...go beyond the bog standard company benefits like holidays, work environment. We’re no longer at school! We trust our team and offer full time, self employed positions, offering you that flexibility to choose your working hours and days – trusting you to get the job done, and giving you the responsibility to manage your time. In addition, we offer 100% performance pay. Get the job done, exceed your goals, and be rewarded with additional weekly commission bonuses. No fluff in between. We offer regular National travel opportunities to our team, and an annual all expenses paid International break for our top 10 candidates to relax. Now THAT is what we called benefits!
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I'm currently in the process of helping my unemployed daughter with job searches. My, oh, my, times have changed! Back in the day, job hunting was reserved for one day a week, Thursday, when the Liverpool Echo would have a bounty of jobs from all manner of companies, large and small, with a detailed offer of incentives to prospective candidates: paid holidays; working hours (flexitime, if you were lucky); subsidised canteen; pension scheme (often non-contributory); staff social club; annual bonus. Now they're hard-pressed to even tell you the name of the company!
Nowadays, the job market is dominated by recruitment agencies and web-based search engines. For all that there appear to be many more jobs, we have much higher unemployment rates. There are many things that annoy me about the job market which I may go into another time. But today my gripe is perfectly illustrated by the extract from a genuine ad which is shown at the head of this post. Let's break this down.
...go beyond the bog standard company benefits like holidays, work environment.
What kind of an imbecile came up with this copy? How do you go beyond standard company benefits like holidays and work environment?
full time, self employed positions
By offering self-employed positions? Ah, so you mean you don't actually offer any paid holidays? That sounds like a good deal! Well, we can scrub paid sickness leave, maternity leave and a pension scheme while we're about it, shall we? Sounds like the company gets a good deal out of this.
we offer 100% performance pay
So, let me get this straight, that means you don't actually offer a salary. You only get paid on results so that could mean you get very little, perhaps nothing at all, particularly while you are finding your feet. My issue with results based pay is that it gives no credit for the work put in. Anybody who works in a sales based environment will tell you that there will often be weeks when, despite your best efforts, the customer just will not 'bite'. But at least if there is a basic you have something to get you through. This is not a basis upon which people can aspire to make their way in the world, have a family, buy a home or support themselves in their later years.
I hope that, one day, corporate greed with become a thing of the past and that once again, 'a fair day's work for a fair day's pay' will become a byword for a fair society.
