So back in 2014 I was in retail and I hated where I worked and who I worked with and for. So I did the logical thing and looked for a new job. Bearing in mind my only work history was retail it was going to be a very difficult task of jumping track since, it seems in today's society, when you work in a certain industry it's like you're locked to it forever.
I applied for a lot of places, temp agencies I never back from and low lever starter positions in admin that, again, never heard back from. One day I saw an advertisement that was a low level admin entry but with great opportunities to advance to other places. So I applied and got offered an interview.
That was lie number one. Kinda.
I showed up at the place, nice clean office with friendly people and waited in their reception area with way too many other people. So that was a red flag. Eventually we got lead up to the main board room and we all sat in available chairs, I sat at the back to get a good view. The guy conducting the meeting started talking and I took out a pad and pen to make notes. After 3 minutes I put it down.
This was NOT a low level entry admin job, that was lie number 2 and the biggest. Essentially what the company did was work with charities to get people to sign up for monthly donations. Ever been in a supermarket and seen a display with people leaping at you to guilt trip you into signing up for a charity. That is what this company did. It also included going door to door, knocking and doing the same to home owners.
He even told us, which was a shocker, that most of the moment the charities that hired this company and others like it only use about 5-10% of every £1 donated for the cause, the rest went into costs. Which makes sense but it was so shocking how little went to help the causes.
So this wasn't admin at all. This was more or less customer service/retail. But here is the kicker – you only got paid if you were able to sign up a targeted number of people per day. And you were expected to work 12 hours a day. So if in those 12 hours you didn't sign up x amount of people, well guess what? No pay. And we had to pay for our own transportation too and we'd be expected to go to places dozens of miles outside of the city. Working without getting paid is slavery, kinda. No whipping or wearing shackles but to me it's a modern day kind of slavery.
At the end of the presentation the guy conducting it informed us that the receptionist who greeted us wasn't a receptionist but part of the hiring team – lie number 3 – and that she'd been evaluating everyone in the room and that those chosen would receive emails to progress further into the application process. Apparently I was one of the chosen because the next day I got an email saying I'd been chosen. I politely declined stating I was looking for a job that actually paid me a decent wage for my hard work.
And companies wonder why staff refuse to work for them if they're paid less than they work or nothing at all. Why we demand to be paid for what we do and paid a decent wage at that.