(Firstly apologies for the length of this post, there is a lot of information to convey. So much in fact that I’m splitting the post up into two parts, the first detailing my interactions with John Sothern, the fictional Donna Phelps and Options4Families. The second will focus on the fallout of the incident)
There’s an old adage that states “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is” but desperation makes fools of us all.
This was certainly the case in the first days of this year when I applied for the role of Child Therapist on Universal Jobmatch. I’d recently made a resolution to ‘help more people’, so the prospect of aiding young children through difficult experiences appealed to me greatly. I knew it would be a difficult, emotionally draining job. However, my interest was piqued even further when I read the job specification which stated “training will be provided, at no cost to yourself.” In hindsight, this should have been my first warning sign, you can’t just become a therapist -especially one dealing with children- after a short course, however, as mentioned above, desperation had blinded me to the con. As I’m sure many long term unemployed people know, dual feelings of hope and dread take over when clicking that ‘apply’ button. Hope, that this may be ‘the one’ and dread that odds are you’ll never hear anything from this job ever again.
Then the next day I received an email.
It was from the company’s HR Manager, the -presumably- fictional Donna Phelps. She told me that I’d been considered for the job and I would receive details of an interview in the following days. Sure enough the next day I received another email from ‘Ms Phelps’ telling me I’d been booked for an interview at Manchester One on that Wednesday – the 8th January. It was at this point I checked out the site; http://www.options4families.co.uk/ (still available as of this blogs posting…though probably not for much longer.) Again, hindsight is a wonderful thing, it’s a very poorly put together site, especially if a company is trying to gain the trust of prospective clients. The sections on each different issue that a child may face -for example, smoking, drugs or sexual abuse- are slap-dash copy and paste jobs accompanied by an embedded Youtube video. But in my optimism, I missed all this.
The ‘interview’ took place on the 11th floor of Manchester One. Upon leaving the lift, I was met by Mr John Sothern -although it escapes me whether he actually introduced himself as this. He took me to a tiny room that barely qualified as a cupboard, let alone a suitable interview environment.
Image of Sothern, taken from the Burnley Express’s now deleted article on his ‘Serial Checker’ App
Straight off the bat, Sothern asked me if I had children, I joked that I was too young and poor. He nodded, sagely and told me of how he’d once been a therapist for children who had suffered sexual and physical abuse. However he’d transferred to the recruitment side of the company after “[he] found it hard to look [his] kids in the eye at night after hearing all these horrible things people could do to children.” Sothern lied about helping physically and sexually abused children, then brought his own children into the lie – all to sell the scam.
Throughout the interview, Sothern was friendly and charming, disarmingly so. It was very easy to imagine yourself chatting to him at a bar, rather than in a stuffy room full of chairs and Styrofoam cups. His next choice of topic was the pay, this was something I genuinely didn’t know about, as I’d apparently missed it on the job specification, starting pay would be 18.5K. I think my jaw actually hit the floor – no doubt his intended reaction. I was told of how initially, as well as receiving this magical training course that would make me a qualified counselor/therapist in less than a year, I’d also be shadowing another therapist. Sothern then informed me that this was a very difficult part of the induction process, and just recently two girls had left a session pale faced never to return. Of course, this was all lies. He buttered me up with talk of another fictional woman, Alison, who traveled the country offering her services at 50p per mile and was going home with a comfy 54k a year.
No doubt you’re forming the opinion that I’m somewhat naive, or stupid, however, for the last year I’ve been living off £53 per week, even national minimum wage seems like a luxury to me, never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d score an entry level position at 18.5k. I’m fairly certain this is true of all the jobseekers that Sothern targeted. The interview came to an end, during the customary ‘any questions?’ finisher, I asked Sothern two key questions. Where would the job take place? And how did he think I’d done?
He informed me, without hesitation, that the job would be on this very floor in Manchester One. A quick Google of this floor of the sought after address tells you that this portion of the building is owned by no business, it can however be rented out for a period of time – which is what Sothern had done for the two days he was conducted interviews. Of course, there were no signs of any business taking place on that floor, especially not counseling or therapy. It was a very bland, tight series of corridors.
In answer to my second question, Sothern gave me a knowing smile -which I mistook for friendliness- and he told me “If it was up to [him], [I’d] definitely have it. However [he’d] have to send [his] findings to Donna Phelps…and she’d get in touch with [me] by eight o’clock tonight.” Another knowing smile and Sothern added “but if [he] were me, [he’d] expect an email tonight.”
On my way out of the room, Sothern complained that he’d be interviewing all day, and couldn’t wait to get back home. I offered my sympathies and wished him a quick day. He then went onto tell me that he’d only been ‘given’ a half an hour dinner break, which meant he’d only had time for one pint, which was now “running straight through [him].” This did strike me as odd, I’ve been to many interviews, and not once has an interviewer referred to bodily functions before. However, I was too caught up in the moment to care.
Below is an image of the email I received the next morning from ‘Donna Phelps’;
Needless to say, I immediately emailed ‘Donna’ copies of everything ‘she’ wanted, as well as paying the requested £65.60, because if you dangle a job in front of the long term unemployed they’ll bite your fingers off. It wasn’t until a few days later, when I came down from the ‘I’m finally employed’ high, I came to the slow creeping realisation I’d been had. Unfortunately -yet also thankfully- I wasn’t alone…
Part Two Coming Soon
Job Centre Blues 