British workers 'among worst idlers', suggest Tory MPs

[dazzerd]

My wife ia in the Cival Service, they allocated her work down south and then she expected to be made redundant. Never happened, she has spent the last 18 months doing her open uni course at work with about 1-5hrs of acutal work a week. She has planned a career change because of the way she had being treated and starts Uni in September.

She gets paid 30 hour week.

I work in a private company and my work is similar. I can literally go weeks without having any proper (demanding) work to do, the company is aware and don't care and have basically said I can do what I want in my own time....

Boring as hell but what can you do? I work in an area of the economy which is going through major upheavel and the business do not know what business will be like for a couple of years but at the same time can't afford to get rid of experienced staff. Hence there are a number of people who are just getting paid to be there just in case the poo hits the fan. They win but keeping me available I win as I can teach myself some stuff whilst being paid for it.

 

[alexakasloth]

Then why would you like an MP to swap with you?

Firstly, my original comment was not that serious (it's GD after all), but it seems you wish to have a more sensible discussion, that's cool
To answer your question, it would be beneficial for these several MP's to get a different perspective as their comment is a huge generalisation.
From the BBC article:

"The five MPs - who are all members of the Free Enterprise Group of Tory MPs - say the UK needs to reward a culture of "graft, risk and effort" if it is to compete with fast-growing nations."

If I look at the other two British workers in my kitchen we have my head chef, who works just as many hours as the BBC article that you linked to earlier quotes, and the sous chef, who up until next week, has been working two jobs, both of these guys do this to support their families. Myself, I'm in a junior position where I'm expected to know the starters and pizza's (it's an Italian restaurant), yet I make the effort to learn all of it to help with the busy periods, I've been there less than a month yet I'm faster and know the Specials better than the Italian chef de partie. This article (less than a year old) shows that UK workers clock up higher hours in full time employment than most of Europe, coming up third: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/dec/08/europe-working-hours#data

Just because some Asian countries work more hours a week does not mean that we should strive to do the same, it would not be beneficial for family life. Also, what do they suggest should be rewarded to the hard working and brave grafters? Nothing, but perhaps this is a skew in the article and all will be revealed in their book.

You say that you know about their working hours from first hand observation, is this a relative/close friend, or perhaps someone mentioned in the article?

 

[gigeorge]

Yes, its called an inconvenient truth, British workers are, in general, lazier than foreign ones due to a lower work ethic and will spend more time standing around or dawdling.

Nail on head, hit.

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

Scientists drop their test tubes in shock as rhetorical idealogical statement found to be nonsense.

"I can't believe it" one scientist cried, before throwing himself from the second floor window of the laboratory.

Other scientists agree that rhetorical idealogical statements are often misleading and in most cases, full of ****.
"We can all agree that these statements are full of **** and we can expect to see more of them as the individuals making the statements continue to breathe air" commented one senior scientist.

In response David Cameron shrieked "We haven't seen nonsense on this scale since New Labour were elected. It is a much needed boost for Britain's compost manufacturers and gardeners alike".

 

[RaohNS]

As some have said here... Lawyers are dishonest... anecdotally speaking.

I have to say that i work really hard, i have a relax here and there at work but when i work a 2hr job is done in half the time.

I'm not a slob and its what you know that you get paid for. I'm sure we all have a friend who slogs labouring 50hrs a week for his £400.00 and we know a friend who does his 9-5 but is paid his £1k a week because he knows something someone else doesn't

Policiticians are virtually all crooked. I'd be interested to know what percentage come from Legal/Law Backgrounds... i know its a substantial percentage.

 

[PhillyDee]

It's a big wide brush but he's got a point, especially when your talking about jobs at the lower end of the employment market. Look at Hotel staff, how many of the hard working staff that work in any hotel in England are English, what about builders and site staff?

I for one have been searching for decent staff to run machines in engineering for in excess of 4 years now. Over that time I've seen maybe a dozen staff to through the position and the only one that is still there is Slovakian, the others have been lazy, unreliable and not worth the money. Employed at 7.10 an hour with time and a half overtime you'd think we would have found different. The Slovakian guy is now on over £10 an hour having been promoted due to the fact he works so well.

Thats because you are paying crap engineering wages tbh. I would not even entertain £7.10, or even £10 per hour on a machine when I can earn £14/hr basic. You pay poor wages, you get poor workers.

 

[matt_fsr]

Thats because you are paying crap engineering wages tbh. I would not even entertain £7.10, or even £10 per hour on a machine when I can earn £14/hr basic. You pay poor wages, you get poor workers.

Must admit I did laugh when I read peige's post - with £7.10ph being barely above the minimum wage, I'd expect to get dross. Heck, several years ago when the minimum was around £5, I'd be doing temp data entry work and be getting £6ph or £6.50ph!

And given you're in South Shields, it's hardly the highest of salaried areas in the UK either!

 

[PhillyDee]

Must admit I did laugh when I read peige's post - with £7.10ph being barely above the minimum wage, I'd expect to get dross. Heck, several years ago when the minimum was around £5, I'd be doing temp data entry work and be getting £6ph or £6.50ph!

And given you're in South Shields, it's hardly the highest of salaried areas in the UK either!

There are at least 3 engineering companies in the north east paying more as well, and a lot lot more paying a lot lower. Its a workers market, and everywhere is screaming out for skilled people. You have got to pay the wages to get decent people.