Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 October 2004 11:35:47
....and John Peel's playing 'Teenage Kicks' at the sort of volume which the health and safety technocrats find worrying.
Thanks for being my musical educator for the last 25 years and for occupying such a liminal space on the airwaves. My life is different because yours was.
Went for a job interview last Wednesday for a post with the title 'Community Mental Health Assistant'. Went really well. Better than expected because they failed to send me a 'person-specification' sheet, which I mentioned to them. 'We'll let you know Monday and we'll pop a person-specification in the post to you this afternoon', they said. Nothing on Monday. Tuesday morning I phone the agency to say I've heard nothing. 'We'll phone you back later about it', they said. Later, having heard nothing, I phone them back. 'Oh she's left for the day, she finishes at 2pm, can I help?' So I explain again. Later that evening I get a call from one of the interviewers to say that I didn't get the job but that I interviewed extemely well and my written assessmet was (and I quote) "brilliant". The only "reason" she gives me for not getting the job is that someone had to get the job and someone had to not get it. Have you ever had the impression that something has already been decided before a "decision" has been made and that the purpose of the interview is merely a matter of them being able to tick their boxes? And does this mean that community mental health workers are chosen for no good reason? I still haven't seen a person-specification sheet.
By contrast I was walking along a pathway out in the Wiltshire countryside yesterday, gorgeous afternoon, blue sky, light breeze, beautiful. I was overtaken by a woman with "learning disabilities", as our society calls it. As she goes past she smiles and says, "Good afternoon, beautiful isn't it?". "Hi, yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous isn't it?", say I. "Do you want me to leave the gate open for you at the end of the path?", she asks, "Thanks, that's kind of you", I reply. And she walks off whistling to the trees and the birds. In short, I experienced more civility from that woman in 1 minute than from 2 mental health "professionals" and 2 recruitment agency "professionals" over the course of a fortnight. Now, which of these people has "learning difficulties"? The world is upside-down. Go figure.