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Geoffrey Wadhurst

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Someone Tell Stephanie Flanders - It's Us Notworking Folk Holding Up the Employment Numbers

Posted: 20/08/2012 00:00

Once in a while, Twitter throws up something that grabs my attention. Take Stephanie Flanders for instance, BBC economics editor. "A 501,000 rise in employment in 2 yrs when the economy is supposed to have not grown at all. What on earth is going on?"

Well, Stephanie, I'd be delighted to be of assistance. I'm what's going on - or rather me and people like me: the notworking people that haven't signed on but haven't got jobs as most people understand it. As far as the stats go, I am, indeed, employed. I'm the sole director and employee of Geoffrey Wadhurst Coaching Ltd. I like to think of myself as a start-up but my wife Sandra says "stop-down" is closer to the truth. On occasions, I've described myself as a SME but the reality is it's just ME.

I think you'll find, Stephanie, that the employment numbers are swollen by the coaches, social media gurus and network marketing foot-soldiers that exchange business cards and email newsletters with each other but aren't really working, hence the lack of corresponding increase in GDP. I think of us as the "notworking" and I've been blogging about my part in it for a year.

What does a typical notworking day look like? As it's noon I can only offer half a day, so here's my morning. Welcome, as they say, to my world:

0600: Turn up for my B2B Networking Club fortnightly breakfast at the Red Lion Inn in St Albans. We exchange business cards. Saul from Rickmansworth delivers a presentation on his utility network marketing opportunity. I decline the offer of cheaper broadband and energy and also pass on the offer to be one of his distributors.

0830: I return to my home office and find my son Ollie, 16, is still in bed. My wife, Sandra is getting ready for ladies' social tennis at the Marshallswick Lawn Tennis Club. I turn on my computer and await with anticipation the flurry of work-related emails. Sadly, the sole message is a follow-up message from Saul with an 8Mb distributor e-brochure attached.

0900: I fill up the seed-feeder in the garden and am briefly distracted by the arrival of a nuthatch.

1000: I get Skyped by Derek, my cynical and genuinely unemployed friend who still hasn't heard back about the interim job he interviewed for before the Olympics. Twenty years ago, all notworkers would have been like Derek and in the numbers. I deliver some pro bono coaching aphorisms that do little to uplift the unshaven figure I see on-screen.

1045: A Parcelforce delivery man rings the doorbell and asks me to take in a parcel for Mrs. Forbes across the road.

1053: Mrs. Forbes rings for her parcel and engages me in a 45-minute conversation about her new hip.

1100: Sandra returns and nags me about trimming the hedge by our front door that threatens to obscure our house number. Since I let our gardener go as a cost-cutting measure, this falls on my shoulders. Ollie, now awake and playing an urban car-jacking game on his games console refuses to help. Reluctantly, I don gardening gloves and plug in the electric hedge trimmer bought from Clive, my fellow NBI member and owner of a garden centre in Chiswell Green.

1103: A loud bang and a flash tell me I've cut through the power lead of my hedge trimmer.

1105: Irritably, I return to my inbox to find that the sole email is an urgent exhortation from our NBI regional director to bring more referrals to our breakfast meeting tomorrow.

1107: I write out a pink referral slip for Clive for tomorrow's meeting. "Hedge-trimmer," I write in capitals. "Preferably petrol."

 

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11:50 on 20/08/2012
501000 off the books of whats regarded as jobseeking does not equate to 501000 actually getting a job. What happens with our government figures and those hyped by BBC or other media so the situation looks good is that after 6 months of JSA the recipient still gets his/her dole money but .gov decided to give it a new name, taking the recipient out of the jobless bracket.

Its all about manipulating the figures to fake results in favour of whichever party holds the reins at the time. Currently the numbers are roughly 3 million unemployed or thereabouts, I worked out the actual figure to be closer to 12.5 million nationwide, just the way the government like it, a nice massive labour pool for the minimum wage jobs they introduce.
01:09 on 21/08/2012
Labour did the same thing (manipulating the figures).

After a certain length of time on unemployment Benefit, the claimant came OFF of that benefit and then received Income Support.

MPs' would then hand out a press release that said, 'The figure for unemployment (now the important phrase) "and those claiming Unemployment Benefit" has gone down'.

Then, when speaking to the press, or making speeches before Bye or General Elections, MPs' could then honestly say that the "number on unemployment benefit" had gone down.

The same number of people are still out of work, but the numbers look better.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Blockem1
When will our politicians start putting policies
10:16 on 20/08/2012
So true, one wonders how they count them , is it actual NI paying jobs, are they full time , i think not .
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Geoffrey Wadhurst
11:45 on 20/08/2012
I too have wondered about this, Blockem1. It is a quiet August after all. My trusted adviser, Jeremy, of Chaffinch Chartered Accountants (whom I met at a networking breakfast, naturally) has me on the payroll of my company through PAYE. So I suspect GW shows up as an employee even if, sadly, I'm not troubling my personal allowance threshold as yet...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Drg40
Representative Democracy is all we have.
10:03 on 21/08/2012
Wonder no more. In scientific parlance it's a pointer to the margin of error. You now know that any unemployment figure can have an error of 500,000 and make decisions accordingly.

But then, being a cynic in all things, having lived through the thatcherite figure fiddling and all the up front eyeball to eyeball lies those nasty fiddles gave rise to, you'll pardon me if I add to the error factor a margin for lies and distortion and come to the conclusion that the whole thing is meaningless mumbo-jumbo.

In short, anyone who uses Government figures as released to the public as a basis for any sort of decision making has a lot to learn about the perfidy of Government. Of course, if the've got an inside track as a result of copious contributions to party funds they might be a tad nearer the truth, but personally I wouldn't count on it.
08:52 on 20/08/2012
Having just joined the troops of Notworkers [swapped office for hypnotherapy... sort of the same as coaching], i must say that the daily account above sounds pretty accurate. It makes me think... what the Workers consider 'procrastination' and 'lazyness' [emphasis on the negative intonation of the terms oozing with disapproval], really are the keys to lower blood pressure, less stress and higher awareness... The negative meaning conveyed by the army of unhappy 9-5ers is a traditional coping mechanism. [and by that i don't mean ALL Workers are unhappy, they clearly aren't. But a lot of them are]. It's been a month and i still feel the pangs of guilt over 'not chaining myself to the desk for 8 hours' and the freedom of doing what i want feels strange... like wearing shoes that are the 'wrong' size but fit perfectly... strange :) Well done, ex-HR man! Keep coaching :)
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Lykos
Nobody Never Eat No Fifty Eggs
19:45 on 19/08/2012
I doubt the voracity of your claims, sir... [this is a joke response, not a genuine attack, i promise]
Quote "1053: Mrs. Forbes rings for her parcel and engages me in a 45-minute conversation about her new hip.
1100: Sandra returns and nags..."
Did Mrs Forbes follow you around while you hedge-trimmed? Or do you have a time-machine to fit 45 minutes into 7 minutes...?
Apologies for being a pedant - but hey, if you fibbed about that, what *else* did you stretch the truth on...? ;-P
[Again, only kidding. Best of luck with the return from Notwork to a full, financially rewared and proper use of your skills.]
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Geoffrey Wadhurst
07:06 on 20/08/2012
Lykos - you're right. Something clearly doesn't add up. Maybe Mrs Forbes's conversation just seemed like 45 mins...
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Lykos
Nobody Never Eat No Fifty Eggs
12:10 on 20/08/2012
In truth, i admit my pedantry... and made the same assumption you did - and who hasn't been in those conversations that prove that all time is relative, and neighbours and Relatives can sure make time streeeeeeeetch with some tales...  That said, looking at it now, maybe there's a missing "/" between the 4 and 5...?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Mark B Robertson
19:40 on 19/08/2012
Indeed, quite funny.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Paul Wagland
Resistance is fertile
18:27 on 19/08/2012
Funny, and probably true.