Recent reports have shown that the Scottish retail market is outperforming the rest of the UK. Retail and associatedrecruiters are reaping the rewards of the regions success.
The latest figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) show that total sales were up by 8.2%, a rise of 4.3% on 2008.
The government is to put an extra £58m into the recruitment and retention of social workers.
Following the death of Baby P and in an effort to increase the number of social workers coming into the profession, a recruitment campaign has been announced and it is due to start this month. The campaign aims to persuade 500 former social workers to return to social working.
The government has also announced that it will sponsor 200 university placements for 2009-2010, create a new masters degree and improve on-the-job training for existing social workers.
Thousands of jobs could be saved as it appears that General Motors has agreed a deal to sell it European division. It would appear that the company has signed an initial agreement with Magna International, the Canadian car parts company.
Week One, Day Three
5:45pm, Training Room
“Tonight you’ll be getting on the phones,” Julian announces.
We have learned that we will be calling customers who are very, very angry that they have not heard back from our department about their problem with their expensive electronic appliances.
This is after two nights of training.
This is the perfect job for a temp!
I look around and no one else seems nervous so I decide that I am not, either.
I raise my hand.
“Do we have to give them our name?”
“First name only,” Julien advises.
I am trying to decide whether to use my real name or a pretend name when a tall, blonde guy lopes into the room. He’s wearing black clothes and he smells like smoke.
“This is Mike. He’s from the day staff. He’ll be in charge of you guys tonight,” Julien says.
“What’s up everyone,” says Mike. He has a very deep voice.
He flashes a grin and stands for a moment in the center of the room. I am willing to wager that Melissa and Courtney are enjoying the view and a quick glance at them confirms this. Melissa looks up at him from her doey brown eyes and smiles.
“I’ll be back in a while,” says Julien, clutching his pack of cigarettes. He exits.
Everyone looks expectantly at Mike, who is still standing in the center of the room, his feet apart, his hands shoved into his black jeans pockets.
“First things first,” he says to the room. “I haven’t eaten all day. Anyone want to go in on some pizza?”
Melissa’s and Courtney’s hands shoot up and I wonder if they’re going to make any money on tonight’s shift, after taxes and pizza.
Then again, judging from the sparkle in Melissa’s eyes as she meets Mike, that may not be her priority tonight.
7:58pm, Training Room
I sit and glower as Derek, Justin, Sharon and a new temp named Vanessa get taken off to another room to work with another member of the day staff.
I can’t believe I didn’t get chosen to go in the small group. They are going to be the first ones to get full time job offers for sure.
It’s not that I even want a full time job offer. It’s just the principle of this thing. I mean, do they know what companies I have worked at, before? Do they know what job titles I had, before I took a break to be a full time mom? Do they have any idea at all who I used to be?
And why would they pick Vanessa over me? She just got here. The badass temp, I call her. She wore high heeled black boots and sat with her arms folded from the first moment she got here.
“I hate her,” whispers Courtney, shooting an evil look across the room to Vanessa. “Miss Know It All. She’s only been here one day and she’s already like, oh, I’ve done this, and I’ve done that, and I have a mortgage, and I’m so much cooler than all you guys.”
I wonder aloud if this is some kind of competitive thing as they are both Chinese background, but Courtney scoffs at the idea.
“No. I just don’t like people who are up themselves,” she hisses. “I’m so sick of her already.”
“Well you won’t have to be sick of her tonight,” I say. “She’s already off with the teacher’s pets.”
“Don’t worry about it,” says Sara coolly. “We are just as good as them. Anyway we are just here for the money.”
Steffi turns from her computer screen and raises her hand.
“Hey, Mike. What do I do if I’ve already sent a case to management for approval but I’m not sure I got everything right? Can I get it back?”
Mike frowns and sits down by her. He gazes at the computer screen and rests his chin on his hand for a long moment.
Then he leans forward, looks squarely at Steffi, and his eyes widen.
“YOU’RE F—–ED!” he booms into the big training room.
Steffi looks desperately at her computer screen and back at Mike.
Mike he suddenly laughs.
“Just kidding,” he says, waving off her alarm. He scoots in his chair.
“There’s a way to re-send the file.”
“Oh my God,” Steffi exhales and joins in our nervous giggles. “Why did you do that?”
“Oh, just for fun,” he says.
9:45pm Training Room
Julien comes back into the room. His eyes are completely bloodshot.
“Okay everyone, let’s head downstairs so that Victor can say a few words to you all.”
We know little about Victor except that he is some kind of big boss guy who is the reason we’re here.
We’ve heard whispers that he’s been Brought In From the Outside to reorganize the customer service department. This probably has the regular staff, that is the day staff, in an absolute tizzy, but as far as we’re concerned, he’s the one who got us hired for our assignment.
So, even if he is a big boss guy, he’s pretty cool with us. So far, that is.
We troop downstairs, staying close to Julien as he buzzes us through doors that we know we cannot get in or out of without the help of his badge.
We get onto the unfamiliar main floor and wander past rows of darkened cubes. It’s actually pretty spooky at night. No one is usually there except us.
Julien rounds a corner and comes suddenly to a stop. We all bump into each other and then see Victor, standing there, waiting for us. We gather in a semicircle around Victor, which would probably look reverent, except for the fact that Victor is wearing sweats.
“I just want to say you guys are doing a great job, you’re really helping us out a lot,” he says to the group.
We look at him blankly. We haven’t done anything that has helped anyone. Not yet.
Plus, Victor hasn’t been around. For all he knows, we’ve been break dancing and turning off the lights extra times for fun.
But the temps nod and look appreciative. So I nod and look appreciative.
As Victor thanks us again, I glance around at the group and I note that Derek is missing.
Huh. Did Derek miss that we were heading downstairs? Did he go to the bathroom?
If Derek is still up on the first floor, he’s going to be trapped. He can’t get downstairs without a badge. The night security guy has gone home by the time we leave at 10pm. Derek could be stuck here all night long. Spending the night in this big, darkened, spooky, building!
I open my mouth to say something. But then something stops me. Why is this my problem? I don’t want to make my one impression in front of Victor be about something ridiculous, like, ooh, excuse me Victor, but I think a temp is trapped upstairs. Victor is here to do serious things like Reorganize The Entire Department.
Derek is a grown up. He can bang on the windows. He can yell for help. He can use the phone.
Still, though, as Victor wraps up his little speech, and Julien lets us out of the building, and the temps scatter into the darkness, I am troubled.
Should I have said something?
Where is Derek?
5:05pm, Parking Lot
I back into a Visitors Parking space and find myself next to a temp I recognize. We lower our windows and introduce ourselves. Her name is Sara. We size up each other’s cars and I am relieved that mine is smaller than hers.
“Cute car,” she says. “How long did you have to drive to get here?”
“About forty minutes. It’s not so bad. When I took this job I thought it would take an hour with the traffic.”
“Me too,” she says. “Where are you coming from?”
“Oh — it’s a tiny suburb. I don’t think you would have — hey, there’s Heidi. Have you two met? Let’s go say hi.”
Heidi is sitting in her car, balancing a lit cigarette, a Starbucks coffee cup, and a cell phone on which she is texting. She looks up and grins and snaps her phone shut.
“Hey. We’re early again. This is stupid.”
“I know,” says Sara. “I don’t want to go in, but it’s too cold out here.” She shivers and wraps her purple striped scarf around her neck.
“I don’t know if I’m going to last at this job,” says Heidi. She takes a long drag on her cigarette.
“What do you mean? How can you know? All we’ve had is training so far. All we’ve had to do is sit there.”
“I know. But do you guys remember anything from last night?”
“I do,” says Sara confidently. “I can help you if you get stuck.”
“You may have to help me too,” I tell her. “I haven’t looked at my notes once today.”
“Ha! Why should we? We don’t get paid to do that.”
“I know. I just — I want to do well. I mean, we can all do well. They have 14 jobs. Anyways, we might as well go in. Sara, you look like you’re freezing.”
“I am freezing,” she says.
Heidi turns back a third time and points her car keys towards her car.
“I’m a little OCD about that,” she says.
“Oh my God! Me too!” I point my car keys towards my car one last time.
We head up.
5:45pm, Break Room
“Is everyone here?” says Julien, looking around.
“I think that Indian girl is gone,” someone says. “The one who was sitting there –” she points to a corner of the conference table — “last night.”
“She is gone,” says Sara, smiling. She leans over and whispers to me. “I tried to meet her, thinking you know, she and I are both Indian, we can stick together? And she was a snob to me. Like she didn’t want to meet me. Can you believe? I’m glad she’s gone. She was a snob.
But don’t tell anyone I said that,” she finishes in a low whisper.
I nod.
Julien looks down at a piece of paper.
“Did anyone get her name?” he asks.
“I think it was….it was something like….” a temp trails off.
“No one really met her,” volunteers one.
“Yeah, she kind of kept to herself.”
“She was a snob!” Sara joins in excitedly.
“She did kind of seem like it.”
“Yeah.”
“What did I say. She was a snob. I told you she was a snob,” Sara says, louder now.
“Okay,” says Julien, looking down at the list. “Well if you’re Sara,” he says, looking up at Sara, “then she must have been..Pandara? Anyone else here named Pandara?
He looks around.
“Pandara is gone. Everyone else is here. Thirteen people. Let’s go to the training room.”
We troop into the training room and take our seats. Julien looks out in the hallway and comes back.
“Well I guess I’ll get started,” he says, “If you could all turn to page –”
“I’m here,” announces Amber, walking the length of the floor in a few steps in her four inch heels. She stops in the center, slightly in front of Julien.
“I’m here, I’m here. But Singapore is going to call me back any minute, so you’ll just have to get started without me.” She glances at him and glances at us. “I have to talk to Singapore,” she says again, and strides out of the room.
Julien brushes the sweat from his brow.
“So as I was saying, if you could turn to page twenty five, you’ll see that we were talking about the –”
We are plunged into total blackness.
There are a few giggles and the creaking of chairs can be heard, and then Julien’s voice comes from the front of the room.
“Oh, I should have told you guys about this. This, um, this happens regularly, it’s some kind of energy saving thing, you know, an environment thing, where the lights are set to go off at night.
I’ll be right back. The switch is down the hall. Just sit tight.”
We sit. I try putting my hand in front of my face and I can’t see it. A dull glow comes on behind me and I turn around to see Courtney and Melissa, who are both about twenty years old and who seem to have hit it off, shining their cell phones around and giggling.
Click
The room is flooded with bright light. We blink in the glare.
Julien comes back. He looks at his watch and sighs.
“All right. Let’s see if we can get some training in before the break.”
Next installment on Monday
