Care workers - Poor Pay - Thankless Task £9 hour (you never know when you might need one) for an additional £1.80 a day!

Ivory55 said:
Funny how it’s believed that if wages increased we would all be worse off and have to pay more for stuff. Before the arrival of an abundance of cheap labour I got paid more than when all the cheap labour arrived, but I never noticed having to pay less for stuff.
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The Wino said:
I offered our staff a choice once. Use their house like we did against the business loan and have a straight profit share dependant on the proportion of their wages on the open market with no guarantee the same as us good years a lot better poor years still fairly good.No-one was interested.
All the talk is always about rich bosses so why not chance it and start a business?
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If everyone started a business there would be no one left to work for those businesses.

The problem is people will always want more than they need ...its human nature.
 
EuroTrotters said:
So,

After 17 years of caring, my wife has finally had enough. Fully qualified, experienced and, well "Caring".

Minimum wage, poor conditions and no benefits.

Getting up at 5:30 am, driving into the city centre of Manchester to try and get a parking Space and then often having to walk 20 mins to the clients address. She has had two of our cars damaged several times, been verbally abused and threatened for parking legally outside other residents properties.

* Up-To 2 hours a day travelling in her own car at her own cost.
* 4 hours work a day, often over run without pay
* Renumeration £9 an hour (the cleaner gets £10)
* Carrying out personal care (she cares for a paraplegic amputee)
* Carrying out duties outside of her contract

We don't need the money, she has always seen the job as a "Carer". When her client moved into the city centre, she never really wanted to carry on, but she has, for 8 years. She has seen other carers who she worked alongside come and go. Some never acutually came !. One crashed her car into the canal as she was drink driving, attacked the police when they arrived and was replaced by someone who managed just one week!.

My Wife asked me my advice as she was getting fed up of the aforementioned. I suggested that she requested some assistance with the parking issue, or hand her notice in, we don't need the money as I said. After taking into consideration we run a separate car for her to use for work and the costs associated with that.

So, £36 a day, for up to 6 hours, less travel costs. She asked for, get this.....

£1.80 a day

In order for her to be able to park, under the apartment block for her own personal safety and security.

EVEN OFFERING TO CONTRIBUTE 50% TOWARDS THE £1.80 a day

The client has refused to pay, stating it is too expensive.

The Clients family are multi-millionaires. They buy, refurbish and rent prestige properties to Premiership football players. Own several Luxury properties around the world. A small selection of The "Brothers" collection of cars cost more than several Morelo palaces. They Sport Several Rolex type designer watches, jewellery etc. Nice Drug habits to boot.

Now its not up to us to dictate, demand or even suggest what they spend their wealth on, BUT!

End result, I now have a full time Wife.

I would love to know your thoughts on this one please?.
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Well done to your wife, being constantly taken advantage of is wearing and from your description I think I know who the brothers are, they probably spend more on Coke in a day than they paid your wife in a week. Enjoy yourselves and have no regrets.
 
Northernraider said:
Unfortunately people these days admire the person with the money and look down on the person without ...

Sad
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My first real experience of snobbery was in the late 80s in a cigar shop in Los Angeles

I'd decided to buy my dad 5 cigars so we went in the shop which was a bit pricier than I'd anticipated :confused:

There was another customer in there , when he heard me talking to my wife he asked where we were from , England

Then his next question , what do you do , when I said I drive a truck he just turned away like I wasn't good enough to talk to anymore , instantly dismissed
 
Gromett said:
I am talking about the UK.
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What do you think I am talking about? The UK. only 25 carers out of 500 at wife's firm actually live in the uK & similar at many others as we have friends working in them .The rest fly in from where I said. You will struggle to find many UK resident live-in carers as it is 24/7 with only 2 hours per day break. apart from the south Africans & some of the aussie/kiwi's, most do 3 or 4 weeks on & the same period off.
 
Disgraceful. My window cleaner earns far more than that with just a ladder, a bucket and squeegee and without any deadlines, shifts, early mornings, welfare responsibilities or hassles. He even gets free water at the houses. No wonder he's always whistling.

Not wishing to trivialise your wife's commitment but she'd get more appreciation from her clients at an animal rescue centre.

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Spriddler said:
Not wishing to trivialise your wife's commitment but she'd get more appreciation from her clients at an animal rescue centre.
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Ain't that the truth , you only have to count the likes and read the comments on facebook/ tiktok when somebody posts a video of a dog being rescued, post a video of a carer helping someone back into bed after they've fallen on the floor and I doubt there'd be 20 likes
 
Thank you to all that have replied.

We really do appreciate it.

My wife has cared a lot over the last, 18 years I am informed, not 17 as originally posted. She has worked hard and cared people a lot over those years.

One particular incident comes to mind. Apart from the older palliative patients she has cared for. This one I will always share with her.

From him being 8 years old, she cared for a young disabled deaf and blind boy, call him C. His mother had lots of issues and besides caring for him, there was also an unpaid social worker to his troubled mother. Child C had to be hoisted and showered, personal care and prepared for bed.

One day, we met Patient C and his Mother whilst out shopping. My wife went over and greeted the boy in his adapted stroller / trolley. My wife greeted him by touch and his face lit up, along with a beaming smile. I asked my wife, ignorantly, that as he was deaf and blind how did he know it was her?. She replied that it was her touch that he knew her by.

Fast forward 10 years. We went on holiday for summer. On her return, she learned he (C) had been dropped from his sling whilst being showered by the covering care assistant. A simple accident that could have happened to anyone and suffered a broken leg. My wife was unable to visit him for several weeks. His condition deteriorated and sadly, the young died , then 18 years old passed away. My wife was devastated, her words were, "it was almost like losing my own child".

That is just one caring example
 
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My wife was a carer for many years, but as time went on it became all about the money, the final straw for her was she received a reprimand because she stayed with a lady, who had fallen and been on the floor all night, until the ambulance arrived. The boss said she should have left her on the floor after the ambulance had been called. It is almost impossible to work as a carer if you actually care now. After my wife left caring, she worked as a cleaner for more money. What hope is there?
 
Our daughter who is qualified enough to manage a care home has for a variety of reasons chosen to work in hands-on care, on minimum wage plus a few coppers. One of her main reasons is she loves being with and directly caring for the elderly.

Most of the companies she’s worked for treat their employees like chattels. But she’s put up with it. Her latest employer works mainly the Formby area, which is lots of big houses, Premier League footballers etc.

One of her clients is a big house couple who are supposed to receive care, but actually want cleaning, which costs more. Her employers don’t want to lose the contract, so this highly qualified, compassionate and caring girl does the cleaning.

It’s rubbish industry, run by lots of rubbish employers, with quite frankly from her experiences, lots of unqualified and uninterested employees. It’s a massive task to sort this out.

Thankfully she’s seen the light and starts a new job as a care home manager in September.

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Northernraider said:
Its sad that some of the hardest jobs are the poorest paid and they wonder why they cant fill the vacancies. All carers , nurses , cleaners etc are underpaid in my opinion. And all politicians , lawyers, footballers etc are often all overpayed.

Its like the world would die without bees

Business would stop without cleaners etc
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Beg to differ about all lawyers. The profession has been subject to the race to the bottom like most occupations. It is the norm for legal work to be done by low paid paralegals due to cut price competition e.g. for conveyancing. For every fat cat there must be dozens who are thin and just about managing. Pay rates for legal aid criminal defence have not been increased for over 20 years so many complain that they earn less than minimum wage when you count the long hours, and having to cover their expenses out of it.

You read about newly qualified City lawyers being paid over £100k. In reality they are a very small percentage and the ridiculous hours can cause burnout. Some are effectively working the equivalent of 2 or 3 full-time jobs and sacrificing all other life including holidays they will never get back. Most won't reach the top and will be left wondering what happened to their 20s and 30s and whether it was worth the sacrifices and stress. At least medics will never be short of a job in later life unlike burnt out middle aged lawyers in an overcrowded job market where most jobs are for eager newbies on much lower salaries.

My previous window cleaner was a former chartered accountant who had a nervous breakdown.

I do agree with your other points.
 
Me and my brother have just had the same conversation with our mum about working and is it worth it.

Dad is due to retire next year and mum needs to work a few more years, so we suggested that she go part time and reduce from five days to three days.

She was employed by the council till her sister got MND and she said she would like to look after her, she became to ill to quickly for mum to do this but during this time mum got stressed and quit her job looking after people with learning disabilities and old people in a council day centre

So she got a job with a charity that recruits people with learning disabilities to help collect recycling to then turn into horse bedding and other things.

We sat down had a long conversation and it turns out that she would only be worse off by £100 a month by reducing her working week to 3 days due to tax reasons and other things.

She's still pondering over it and I find it so frustrating that you could have a long weekend till retirement and enjoy life instead of doing back breaking work and some long days some times, just can't tell some people
 
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EuroTrotters said:
So,

After 17 years of caring, my wife has finally had enough. Fully qualified, experienced and, well "Caring".

Minimum wage, poor conditions and no benefits.

Getting up at 5:30 am, driving into the city centre of Manchester to try and get a parking Space and then often having to walk 20 mins to the clients address. She has had two of our cars damaged several times, been verbally abused and threatened for parking legally outside other residents properties.

* Up-To 2 hours a day travelling in her own car at her own cost.
* 4 hours work a day, often over run without pay
* Renumeration £9 an hour (the cleaner gets £10)
* Carrying out personal care (she cares for a paraplegic amputee)
* Carrying out duties outside of her contract

We don't need the money, she has always seen the job as a "Carer". When her client moved into the city centre, she never really wanted to carry on, but she has, for 8 years. She has seen other carers who she worked alongside come and go. Some never acutually came !. One crashed her car into the canal as she was drink driving, attacked the police when they arrived and was replaced by someone who managed just one week!.

My Wife asked me my advice as she was getting fed up of the aforementioned. I suggested that she requested some assistance with the parking issue, or hand her notice in, we don't need the money as I said. After taking into consideration we run a separate car for her to use for work and the costs associated with that.

So, £36 a day, for up to 6 hours, less travel costs. She asked for, get this.....

£1.80 a day

In order for her to be able to park, under the apartment block for her own personal safety and security.

EVEN OFFERING TO CONTRIBUTE 50% TOWARDS THE £1.80 a day

The client has refused to pay, stating it is too expensive.

The Clients family are multi-millionaires. They buy, refurbish and rent prestige properties to Premiership football players. Own several Luxury properties around the world. A small selection of The "Brothers" collection of cars cost more than several Morelo palaces. They Sport Several Rolex type designer watches, jewellery etc. Nice Drug habits to boot.

Now its not up to us to dictate, demand or even suggest what they spend their wealth on, BUT!

End result, I now have a full time Wife.

I would love to know your thoughts on this one please?.
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Sadly those with the most are the meanest. I would never have stayed so long being treated that way. The client should have offered the parking, full stop. I'm glad your wife has seen sense and left such a miserable client.
 
Sus3v said:
My daughter took a job as a min wage carer in a care-home “to see how far she could get” in the industry. She described a job which seemed to include almost nurse-type observation skills and very hard work with a short time to perform all the duties. 12 hour shifts and an expectation she will stay on if the next person is late on shift. No time to chat. She described it as heartbreaking - most people just want somebody to talk to for a while… anyway, she has Now swapped to a regular hours weekdays-only cleaning job at the same place for the same money - nonsense!
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Update - she has gone back to the caring role as she missed making time for and talking with the residents - made me smile - we created a nice person. 😊
 
Northernraider said:
A novel idea would be for bosses to make a little less profit and pay folk a decent wages.
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If Bill Gates had paid his staff more would he have the billions he now gives away?
Who would be the ultimate winners or losers

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The Wino said:
Maybe although I'm no ones boss anymore but having been one certainly affected my view. But if you raise wages for the lowest paid what happens to people who are on the higher wage now because they trained for more qualifications? Do they accept the people who couldn't be bothered now get the same as them?.
Supply and demand will lead to higher wages in some areas. Whether that results in increased standards of living depends on how that affects inflation. But I think the economic bottom line is if one group are better off another will be worse off be they high earners pensioners or whatever.
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Interesting to note that you think that people on low pay 'couldn't be bothered', ever thought that many don't have the intellectual capacity or physical ability to 'be bothered'
 
Langtoftlad said:
If Bill Gates had paid his staff more would he have the billions he now gives away?
Who would be the ultimate winners or losers
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So are you saying that people should work for low wages so someone rich can give some away to make themselves look good and everyone should be grateful.
 
matamoros said:
Interesting to note that you think that people on low pay 'couldn't be bothered', ever thought that many don't have the intellectual capacity or physical ability to 'be bothered'
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I'm sure there are some who cannot achieve more but why would anyone put a lot of effort in or seek promotion unless they're going to be earning more as a result. There will be some who just want to do better but why will anyone do a job with more responsibility if the wage differentials are erroded too much.
 
The Wino said:
I'm sure there are some who cannot achieve more but why would anyone put a lot of effort in or seek promotion unless they're going to be earning more as a result. There will be some who just want to do better but why will anyone do a job with more responsibility if the wage differentials are erroded too much.
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Not everyone takes a job to ‘seek promotion’ not everyone has money as their goal. I have worked for over 30 years in a profession where I and most colleagues could have earned double the money for half the workload and in far nicer safer conditions. We worked to help others get through more difficult lives and keep people safe

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The Wino said:
I'm sure there are some who cannot achieve more but why would anyone put a lot of effort in or seek promotion unless they're going to be earning more as a result. There will be some who just want to do better but why will anyone do a job with more responsibility if the wage differentials are erroded too much.
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"Too much" is the important phrase and works both ways.
 
I bet that there are a lot of low paid who are glad their wages are rising , what with higher national insurance to pay and council tax rises to pay for all the things that the government is making them pay for and do. The low paid would soon be skint. All these good ideas people have need to be paid for.
 
I thought I would give you an update on this.

Since my wife left, everything has gone downhill for her client/patient (not sure how else to term him).

She contacted another carer as she had not heard from him.

Eventually , he texted her back.

Short and tall of it is. He had 4 main carers, one of which was my wife. A second one left, then a third started taking the mick, leaving him in his chair and not turning up to put him to bed. He had to sack that third carer, leaving him with just the remaining one.

Clearly no good for a paraplegic amputee. In this time, he ended up with a pressure sore that nobody noticed. He has had them in the past and this is something my wife would have spotted.

This left him having to go back to his elderly mothers to live with her. He has been very unwell during all this as the wound became infected and collapsed needing emergency hospitalisation. He has lost all his body fat and is now suffering mentally.

Upshot of it is, are you ready ?……

He feels my wife is partly responsible.
 
matamoros said:
"Too much" is the important phrase and works both ways.
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I agree that the pay scales need to be reasonable in terms of the increases that extra responsibility and training brings. But we won't acheive a high skills economy by not encoraging people to become more qualified.

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EuroTrotters said:
I thought I would give you an update on this.

Since my wife left, everything has gone downhill for her client/patient (not sure how else to term him).

She contacted another carer as she had not heard from him.

Eventually , he texted her back.

Short and tall of it is. He had 4 main carers, one of which was my wife. A second one left, then a third started taking the mick, leaving him in his chair and not turning up to put him to bed. He had to sack that third carer, leaving him with just the remaining one.

Clearly no good for a paraplegic amputee. In this time, he ended up with a pressure sore that nobody noticed. He has had them in the past and this is something my wife would have spotted.

This left him having to go back to his elderly mothers to live with her. He has been very unwell during all this as the wound became infected and collapsed needing emergency hospitalisation. He has lost all his body fat and is now suffering mentally.

Upshot of it is, are you ready ?……

He feels my wife is partly responsible.
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Just re-read your first posting about the "Client", so not surprised that the "Client" wants to put blame on your wife. It's just part of how he is. Instead of being grateful for all she has done for him it's a resentment that he is no longer having the great care that she provided.
 
The caring agencies are thieving b*stards! The require the carers to sign a contract agreeing to earn LESS than minimum wage. Exploit\tion of the highest order.
 

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