touched by your story. You've certainly had more to put up with than I have, and your difficulties have gone on for much longer. I'm glad to hear that some good has come of it all, in terms of strengthening your relationship with your husband.

I cringed in sympathy at your story about the milk tokens. I'm really glad that the UK government is doing away with the food voucher system for asylum seekers. I've often felt really sorry for them when I've seen them struggling with the vouchers at my local supermarket. Considering how much irrational hatred there is towards them, it seems particularly cruel to make them use vouchers that tell everyone: 'Look, the person in front of you in the checkout queue is one of those "foreign scroungers" you read about in the papers.'

We have something else in common: I, too, have recently been collecting computing qualifications! I got two City & Guilds certificates via night school classes, and got a European Computer Driving Licence via a three-month full-time DSS-sponsored course, all last year. I'll probably do another night school course when they start again in September.

There was a guy on that full-time course with me who I really admired. He was both a multiple sclerosis sufferer and a single parent, but still stayed cheerful and was always cracking jokes. He, too, had been told by a benefits advisor that he'd be better off in training than if he got a low-paid job. It is great that there are people working in Job Centres and benefits offices who are willing to be honest with their clients about the strange anomalies in the system!

Thanks for your sympathy Ormy and I do hope that it didn't appear that I was after sympathy!. Sadly the milk token trauma was a regular event and not just for myself, as the check out staff never seemed to be briefed as to their value.

Coming across the occasional and helpful gem of a person within the DSS does make me feel guilty for complaining about all the other 'jobs worth' types that I've encountered. I know it sounds silly, but I try to be as friendly as possible when dealing with DSS staff (I must admit that I wouldn't like to do their jobs!) and as a rule find that they loose their air of indifference and genuinely try to help.

Mind you, I've just about had my fill of trying to be nice to our Special Needs Local Education Authority officials, due to their track record so far. John and I have come to the conclusion that they must be on some sort of bonus scheme and have a hidden agenda to prevent as many special needs children from accessing the support they require and are entitled to by law in order to keep expenditure low.

Sorry! I digress...

*Climbs down from her soap box*

Ormy, what do you think of the C&G final assessment papers? Do you find their wording ambiguous or is it just me being a total thickie? (There are times when I think that Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes Minister has worded the papers!)

I know this is sort of 'blowing our own trumpet' here, but I thought you'd like to know that, the funds raised in our local Red Cross shop alone have purchased an ambulance to support our sparse local service and pays for the paramedics to staff it, as well as contributing to the Red Cross coughers.

I must say Orms that you got a laugh and a smile out of me, not because it's funny, but because I too have been put in a situation were by people expect you to get ANY job that going for a bit of money, well it's a bit tough and if they'd have stuck around a bit longer they might have found a big shock.

Apart from the obvous, nether of my parents have worked when I've been growing up (and still don't) but there are always reasons, Widnes is one of thouse places were unimployment is at about 60% and most people don't know what to do with them selfs, Pitty you couldn't give them a tip about the local collage, but I'd knock it down and start again before attending again.

*Happly working in programming and graphics desine*

Oh I just have to mention that I too have anwsered the question "What do you do" in the littereral term, mainly because I think people wouldn't understand "Oh I'm training myself to live".

-- DoctorMO --

I can't help but feel very sad at how important work, and the attitude towards earning power particularly, has become in the world today, and in Britain especially (was anyone else annoyed by that FT ad saying "back to work on Monday? You're a day behind"? How ridiculous!). It's the old dilemma of live to work versus work to live. I know which I prefer, and although it would be nice (I imagine) to have a job which is as fulfilling as a hobby, that's just not a reality for the majority of people (spot the disillusioned graduate...). I for one refuse to let my job define me!

hmm, people now think that working means earning money, and there wrong, I've worked scince I was about 7, but I didn't get paid, (although it's paid off now, but it's not the same thing is it?)

-- DoctorMO --

That w*rk effic's a burger innit! I was brought up that way too. 20 years ago, when I was a single parent with 3 pre-schoolers I went out to work in a series of awful jobs that paid less than the Supp Ben (Income Support) because it wouldn't have been acceptable to 'scrounge'.
We live and learn. Or at least some of us do. It's a pity others never will. My daughter's now a single parent and, despite knowing that, just about everyone I meet asks "What's she doing now?"
She's teaching some of the next generation to be decent human beings instead of w*rk/mo*ey/status/possession fixated philistines, that's what! (Thank goodness she didn't pick up the w**k effic I tried to instil in her )

The traditional women who've never w**ked outside the home are the worst. They act as though not scrubbing your doorstep every day is a lynching offence.
There's a programme on UK jellyvision at the mo, which shows what happens when two families swap wives for a week. (It's strangely compelling ). Last night they had a woman who worked very hard outside the home and relaxed with her family when she got the chance (her husband did the hoovering, the teenagers washed up and they had takeaways 5 nights a week) and a woman that gets up at 5am to wait hand and foot on an awful bullying man (who hasn't made her a cup of tea in 15 years).
At the end the traditional woman said "She's a lazy cnut. She TALKS to her husband and children instead of doing housework!"

Oh Gwennie - about the DSS staff seeming human - they are, mostly. They tend to get discouraged after years of watching so many people working the system shamelessly and being paid more than they themselves earn (No, honestly) and then coming in and complaining about how hard done by they are and accusing the staff of doing nothing but drink all day.() When they discover people who are genuinely in need (and not just trying to grab everything they can get) they'll fall over backwards to help.

buggy work ethic, it's a laugh to think that being a slave to a master is right, and being a krowing decent person isn't, (I use krow as in the type of work that isn't counted as such, like interlectual thinking, brining up the next generation, being a comunity person or even volentary work)

shameless men who think that because they work they shouldn't clean up after themselves! They insult us all by there actions (men).

-- DoctorMO --

Isn't "brining up the next generation" illegal?

only if it's a piret copy

-- DoctorMo --