Annoying

[reynardo]

On the 19th June, I registered at one of the Government's job agencies, the idea being that although I receive no financial benefits, I would get a credit towards training for the time I'm unemployed. They also said they'd look over my resume, and I would get a letter in a couple of weeks with my conditions and the possible things I could do through them.

Time got away from me, and I realised last week that I hadn't heard from them at all. So I dropped past the agency today.

They didn't have me on their system.

They would have wiped me from their system because it changed on 1st July. I should have received a letter about this, but didn't.

There is no longer any training credit.

As I don't receive any government benefits (because lederhosen earns too much), I don't get assigned a caseworker, which means they won't look over my resume, and there's nothing on their system that actually helps me.

I was supposed to be getting emails for possible jobs, but all their jobs are for semi-skilled and unskilled people, so it's unlikely anything would show up for me. And besides, I was wiped from their system, so even if there had been anything, I wouldn't have been notified.

I am unimpressed.

In other news, I've discovered it's easier to get an audition than a job interview. No idea how I went, and won't for about 2 weeks. Alas, that's all I can tell you about it.

Comments

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sucks. :( I'm sorry.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I'm generally not enthused with government workers. When there's no competition, they have no fear of negative outcomes and thus no incentive to do a good job.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Slightly different here. It's a job agency contracted by the Government. They only get the money when they place someone and get them off the benefits. I don't get benefits so they don't get any money by placing me - which is why they're not "wasting" any time on me.

*sigh*

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

When there's no competition, they have no fear of negative outcomes and thus no incentive to do a good job.

Hi. You may not have intended it that way, but this comes off as more than a little offensive to those of us who work in the public service.

Last year I worked on a survey that's used to steer service provision - healthcare, policing, education, you name it - to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders across Australia, not to mention giving ATSI organisations information they can use to run their own programs. I'm not expecting it to work miracles, but if you've looked at that particular trainwreck, you might see why being able to do anything useful there is far more incentive than I found in helping my previous employer improve their bottom line.

I got to work on interesting, difficult mathematical problems that test my abilities. That's an incentive to me. I got recognition from colleagues (and a pat on the back from a visiting academic), which is also an incentive.

Also, last and not necessarily least, doing a good job got me a cash bonus after my yearly review and was a major factor in getting a couple of promotions. Definite incentive there.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Argh, I have to stop posting to LJ first thing in the morning.

What I meant to say was that customer service from government monopoly employees is generally not as good as customer service from private employees where competition is in play.