When Procrastination Turns Into Laziness

Originally posted on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Procrastination is something that I have become a master of over the last few years, which began in sixth form when certain tasks become a priority over my coursework for my A Levels. However at the time I was unaware that this was the development of my status as the procrastination king.

As I went to University I began perfecting this art. As many University students will know, when it comes to gathering a pile of books to find information and quotes to help develop a 2,000 word essay, menial tasks suddenly become the most important things that ever existed. You tend to find yourself taking your clothes to the washing machines knowing that in an hour they will need to be put in the tumble dryer, this means that for the next few hours you can't actually start your essay as you will need to go to the tumble dryer and move your clothes and then ultimately have to bring them back and put them away.

This is only one of a number of tasks I found myself doing during the first two years of my University life, one time I found myself on my hands and knees cleaning my bedroom skirting boards, as they looked a little too dusty. The fact that I had a deadline in a few days time obviously had nothing to do with my sudden need for a spring clean, well that's what I told myself.

I know a whole host of people from my time at University who also found they succumbed to the need to complete pointless tasks in order to delay thinking too much about their essays. However luckily for me by the third year I had grown out of this phase, as I wanted to get my work done and attain a good grade, since this was the main reason I went to University in the first place. I also know that a number of my fellow students grew out of this as the workload got heavier and more important.

This was a good thing as the constant work made sure I couldn't get too distracted, obviously now and again updating my Facebook status became much more important. But overall this art of procrastination was beginning to go as I prepared myself for the workload I would endure when I was finally finished with my studies, and entered the world of full time work.

However for me, like many other graduates things didn't manifest as I'd hoped and I found myself sitting at home applying for copious amounts of jobs praying for the day I'd start work. This therefore brings me to a key point, when does this art of procrastination stop being procrastination and become laziness and more importantly does having nothing to do breed laziness?

I say this because when I was at University procrastination may have distracted me from my studies but it also meant that tasks such as the washing the dishes or doing the laundry got done, and in the end so did my assignments. But now that I am out of University with no assignments I don't find myself becoming distracted by the washing, therefore it doesn't get done as much as it used to.

Now I find myself sat on the sofa, drinking tea, applying for jobs and watching the TV, in a state that many people would call laziness. Its not that I am lazy, in fact I love being busy as I'm sure many other people do, it's just that I have nothing to do, so by having nothing to do these menial tasks become the only thing I have to do and once they are done they are done, leaving me with extra hours to sit around and do nothing.

The way it feels is that whilst the job market is in such a bad state, meaning that many graduates and people in general can't get jobs, leaving them at home with nothing to do after they've done their tedious tasks and applied for all the jobs there are to apply for, which isn't many, they find themselves slipping into a state of being bored where doing nothing is the only thing to do.

With more and more people being out of work for much longer periods of time, and by having nothing to do its looks as though the inability to get many people into work is breeding a generation of experienced laziness as their main skill, not because they are lazy but because it's the only thing they now know how to do.

The Application Complication

Originally published on www.instant-impact.com

For those who are trying to break into the creative industries whether its in journalism, marketing, fashion, advertising or PR it can feel as though it’s easier to get through immigration or break into a bank vault, wearing a very fetching yet itchy balaclava, than kicking down that otherwise heavily padlocked door.

It’s an annoyance that will come to all of us who are trying to make it in a very difficult industry where unpaid internships, extremely long hours and a second job are the norm. But aside from the fact that for many, the majority of these jobs are located in London thus making it hard to afford the move from wherever you’re currently located, the biggest annoyance when it comes to trying to crack the creative industries is the dreaded application form.

We’ve all endured it and we’ve sighed a nauseating sigh of disbelief once we’ve downloaded the seemingly never ending questions on the application form that wants to know everything about you, the fact there isn’t a question regarding your inside leg measurement is actually surprising.

The first thing they make you want to do is scream, run away and hide under your duvet at the sheer thought of filling out this form. It’s a generally tedious task that asks you everything that is already on your CV, so after spending a large chunk of time copy and pasting your previous experience and education into some boxes that clearly haven’t been formatted properly by a company that demands excellent Microsoft Word skills in their job description, you can almost feel the laziness pour over you.

However this isn’t the end as you then have to make yourself sound like the best candidate for the job in the relevant experience section, which is just asking you to tell them how you match up to the criteria in the person spec, which isn’t only a monotonous task that can take hours but also makes you feel vastly pretentious as it makes it sound as though the sun shines out of your behind. If that isn’t bad enough the section after this asks for more information about you that you may not have covered in the previous section, so you find yourself mentioning rubbish like you once mowed your grandmothers grass and that you were a top student in primary school because you have run out of self promotion in the last section and quite simply can’t think of anything else they would want to know. Maybe you drop your inside leg measurement in as a thought.

Alas the application form isn’t the only annoying thing about applying for jobs within the creative industries. If they aren’t asking for a 500-page application form to be submitted then they’re asking for a CV, cover letter and in my case examples of previously published work. Now for many people who have to work as well as apply for these jobs they don’t have the time to have written much for other companies, because they’re either searching though umpteen pages of search results on job sites to find jobs that in then takes 3 hours to apply for, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

Usually after sending this they usually then ask you for a written piece that they assign to you, if they haven’t already asked for this in the first instance. The worst part is after spending hours doing this you rarely hear back or get a rejection email that can’t give feedback due to the high volume of applicants, it just makes you think “why do I even bother?”

I find myself asking what’s wrong with a simple application process of your CV and a brief hello in the email because surely they will find out if you’re right for the job at the interview? That’s if you even make it to the interview. But apparently this would make it far too easy for you and the people reviewing the applications may have to do some serious interviewing, when clearly they’d rather interview a small handful.

It’s a sad state of affairs that so many creative people are failing at cracking the industry because they just can’t get their big break due to excessive job searching and application forms, which can restrict the time to be creative and create published work, or simply because the vast size of the application form is just emphasising a wave of laziness that has already been brought on by months of daytime TV and unsatisfying menial work.

The Problem with the Benefit System

Originally posted on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

When it comes to the benefit system here in the UK everyone appears to have his or her own take on it. There are those who believe some individuals and families are being given too many benefits and therefore an incentive not to work, and then there are those who believe that without these benefits some would slip into absolute poverty.

Only this year there was a huge debate about capping benefits for those claiming that saw an array of different opinions spouted out. I mean, who hasn't logged onto their Facebook or Twitter accounts and seen someone having a rant about supposed benefit scroungers and thieves, or that they aren't being given enough financial aid? But then what about those people who are living way below the breadline and simply cannot claim a penny?

Over the years I've been guilty myself of indulging in one of these rants about those on benefits, but more recently I have found myself without any form of support from working or through the benefit system.

Recently I published an article about how a number graduates were coming out of University and finding themselves without a job due them being overqualified or inexperienced. However in my case, as I'm sure is the case for many others, I wasn't always in this position.

Throughout my days as a student studying for my A level exams and my degree I worked. One job I had was as a part time cleaner, this was when I was 17 so any money earned was spent on clothes or going out. I then moved on to do a job that absolutely bored the living daylights out of me on a production line in a factory (which I did during my breaks from University and during the summer before.) But apart from sitting there and wishing the end of the world would hurry up I still worked, as I needed the money.

Now however I find myself without a job, without a student loan and without any rights to claim benefits, and because of this I regularly find myself without food.

Now you may be wondering why this is, because surely someone who has worked and needs to buy food, pay rent and other bills should be able to claim something? Well it turns out that whilst I did work throughout my A Levels and University, as I was a student I was exempt from paying tax, which now means that I can't claim. Secondly because my partner works full time he is expected to support me, which he does. But when one person's wages barely covers the bills where are you supposed to find the money for food and the bare essential to live?

These are issues I'm faced with on a daily basis and I'm sure there are others who have also been in a similar position. Now if I didn't live with my partner in my own house and lived with my parents I would be able to claim job seekers allowance, along with this I wouldn't have to pay rent or buy food or pay any bills therefore allowing me to do what I wanted with the money.

This all seems a little bizarre because surely someone who needs to pay bills is in more need of a little help financially than someone who isn't? Aside from this during one of my routine phone calls to find out why I was unable to claim any form of assistance an advisor told me that if my partner decided not to work then they could help us. Now am I wrong when I say this shouldn't be the kind of advice given to someone actively seeking employment, considering the role of the job centre is to get people off benefits and into the workplace?

It looks as though the benefit system in this country and its workers are a little confused on who needs help and what advice they need to give people (I have been told so many different things on several occasions by different members of staff.) Until this confusion is resolved and the claims made by people are assessed a little differently it looks as though those who are in desperate need of help will have to go without, whilst others will be afraid of entering the workplace as they will be worse off financially, therefore being left in the category of "benefit scrounger" despite the fact they probably aren't.

Inexperienced and Overqualified: A Catch 22 for Graduates

Originally posted on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

After a regular visit to the job centre where I had to convince the person sat behind the desk that I had been looking for work on a daily basis, it got me thinking about why I was still in this predicament.

Six months after losing my job I still go to my fortnightly appointment and explain the fact that employers are still not employing me. The woman who deals with my claim told me I looked a bit fed up and maybe this was coming across at interviews. The comment annoyed me slightly as I'm not a stupid person, despite what some may say given the predicaments I've gotten myself into in the past, I'm educated to degree level and work extremely hard to try and get where I won't to be, yet I just seem to fall flat at the final hurdle.

It's not just me either; youth unemployment is extremely high these days given the current economic crisis. You only have to read BBC news and you will most likely find a story at some point during the week detailing these issues.

At the age of 22 I feel that a vast amount of people my age are caught in a catch 22 situation. That situation being; we are both under-experienced and overqualified.

From a young age we've been told we can be whatever we want to be whether it's a doctor, a teacher, a writer or even an Olympian. We have been told that education is the key. We were told to get our GCSE's and then when those were done we were told to get A-Levels, as GCSE's weren't quite good enough. Finally after a two-year slog to get those A-Levels completed we were told we needed to go to University to complete our education and secure ourselves a job.

However they never prepared us for the lack of job prospects when we left, or what to do if a situation like this should arise. I mean we can't blame our teachers for the economic crisis, but when you're told from around the age of seven that you can be whatever you want to be and this is how you do it, you never think of the negative outcomes of not quite reaching your goal.

So by this point after completing a degree you can safely say that you're qualified enough. But when it comes to applying for jobs you then have to compete against thousands of other applicants who were told the same thing as you, and some are lucky enough to get the job and others aren't.

As the clock ticks on more students finish University every year creating a new batch of competitors as you seemingly get left behind and re-join the queue at the job centre time and time again, as employers tell you; "you don't have enough experience."

Now a sensible thing to do whilst hunting for your dream job is to find something that will help you get by and live. Many go and work in bars or call centres or work as waiters, but this is where the overqualified situation raises its ugly head.

I myself had to deal with a situation like this a few weeks back when I attended an interview for a cleaning position. I've worked as cleaner before for two different companies, which were both on my CV. However the woman conducting the interview seemed more concerned with how overqualified I was than my previous experience, but as I said to a friend when you're poor and need money you'll do any job you can. Needless to say I didn't get the position.

It may have been because I was overqualified or not, and if it was I can understand where they are coming from as I may up and leave the job in six weeks time.

The simple fact is when you have friends, family, the job centre, the media and the government telling you to get off the sofa, stop watching Jeremy Kyle and go and get a job it can make you feel worthless because even though you are trying it's just not that easy and you're stuck in this catch 22 situation. As some people think you don't know enough to do one job and others think you know too much to do another. Sometimes there's just no winning but a lot of losing.

My unemployment/job centre frustration ....

So here I am at 3:15 in the afternoon sat on the floor drinking tea in a dressing gown and pyjamas, I am totally living the student lifestyle, the only problem is that I am no longer a student!

After 17 years of education and a nice big fat load of student debt I now finally find myself unemployed and with no money ... So much fun!

I finished uni nearly two months ago but only officially finished last week when my results came out ... Got a cheeky little 2.1 so that's always good. 

However now no one seems to want to employ me at all, I have GCSE's, A levels and a degree but the jobs I apply for doing what I want to do either don't reply or say I am not what they are looking for ... Please tell me how a recent journalism graduate with a decent degree isn't suitable for a graduate entry level journalism job? On top of that I have experience as a cleaner but no cleaning company wants me either, please tell me how I am not good enough to do a job I've done before?

So anyway after a trip to the job centre I was told I wasn't entitled to anything to help me live off because I haven't worked, which I have but due being a student I was exempt from paying tax but no one seems to care about that at the job centre. My trip was also topped off with a lovely stand outside in the freezing cold due to a fire alarm, so that absolutely made my day (detect the sarcasm?).

I just don't understand how some people who have never worked or done anything can claim so much money, yet someone who has put themselves through an education and worked can't have anything to help them until they find a job? Apparently if I had dependents I could, so no wonder so many people purposely get pregnant (and they do I've seen it myself).

So yeah here I am now ranting on a blog (that no one will probably read) because I have nothing to do except look at my little 'job diary' to show someone that I've been looking for a job, I really don't see how this folded piece of paper will help me find a job any quicker considering I was already doing exactly what they are asking me to do, but now I need to keep a record of it ... Such fun I must say!!!

Seriously this unemployment lark is getting a bit much now, the only daily company I have is the cast of Loose Women, I know more about Kate Thornton's  and Sherrie Hewson's love life than I know about my own (that's a lie but it sounded dramatic).

Anyway before I go on any further I am going to leave it at that ... At least I have a trip to Wales this week to help me through the constant boredom!!!!

Laters ....