JobCentre – It sucks writes libcom

Having been gainfully unemployed for a number of months, I’ve recently returned to take a swim in the shark-infested, soul-destroying, disease-ridden hell hole that is the job market. It’s also the first time I’ve been, ehhem, lucky enough to be able to claim dole. This means applying for jobs and making a fortnightly trip to the JobCentre. And it sucks.

My experience back in the labour market has led me to think about the role of both the state and capital in imposing labour discipline not just on the job, but in every aspect of the labour market.

I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed some years back. It’s got its problems—being inherently social democratic, for a start—but the one part that really stuck with me was when she talked about the interview process for retail jobs like stacking shelves or taking stock. As she describes it, the interview isn’t there so much to ensure suitability for the role (these are, after all, extremely de-skilled positions), but to establish the workplace hierarchy and ensure that the candidate understands that management has a totality of control regarding everything from pay to breaks to social interaction on the shop floor.

In short, and although Ehrenreich doesn’t use such terminology, the interview process itself lays down the rules of labour discipline in the workplace.

With my partner and I both applying for these sorts of jobs, I actually think Ehrenreich hasn’t taken the argument far enough. In today’s world, as part of the application, there are these utterly bullshit questions which having no bearing upon the skills needed for the role. Instead, such “surveys” are designed to ensure potential applicants understand the expectations that they will, amongst other things, shorten lunch breaks to accommodate business needs, welch on workmates for even the slightest infraction of company policy, and be available for whatever ‘reasonable’ requests management may make of them.

The JobCentre, as you can imagine, only reinforces such dynamics…

via Unemployment, the JobCentre, and the imposition of labour discipline | libcom.org.