Cynthia Maxwell

In 2003 I did a 7-week work placement in the Housing Personnel department of Croydon Council at Taberner House in Croydon. The head of the department was Cynthia Maxwell and she told me what she thought about me. Now it is my turn to say what I think about her.

She is a hypocrite, in three different ways.

1. She pretends that she is assertive, when in fact she is aggressive. She criticised a temp called Donna for not knowing something that she had not been taught. When she criticised me she was angry with me and I realise now that she was trying to make me angry with her to try and create an argument. I was not aggressive to her so I don't know why she thought she had the right to be aggressive to me. She is judgemental about people who have only made a mistake. Her responses are out of all proportion and vindictive. Her behaviour is inappropriate, offensive and unacceptable. People like her are full of hate.
2. She pretends to be politically-correct when her department is institutionally sexist. There were about 50 people working in her department and after I left there were no men working there. If there had been a department in Taberner House that only employed white people, she is the sort of person who would be the first to criticise and complain about institutional racism. Yet she is guilty of something just as bad. I don't think I need to take lessons in political correctness from her.
3. She pretends that she always does the right thing. Yet when she was asked to provide a reference for me she couldn't be bothered. She is self-serving. The whole point of a work-placement is that it should make it more likely for long-term unemployed people like me to find work. If an employer can't be bothered to write a reference then it is a waste of my time and a waste of tax payers' money. I could make a complaint about her to the organisation that arranged the work-placement, but I know that these organisations are businesses who aren't really interested in trying to do the best for people like me.

People like to blame the long-term unemployed and say that they are to blame for their situation. But one reason why some people are unemployed for longer than others is that a former employer does not write a reference. This happens a lot. It could happen to you. As an unemployed person I am constantly checked up on, and yet no one checks up on the employers. The class system says that poor people are untrustworthy and wealthy people are held up as shining examples of how people should be. My experience is that poorer people are less aggressive and more pleasant.

Employers should be checked up on by the organisations that arrange work-placements. Offending employers should be blacklisted and not allowed to have people come to them on work-experience. The blacklist should be circulated among all of these organisations. If they are not willing to do this, they are wasting the time of people like me (and their own time), and taxpayers' money.