Recalling the Eighties, And The Essential Things In The Workplace That Have Changed Since Those Times
Many of us oldies who have lived through the 1980s might have ambivalent sentiments concerning the period, and a lot of things come to mind about it. We were fortunate to have a lot of great popular music in the period. I recall a certain female premier, of course. However for many that was not such a happy era, due to very high levels of joblessness. There was, in those days, no Internet business and no online jobs as exist now. However, opportunities were available for those who looked for them. If you were willing to do whatever you could, it was possible to do temporary office work, work from home, or travel around looking for seasonal placements.
After graduating with a degree in Geography and finding there was not a huge call in the workplace for Geography graduates, I became for a while one of the numerous jobless. However, I registered with an agency that a friend recommended to me. Within a short while they phoned me up about a temporary job. I started off working a print machine in a factory, and after that I served as a clerk at the Tax Office (somebody has to it, as the saying goes!). Later I did temporary work as in stock control, and as a data inputter. The jobswere all pretty monotonous, and I was unlikely to make my first million working in these roles, but I was earning my own keep and not living off benefits. Within a few days from the conclusion of one job, the phone would ring, and I would be offered a job with another company.
Many things have changed since then. The Internet has transformed the jobs market, with online jobs boards replacing many agencies. We are now facing an unemployment level as bad as at any time before. However, Internet business gives people opportunities to work from home or in a conventional office in a variety of different online jobs that did not exist twenty years ago.
In 1988 I was offered a permanent position and stayed in employment continually up to the current recession. When I was among the many people who were made redundant in 2009, I didn’t worry too much, since I assumed I could go back to taking up temporary employment. I once again registered with the jobs agencies. However, the telephone never rang. I could not find even the kind of temporary employment that kept me off the dole queue back in the 80s. And as for being offered another permanent job, I reckon I have more chance of being selected for the 2014 England World Cup team.
It would not be before I learned about online jobs and got offered the chance to work from home in a self-employed capacity, that I was able to escape from indefinite joblessness. Following a reasonable payment for the appropriate training, I went on to set up my own Internet business offering advice to companies on raising their website’s search engine profile. Remuneration is proportional to results, demonstrable confirmation that a website has made it to the first page of an Internet search. However by using the appropriate ethical procedure, this can be achieved within a few weeks.
The benefit of working in an Internet business is that you are free to choose your own hours, and your own way of working. It is a fascinating as well as challenging type of business, and definitely beats checking components at the factory or punching data into a PC all day, or the other things I did back in the eighties. Once I was given the chance to work from home in this specialism, I never regretted it. It’s unlikely I’d want to go back to my former permanent job, if it was offered to me. And as for my memories of the 1980s, well it wasn’t all doom and gloom: the memorable music of that time will remain with me always.