I have been working as a temp at Sawley Marina for ten weeks now, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and now they have given me a permanent contract!!.. I work in the Chandlery there, and sell all sorts of items to some of the nicest people!!!

The Marina is very large and attracts many visitors  for the boat brokerage, moorings and canal boat hire, not to mention the passers by – on boats or otherwise – so there is always a holiday air about the place. The Chandlery sells a huge amount of things, everything for the boating enthusiast from dinghys to outboard engines right down to the smallest shackle – the list is endless. There is also a part of the shop that caters for basic food shopping for the new arrivals – just to start them off…… then there is clothing – including wetsuits, maps and souvenirs….

Try counting these for next months stock take!!!!

And outside the boats go by – narrow boats and cruisers – it’s idyllic….

This is the first time I have worked in a retail environment and I love it – I have previously dealt with customer service but usually on the complaints side – we don’t get many complaints here!!!

And if you need any splicing doing – this is the guy to ask……

Rope and splicing expert!!!!

And on the left here is our Honda and Chandlery expert- she is amazing!!!

Which just leaves me – a people expert with computer skills!!!!

I am enjoying every minute!!!!

So I was really pleased when I was asked to start recruiting for one or more ‘support’ people.

I really wanted to employ a young person, give them a start, help them to feel good about themselves. I’ve done this before in a previous role and thoroughly enjoyed coaching and training people until they were able to mentor the next new recruit.

Why then – do you think, that even though this role is advertised in every job centre, no-one is applying?

We are a country in recession, unemployment is at an all time high and all I want is someone with very good written and spoken English to make outbound calls.

Is there really an unemployment problem?

On a slightly different theme I watched a TV program about Benefit Busters last night. It showed a training course where single mothers on benefits would be given the skills and confidence to get back into the workplace.

It worked and it was good to see some of these ladies working all except one! Bless her, she wanted to work but she had four children and got more money on benefits than going out to work would bring in. What a system eh?

There was one thing in this course that really irritated me – the trainer was asking the women what the benefits of earning a wage would be, one of the answers was ‘money coming in’ and I was astounded at the trainer’s reaction:

“Yes, money coming in …. its the difference between buying the value range at the supermarket and buying Birds Eye.”

I think maybe they should add a week to this course and teach them to cook, then they could really learn how to economise!!!

In the meantime….does anyone want a job?????