I was stopped in Manchester today by one of those supremely bubbly charity workers.
You must know the ones I’m talking about; young, early-twenties, just left uni, unable to find a propper job and in need of some cash.
They’re generally upbeat, incredibly smiley, most of them wear their hair in dreads and there’s a good chance that at least half of them list Arctic Monkeys as their favourite band.
They hang around in town all day being super friendly, wearing their little bibs and carrying their little noticeboards, and getting told to go away by the umpteenth person of the day before they spot some muggins like me, who agrees to give them a minute of their time since I find it nigh on impossible to be impolite to people who’ve yet to give me reason to.
Now before we go any further, let me just point out that this isn’t a rant against those people. After all, they’re just trying to do their jobs, and as long as I keep my wits about me enough not to agree to give them anything, I can’t find anything at all wrong in somebody wanting to do a job and earn some pennies.
What I do however have a huuuuuge problem with is the fact that charities actually pay these people in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong, like I say, people gotta earn a living, and I’ve no problem with that, but I just can not understand how you can justify sending a person out to hassle me on the street for £12 per year when said person is probably making more than that per hour.
How the hell does it work? Let’s say they send out five people per day to work the streets of Manchester and those people get paid £5 an hour, working for 5 hours per day. I’m not too good with numbers, but that’s what, £125 per day?
Those five people have to convince at least ten people between them before the company even comes close to breaking even, and judging by the lack of succsess you normaly observe these charity workers enjoying, or not enjoying as the case maybe, you have to wonder if they even manage to do that.
I don’t begrudge giving to charity in many ways; at least half the books on my bookshelf (and if you’ve ever been round, you know that’s a lot of books!) were bought from charity shops and I’m all for dropping my spare change in the odd collection bucket, but I am vehemently against giving money simply to pay peoples wages.
Is it just me, or does it not absolutly buggar belief that this happens?
I’ve expressed such concerns with She Who Must Be Obeyed in the past, and I’m pretty sure I remember her telling me that she once applied for one of these jobs and was told that, when these little teams of street campaigners are off wondering the country, the charities even PUT THEM UP IN A HOUSE IN THE AREA THEY’RE WORKING IN!!!
Bloody hell, you’re not only paying their wages, you’re paying their bloody rent as well!!
Surely if charities can afford to pay for all this, they don’t need my twelve quid to help them out?
