Text 5. What working conditions should you take into account while hunting a job and why?

Nowadays a very common seventeenth birthday present is a course of driving lessons. Although 40 years ago it was unusual for anyone who wasn’t very well off (and normally middle aged!) to have a car, today a ‘set of wheels’ is of great importance to almost everyone over seventeen. Not only is it important for social reasons, it canals have a big effect on your job opportunities. If you live in a city you should have access to a number of jobs which might all be within your reach by means of public transport (although you might not like the thought of travelling on a crowded tube during rush hour). If you live in a small town or in the country your job opportunities might be limited by the transport available to you, although your quality of life might be better. If you have your own car job opportunities may improve although you still have to take into account the cost of the petrol, depreciation and maintenance of the vehicle.

Many Training Enterprise Councils (TECs) and colleges now take into account the ‘travel to work’ area when setting up new training provision, as people who are unemployed cannot be expected to travel great distances to undertake a course of study. One alternative is for them to arrange for classes to be held at out-centres away from the main campus.

One reason why colleges may set up out-centres is because people cannot afford the time to travel far. Mothers with young children, for example, often have to take them to school and collect them. Therefore they need to be working – or studying – close to home.

Time may influence your choice of transport. Rather than spend hours in a traffic jam you may prefer to travel by public transport and go from one city centre to another relatively quickly by train. Until, of course, there is a breakdown or a strike!

Your domestic commitments are likely to influence the time you are prepared to allow for travelling. An hour travelling to and from work every day adds up to ten extra hours in a week. You may think that it is worth this, however, if you have a super job with great prospects.

The cost of travel must be considered in relation to your proposed salary. If you had a job at home which paid $8000 a year (within walking distance or a short bus journey) or one which paid $10 000 but was 30 kilometres away you should consider your options carefully. If transport links are good and relatively cheap – and prospect excellent – you may decide to take the more distant job. If the expenditure on travel would be more than the difference in take-home pay and prospects were dubious you may decide nit to bother.

The term working conditions is sometimes used to describe physical conditions. Different places of employment have really different physical conditions. There is a vast difference between the physical conditions experienced by a bank clerk and a farmer.

However the term also refers to the description of the particular benefits of certain jobs, e.g. rates of pay, hours, holydays, eligibility to sick pay, pension schemes and redundancy pay.