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Writing is a volatile field financially. We authors all dream of hitting ‘the big time’ but as with so many things in life, this is often not too realistic and thus the vast majority of us have to work in the conventional world to earn the bulk of our living. Nor are we alone. It is estimated that in this world of over rapid technological expansion and globalisation and corporate downsizing that almost half of the workforce are currently engaged to some degree in surfing job websites, even if they are currently in employment. Far too many of us can feel the shifting sands beneath out feet, especially if you receive a whiff of potential company ‘downsizing’, ‘disestablishment’ or ‘outsourcing’ in the not too distant future – a fancy, polite way of saying that your job could be the next to get the axe or that someone in some Third World state can do it far cheaper with very few, if any, union or human rights advocates in sight to complicate things for the bosses. Okay, so just pop down the road and get another job, right?
Easier said than done.
For one thing, there are so many others out there looking. While recently checking my own job search results on the website SEEK, I noticed that the statistics stated that one job I had just applied for had received over 118 applications to date, and the official application expiry date was at least another week away. I noted another position that already had over 384 applications listed and was still counting. There is every chance therefore that your own application – and yes, you will have slaved over making sure all the i’s and t’s are dotted and crossed on your cover letter, that your CV is up to date and in the best possible format – is not even going to be seen by human eyes. Nowadays there are several online applications that select CVs etc via keyword searches without an employer having to so much as check their e-mail box, thereby eliminating over half of all applications, including some potentially very desirable candidates in the process. If by some miracle you make it through the technological terrors, you are often asked now for a selfie video (let’s face it, most of us are not supermodel material), possibly a voice recording, and you have to fill out a long list of some very invasive questions that leave me for one bridling. And then there are the job advertisements themselves that can leave you with a dreadful inferiority complex – “passionate”, “driven’, “able to hit the ground running”, “multi tasker”, “superstar” and “team player” are among the more mild descriptions of the Superman or Wonder Woman sought for the “desirable” position in question. They don’t want much (so they say: you just have to know every aspect of Office inside out, be a technological whiz even if you have to empty dustbins, remain cheerful while being abused on all sides and be able to jump buildings with a single bound at the drop of a hat. And if, by some miracle, you make it to the final round of the selection process, you find yourself sitting in a chair before a panel who assess you in much the same way a farmer does a prized bull, searching for any defects and putting you through your paces on the auction block. And you have to sit there, cap in hand or tugging at your forelock; “Oooh arrrr sorr, sooo good to meet you sorr/ma’am, I’ll lick your arse any time you wish sorr/ma’am, like a good dog…” Well, maybe I exaggerate, but you are left with that distinct feeling.
The other disturbing aspect of job hunting nowadays is the casualisation of labour. Let’s face it, your bills are hauntingly regular, rather like death and taxes, but there are far more jobs out there now advertising casual/on call positions that provide no guarantee whatsoever from week to week of reliable earnings, and an ever rising torrent of part time positions that all too often barely offer enough paid hours for you to meet your rent or mortgage obligations, let alone think of paying for anything else. And yet we are constantly bombarded with government pressures to ‘save for your old age’, ‘invest in the future’ and so forth, when for so many people – especially if you are over 45 and not considered desirable material anymore by the gurus of the modern workplace – living week to week has become such a juggling act.
In the 1990s the demolition of the unions paved the way for consequences the younger generations are now starting to realise. They trumpeted the emergence of flexible terms and conditions and one to one bargaining without realising that unless you are an A grade rocket scientist or the like that is in super high demand, not to mention having an encyclopaedic knowledge of your legal rights and employment law, you have no real bargaining power at all. With the stroke of a pen some starry eyed fools have signed away decades of hard strife and toil on the part of union workers who fought tooth and nail, and even died to secure basic rights for everyone, not just the privileged few. Through this sorry betrayal of our forefathers, the essential right to earn a stable, respectable living has been replaced by a mad lolly scramble where there are definite losers and not too many winners – rather like Lotto in far too many respects.
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