ECHO 24/1/06

Back to Redditch today job-hunting – eye-opener – we make our way to the temp agencies for interviews to register, sign up etc – see what we may get, though we don’t hold out much hope – faces stare back from the windows of the industrial agencies along the same street: sallow faces, shaved heads, shifting feet, sorry looking eyes - as we sit in the reception area of the first one, filling out the forms required, I listen to the background conversations between the agents and their clients, they tell how quiet it is at the moment, how January just doesn’t have the same forecast as December – the mood is grey, dismal – then a troop of young men wanders in and they gather and hang about in the corner – all of them wearing jeans and short jackets or coats, some of them I recognise as those I saw gazing back earlier from the other agency window – they are Eastern European and some speak better English than others who may not speak English at all – one is evidently voted spokesman and he approaches the little blond receptionist and asks for a job – the girl manages her usual routine and realises that the group have not really understood the procedure to register, they smile back at her as if she has given them each the best paid job in the world, but she is merely explaining they’ll have to make an appointment and come back with CVs etc for interview next week – one of them cottons on and whispers and then they all shake their heads ‘no’ – this goes on for a few minutes and then they agree to come back next week but are none the wiser and they file on out – later, two late-teenagers arrive and ask to see ‘Joe’ and are told to take a seat - they are wisecrackers, street hip, and restless – one of them starts to talk openly about his forthcoming court case and reckons he’ll get away with whatever he’s done; he talks about shifting ‘M’ (I am guessing he’s talking in ‘code’ about dealing marijuana); he is proud of himself and he looks around the waiting room as if challenging all those in there to better him – they are both told that ‘Joe’ asked them to come in at 4 and it is only 2.45 so they leave with a kind of subtle noise making (banging feet, slamming doors out in the corridor) – a young Asian man enters wearing a dark blue duffle coat and stands at the reception desk and asks for work - the receptionist gives her usual spiel re: registration and the man replies ‘come on, no, just a job you know, a job’ - the girl repeats herself - ‘but a job’ he says, ‘it’s all I ask here; no, you have a job?’ – it is quietly desperate and he has the air of a man who has been told the same thing everywhere he has gone all day long, and probably has the dole office on his back or may even have had his benefit cut off - in the end the receptionist calls in ‘Joe’ who eventually offers the man a packing job for the night in a new supermarket complex, he goes through the directions of how to get there with the man who nods and finally asks: ‘but only for one night?’ and Joe says ‘yes, but if they like you, you might get a few more nights’ – the man leaves thanking Joe profusely - if he’s lucky he’ll have got minimum wage (£5.05) for 9 hours work without sleep or benefits of any kind and that may have to last him all week.