Gis a job, I can do that

[Navin R Johnson]

Managementspeak is destroying the language.   Why does every communication have to be composed of words which are only included to create an impression of professional expertise?

Why can't things be said in plain zero-bullshit English?

Yesterday I received a begging letter from a food charity.   It contained the sentence "anything you should see fit to generously give will be lovingly hand cooked and crafted by our dedicated volunteer's into an appetizing, healthy and nutritious repast."   Ignoring the split infinitive and the redundant apostrophe, why couldn't they say "You give it, we'll cook it"?

Why can't Villa say "we have a job vacancy promoting the club and club merchandise.   This is the pay.   These are the hours.  Airgun marksmanship an advantage but not essential.  If you fancy it please get in touch"?

[Ad@m]

What's the deal with zero hours contracts? I just don't get why anyone would sign up for one.

Depends on circumstances. Such a contract may be given to a person who has drawn his pension (perhaps a few years early) but wants to keep working on particular projects, maybe at a higher rate than in the full time role they previously had but without the luxury of such things as sick pay.

But that then makes it a hybrid of being self-employed and being employed, but taking the worst bits of each.

The majority of advantages of being employed stem from the security of having a steady base level of income.  With a zero hours contract you don't get that.  It just seems to put the employer in a far too dominant position.

At a certain stage of a person's career, he/she may decide to cut down their working hours. It all depends on the contract you sign up to.

This sort of arrangement suits me - i worked 37 years at a well known local chocolate factory and took redundancy at 53(6 years ago) plus a healthy pension i soon got bored and had to find me something to get me out of bed in the morning and found a part time job for 20 hours a week which was great but a year ago that was cut (NHS cuts) but i now just work as a bank porter covering sickness / holidays etc istill contribute to the NHS pension and pay me some beer tokens for my efforts.

If i was 35 then not for me but at my age perfect!!!

Do you not feel permanently 'on call'? I would've thought a genuine part time job with guaranteed minimum hours would be preferable.

To be fair I'm sure these contacts do have a place but I dare say they're currently being horribly abused in the name of the financial crisis.

[placeforparks]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

[Ad@m]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

I know. Agreeing with the Guardian on a matter of principle makes me feel dirty!

[mal]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

I know. Agreeing with the Guardian on a matter of principle makes me feel dirty!

It shouldn't - it's when you agree with the Daily Mail you need to worry. Zero hours contracts are another evil import from America, land of the free. I love the idea that you can sign on to or off the rota at will - in my experience if you sign off it for a week that's you at the bottom of the pile only to be used again in extremis. Not that I would sign one for love nor money.

Villa know exactly how many times you will be needed as a basic figure (19 x homes) and so the contract should guarantee 120 hours between the known set dates with the possibility of additional working on any other dates arising. It would be nice for a business that pays some of its staff obscene wages to think that it would be a bit better than minimum wage too. Why not offer a guaranteed £25K for attendance to all available matches and offer it to students who can demonstrate an affiliation to the club and/or financial hardship?

[Ad@m]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

I know. Agreeing with the Guardian on a matter of principle makes me feel dirty!

It shouldn't - it's when you agree with the Daily Mail you need to worry. Zero hours contracts are another evil import from America, land of the free. I love the idea that you can sign on to or off the rota at will - in my experience if you sign off it for a week that's you at the bottom of the pile only to be used again in extremis. Not that I would sign one for love nor money.

Villa know exactly how many times you will be needed as a basic figure (19 x homes) and so the contract should guarantee 120 hours between the known set dates with the possibility of additional working on any other dates arising. It would be nice for a business that pays some of its staff obscene wages to think that it would be a bit better than minimum wage too. Why not offer a guaranteed £25K for attendance to all available matches and offer it to students who can demonstrate an affiliation to the club and/or financial hardship?

I try not to agree with either the Mail or the Guardian.

You're absolutely right in your post though.  Zero hours contracts just prey on people desperate for work.

[cheltenhamlion]

Bollocks to the students. Its a genial older guys gig.

I nominate Frank and John Holder.

But definitely not Trevor Cunting Fisher.

[Dave Cooper please]

It would be nice to know the amount of people who are on these zero hours contracts and the average amount of hours they work, because I assume they will never be counted in any unemployment or benefit claimant statistics because even if they do next to bugger all work in any given week or month they aren't technically unemployed or entitled to any benefits.

I can understand why some companies need to employ some staff on these contracts, football clubs for instance, they will need more stewards and catering staff for big games than for a league cup game against Rochdale, but Sport Direct and the like employing up to 90% of their staff on them? Companies turning over billion and making massive profits exploiting desperate workers? Who'd have thought it.

[TheSandman]

Trevor Cunting Fisher.

Who?

[dave.woodhall]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

I know. Agreeing with the Guardian on a matter of principle makes me feel dirty!

It shouldn't - it's when you agree with the Daily Mail you need to worry. Zero hours contracts are another evil import from America, land of the free. I love the idea that you can sign on to or off the rota at will - in my experience if you sign off it for a week that's you at the bottom of the pile only to be used again in extremis. Not that I would sign one for love nor money.

Villa know exactly how many times you will be needed as a basic figure (19 x homes) and so the contract should guarantee 120 hours between the known set dates with the possibility of additional working on any other dates arising. It would be nice for a business that pays some of its staff obscene wages to think that it would be a bit better than minimum wage too. Why not offer a guaranteed £25K for attendance to all available matches and offer it to students who can demonstrate an affiliation to the club and/or financial hardship?

That's over £1,000 a match.

[PeterWithesShin]

Blimey, that's nearly as much as Dave pays us! 

[PeterWithesShin]

A millenium.

[mal]

if people are interested in zero-hour contracts, then it is a hot issue with the guardian at the moment.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jul/30/zero-hours-contracts-explained

I know. Agreeing with the Guardian on a matter of principle makes me feel dirty!

It shouldn't - it's when you agree with the Daily Mail you need to worry. Zero hours contracts are another evil import from America, land of the free. I love the idea that you can sign on to or off the rota at will - in my experience if you sign off it for a week that's you at the bottom of the pile only to be used again in extremis. Not that I would sign one for love nor money.

Villa know exactly how many times you will be needed as a basic figure (19 x homes) and so the contract should guarantee 120 hours between the known set dates with the possibility of additional working on any other dates arising. It would be nice for a business that pays some of its staff obscene wages to think that it would be a bit better than minimum wage too. Why not offer a guaranteed £25K for attendance to all available matches and offer it to students who can demonstrate an affiliation to the club and/or financial hardship?

That's over £1,000 a match.

Fair point Dave. Might be a bit rich. But then unlike a certain Stephen Ireland they would actually be working for it while also working at something else. I was considering a total payment for say the one year only that would cover all their course fees, after tax.  All academic now if you'll excuse the pun:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/aston-villa-axes-zero-contract-job-5392868
be interesting to know what the salary level is if they still employ some people

[dave.woodhall]

If they didn't use corporate bollocks language and called them casual vacancies, which is what they are, nobody would have said a word.