The Australian printed an interesting story yesterday. Unfortunately I can't find the link to the story now, except via their archive, for which they want to charge $1.75. Get real, guys. Luckily I copied it here.
Anyway, what I found interesting was the discussion of the impact of being fired on peoples' mental health. The fact that it's now a whole lot easier for an employer to fire people without a reason makes for some pretty awful times looming for those unfortunate enough to have it happen to them.
I was fired once. I think I've mentioned before that I was employed casually as a secretary for a private psychiatry practice. Somewhat ironic given the focus on mental health in the article. I worked there for almost 12 months. The doctors I worked for were all really nice, although I was kind of terrified of one of the female doctors (she seemed to embody the super-organised, hard-nosed 'career woman' that I am the exact opposite of). The person who hired me, the 'head secretary' I guess you'd call her, was really nice. The other permanent secretary was also really nice. I was only hired to work for 4 hours on Tuesday nights, although I did extra work over the holidays and stuff like that. I'd been working Monday and Friday each week to fill in for another girl when one Wednesday I got a call from the head secretary, who said she was sorry, but for budgetary reasons they needed to cut back on staff hours. I asked if I was still needed on Friday. She said no. That was the end of it. That was how I was fired. Only it wasn't the end of it. First I cried all over Gam, then I spent the next month or so trying to think of what I could have done wrong, or worse, that there might have been something they thought I did wrong that I in fact hadn't. I kept thinking that if that was indeed the case then there was no way I could ever put that job- my first 'long term' employment- on my resume. Which would make it damned hard to get another job... The whole thing was extremely depressing for quite a long time. I thought about phoning or going to see them to ask why I was really sacked (the 'budget' excuse didn't fit because I was only supposed to work Tuesday nights- every other shift I'd worked had been because they'd asked me to). I didn't have the balls to ask. I've never been a particularly confident person, but any confidence I had about my being good enough to ever get another job was just crushed. It was only when I made a conscious effort to keep thoughts of my job out of my mind that I started to sleep well at night. Also, I remembered that the head secretary had a daughter who was 17 years old at the time who she had employed in the practice, and that they'd had to raise my salary by 70c per hour or something (to $11.70!) because I'd just turned 20. Perhaps that's what she meant by 'budgetary reasons'- it is a lot cheaper to employ a 17 year old than a 20 year old. That's a more comforting thought.
While I'm a lot younger than most of the people in that article and I don't have a family to support, I do know a bit about how they feel. And it's pretty shit, to say the least.
To have something like that looming over workers all the time, thanks to Howard's IR reforms, is going to create a huge amount of stress over workers who aren't particularly well off. The only people who can say for sure that they'll never have to suffer the indignity and hurt that comes with being fired without apparent reason are politicians who have been in power long enough to collect their cushy, taxpayer-funded superannuation and simultaneously hold lucrative jobs in whichever industry they've been particularly good at cuddling up to during their time in office.
I can wish the same thing on those semi-human scumbags in the Howard government all I like, but I know it will never happen.
Update: I saved a copy of the link to The Aus' story. It's here.
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4 comments:
I've been sacked twice.
The second time was I believe as a lesson for the others. It was from cotton chipping. Apparently I'd missed a bunch of weeds. I hadn't seen them and the fat tattooed deeply tanned biker type foreman held them in front of me as if they were a really shit posy of flowers.
I was in the middle of a paddock, 20 kays from the road. They offered to let me sit in a truck until the day ended but I thought fuck that, and got them to drop me on the road. I then hitched back to the town I was based in. I cried my eyes out on the highway whilst waiting for a hitch. I couldn't believe that I had missed all those weeds. Then I realised. I hadn't. It was a lesson, pure and simple, and I was a fat puffy guy who lagged behind the others.
The whole exercise of going up to do cotton chipping cost me $80. I vowed then never ever to be stuck in a menial fucked up job like that.
The first time was when I worked casually at a fruit and veg shop. I got less than $5 an hour. And if I worked past 1 pm - which was most days - they didn't pay me the difference. Eventually I got the guts up and gave them a copy of the award to which I was working against. And I asked about the missing money. I called in sick the next week, as I was sick, and when I arrived the following week the boss looked at me and said 'you still look sick ... you ... you go home.' That happened against the next week - with me having ridden 5 kays in to do it. I got the hint and quit - having got a better casual job elsewhere. The kewl thing was that the missing money was returned. I suspect my dad, who always looks out for me, had a quiet word with the boss.
But hey. I didn't have a family. And I didn't have any cares as I was living at home. If it happened to me now, and I hadn't had been lucky enough to go to uni then get a pretty kewl job, then I would struggle. I've been unemployed a total of 24 months in my life and it sucked, and sucked bad. And it's true - you feel worthless - you feel shit. And you stop caring. And it makes it very hard to get a job when you're in that state too.
I feel for all those who lose their jobs over the next few months. The sacking permanents then rehiring as casuals has begun. And will keep coming.
Thank you Howard. Thank you Andrews. You guys fucked up this time because you laid a shit on the head of the Howard battlers. Because even those who went the small business / contractor route are now getting fucked on because of these laws. And people will remember this. Lying about brown kids in the water doesn't hit the wallet. Being told to fuck off in 10 minutes or the cops are coming will.
My hate for them and my anger has never been stronger.
Maintain the rage comrades. Maintain the rage.
Good on you for having the guts to front up to the boss with a copy of the award. Howard has ensured things won't happen that way from now on, though.
I worked in a fruit and vege shop too when I first went to uni... that was hard work! I think I got the bare minimum award, which was less than $9 per hour. Two weeks after I got the job we were all told that the place was closing, and were offered jobs at one of the chain's other stores, about 30km away... I couldn't take the job, but it felt a hell of a lot better than being sacked!
And I never buy pre-packaged veges any more... they only do that to hide the crap ones. Yuck!
Yeah, I used to get into trouble for cutting out the bits of weeping carrot. We would go through sacks of rotten potatoes to find the few good ones. Once I had to climb into a bin of rotten watermelon. I didn't have one go off - but my brother did. Right in the face.
Fruit and veg out the back was a bad experience. Not to mention the psycho relative of the owner that threatened me with a knife on more than one occassion.
Man I was glad to leave that job !
Well I'm glad for the fact that blogging is so accessible now that 'not very confident' people speak their mind regardless! That's good.
I once worked for $8.72 an hour too, but I was only there 5 months -- I guess I left well before I could get sacked :) Either way, I'm glad to have experienced what it's like to be an award-wage earner. It was my first job and probably the one where I had to work the hardest out of any of my jobs, but also earning the least!
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