No making hay on Maggies Farm

Tu Tangata, Issue 8, 1 October 1982, Page 12

No making hay on Maggies Farm

William Dew

Te Iwi/People

“I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more.” Maggie’s Farm being a euphamism for the wheeling and dealing field of OUr capitalistic society.

Immortal words from a Bob Dylan song but for me all the more real after only six months of trying to find work on Maggie’s Farm. For me the line looms large like an epitaph especially after a refusal for a job I thought I was a dead cert. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those whining sorts who feels he’s being picked on cause he can’t find work. 1 admit I was very fussy about what I’d take when I first joined the unemployed ranks. At that time I thought of myself as being ‘between jobs’. But as time went on my terms of reference for an occupation fluctuated quite a lot with me varying between driving a digger to fronting a television show. Needless to say I’m doing neither and it’s taken months for me to decide some things need to be written about the faceless nameless statistics currently unemployed in New Zealand. Social concern Most days in the newspapers there are articles on the social cost of unemployment with lots of concern from

social workers who are in the front line of dealing with the effects of unemployment. But most of the talk about unemployment comes from those who know least about it, the buearacrats and politicians. It’s got to the stage with me that when I hear a ‘concerned’ person say “there’s plenty of work for those that want to”, I no longer rise to the bait. In the beginning there was plenty of advice from aquaintances of jobs they knew were going. Upon checking I found a lot of the jobs were ones fulltime staff wouldn’t touch and so temporary help was needed to clear the backlog. That’s been the case with quite a few I’ve applied for, temporary jobs for temporary people. Seems the lean times bring out the economic wizard in us all and the hiring of temporary staff where a full-time position was before, is here to stay. Psyched up I guess you could say I’ve been a lucky one with several temporary jobs paying the rent and food bills for my family. However they do require quite

an adjustment in the psych, planning be r next y“r r o e “ even £ month. If I want to work at what I want

to work at, I’ve had to mentally prepare myself and my family to shift out of Auckland and even overseas. On the other hand I like it were I am and accordingly have applied for jobs not at all to my liking but situated in this city. Faceless employers That brings me to a point about applying for jobs. There’s quite a technique in being suitably vague to an ad that’s in turn so vague that some times the firms name is ommitted in favour of an anonymous box number. I know I find it hard to enthuse about my past work experience to someone who wants to remain faceless. And then there’s the stock replies usually beginning with “there was a very high standard of applicants”. The best one I got was from a television channel which shall remain nameless. To my three applications over a period of four months for seperate jobs, 1 received regretful replies addressed to my wife, who needless to say had a fulltime job looking after me and who doesn’t need any more work. Then there’s the government jobs which don’t exist for people who are

not public servants but are advertised in the daily newspapers anyway. Upon writing to government officials I’ve been told of the government ‘sinking lid’ policy and the non replacement of staff; but why arouse false hopes for those unemployed with job offers that can’t be taken up. I must admit that I still faithfully apply in writing to such advertisements despite my ‘inside knowledge’. I suspect I’m keeping a staff clerk employed shuffling my applications around and he might show his gratitude some day. Soul destroying But on a serious note the number of employers who don’t even bother replying to applicants is soul-destroying and the disease is contagious. I now notice some prospective employers state in their ad that they’ll reply to every applicant and that in one case was for labourers on a building site. Of course the newspaper ‘situations vacant’ columns are increasingly full of sales jobs, nearly all promising great rewards, and of course with the majority paying on commission there’s little risk to the employers. Such prospects for school leavers must be daunting, with qualifications now even needed for shop assistant jobs and ‘experience preferred’ for car cleaners, or valets as they are now called.

Limbo some more I keep telling myself that I must be learning something from this limbo state I’m in and when I rejoin the ‘real world’ I’ll really profit from the experience. Alas I don’t think it’ll work that way because every time I get a job, however temporary I know it is, I forget my moping-around time and live for the moment. One thing I’ve learned about myself is that I’m more adaptable than I thought but not adaptable enough to win through. I’ve landed a job claimed as world first, the publication of a music festival newspaper that unfortunately didn’t pay any wages because it went bust. Then there was the fundraising job that also went bust by reversing the normal trend and overspending on funds. In between times was the census job that paid so poorly for the abuse received that only registered unemployed would do the work. Congratulations And for those adventurous souls who manage to actually register unemployed just to keep our politicians and bureacrats honest, congratulations! I’ve fought my way through three labour department offices in Auckland in an effort to find work, not the dole. You see if you finally admit to yourself

that you need help finding a job, the battle’s just begun, because by the time you’ve filled out the work experience form, you’re on the defensive. My encounters were usually ended at this point by the interviewing officer saying there was no work in my field or the preferred four options. I was then asked if I wanted to apply for the unemployed benefit and upon saying yes, was told to take a form to the Social Welfare Department located some distance away. At this point in time 1 haven’t received one cent in dole money despite applying for a benefit on two seperate occassions. However I’m still alive and kicking and shortly start a two month temporary job which I’ve waited two months for. Of course that doesn’t take into account the many employers who have said they’ll put my application on file. If just half of those come in I’m going to be a very busy lad explaining why I might find it impossible to be a tour bus driver during the day, handle customer complaints about faulty consumer goods, plan exhibitions for an art gallery, write articles for trade magazines and do a little social work on the side, and at night handle shift work in a factory whilst studying for a scholarshiD in the field of work dynamics.