The definition of employment I am applying in this chapter is any work-related activity requested on behalf of an organisation. For example, I am including paid employment – Woolworths PLC and Sainsbury’s PLC. I also include unpaid employment – Macmillan Cancer Support, support worker, People Powered Health and Wellbeing reference group member and board, Scottish Government community eye care review, and the Scottish Government Human Rights lived experience board.
I commenced employment at seventeen while still attending Whitehill Secondary School. I have a confession: I initially worked for Big W – a retail chain owned by King Fisher Group. Multiple years after King-Fisher was liquidated, I wrote a paper on how dysfunctional King-Fisher’s board was. The paper was written for ‘Ethics, Governance, and Responsible Leadership – a module required for my MSc. Knowing in 2024 what I know about the King Fisher board, my only surprise is that my employment lasted nine years, not nine days.
For readers unaware, Big W retail stores were the idea that customers could purchase products ranging from pick-n-mix to alcohol and from DVDs/ CDs to 40-inch LCD TVs. As a concept, Big W was an exciting idea. In the early 2000s, before video on demand – Amazon Prime, Netflix, and others- the idea of purchasing your weekend movie entertainment, alcoholic beverages, and perhaps even an LCD TV, even today, sounded convenient. The business idea for Big W, even today, sounds viable. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Walmart-Asda still apply framework variations in 2024. Big W’s problem was not that it was ahead of its time. Big W’s problem was that no one had ever completed a risk assessment. Or perhaps the risk assessment completed by Big W’s board put profit before people and the planet. In this case, liquidation should have been foreseen.
The locality of the Big W store I had paid employment in was Glasgow Forge Retail Park. Glasgow Forge Retail Park and my birth area of Haghill have something in common. They both have public and private transport access routes. However, more worrying, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, Camlachie – an area of Glasgow in Scotland located in the East End of the city, between Dennistoun to the north and Bridgeton to the south – and Haghill are deprived of health, education, employment, and housing. Readers should not be surprised that Multiple Deprivation equals high crime. Here is why I believe no risk assessment was ever completed- the geographical size of Big W was too large, and the security personnel too slim to prevent mass shrinkage. For unaware readers, shrinkage is the loss of units/products via shoplifting internally or by the general public. The second reason I believe there was never a risk assessment completed was that most employees – at least weekends and evenings were directly hired from Whitehill and Bannerman High Schools. The UK army cannot recruit in Schools. Why could the Kingfisher Group? Even the recruitment process sounds unethical. My point, however, is this. School, college, and university students are not the correct employees to prevent mass shrinkage. Even a UK army regiment could not have prevented shrinkage in Big W.
The collapse of Big W and, eventually, Woolworths was, in hindsight, foreseen. From an egotistical – selfish viewpoint, I am glad the store remained operating until I completed my BSc in Multimedia. This chapter is titled employment: paid and unpaid. Therefore, the remainder of the chapter focuses on how employment affects my professional identity. Professional identity, or the lack of one, affects my well-being. If the reader thinks about it, I am sure it is the same for every reader. However, before getting to professional identity, I have to say something about personal identity. After completing my BSc in multimedia, two colleagues from Woolworths asked if I could help promote their band promotion company, GnG Promotions.
GnG Promotion was shorthand for Grant and Garry Promotions – much thought went into the name. Garry dropped from the promotion early on. Grant and I did go on to promote some successful nights in the Soundhaus, 13th Note, and Classic Grand in Glasgow. As part of GnG promotions, I worked alongside bands such as the Black Arrows, The Toi, and Day Break, to name a few. A memorable time was had thanks to Woolworths. Thank you for that. The good times did roll in those short three years. I want to thank all the bands and venues I had the opportunity to work with. Band promoting for me was a hobby – an expensive one at that. My personal identity and social capital were increased due to it. However, I never saw it as anything more. Therefore, I could let it go without any loss of well-being.
I was employed with Big W – Woolworths between 28 September 2000 and 9 Jan 2009. I received the equivalent of a year’s wages when Woolworths closed. Therefore, I was happy to be sent from position to position by the job centre-plus, as I was using my existing skills and learning new skills.
Subjectively, the UK HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has its priorities discombobulated. Twelve months after no paid employment, I had two unpaid employments, one with Macmillan Cancer Support and another as an administrative assistant at Cross-Reach. Despite my economic contributions – travelling and saving Cross-Reach capital, I worked for free. Remploy, in 2010, partnered with Job Centre Plus, took the decision that I was required to contribute to the gross domestic product by paying taxes. Objectively, I understand – what gets measured gets done. Despite having a BSc in multimedia and working as an events coordinator for three years. Paid employment with Sainsbury’s loomed. In 2010, I had no intention of remaining in paid employment with Sainsbury’s longer than necessary. Somehow, the necessity has developed into thirteen years.
I have the same employment in 2024 as in 2000—twenty-four years serving the public, replenishing shelves, and operating hot food counters. The repetitiveness itself lowers well-being.
Removing myself from the shackles of the repetitiveness after four years, without a doubt, prevented a mental breakdown. In 2014, returning to higher education to study politics, philosophy, and economics was my best move and simultaneously the worst. As the reader knows, I received my BA (Hons) PPE in 2019. My lack of personal and professional identity has nothing and everything to do with that degree. All be it, indirectly.
What has transpired between 2014 and 2024 has my well-being swinging on a pendulum. 2014, I joined The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (The Alliance). Knowing that I required lived experience – work experience and academic experience – to find paid work after completing my BA (Hons) membership at The Alliance was the logical choice. Membership of The Alliance as someone with long-term conditions costs me nothing but opportunity cost – time. Could my time have been better spent? Today, would my well-being be greater without The Alliance membership?
If you work hard, you will become successful, and once you become successful, you’ll be happy – Says Shawn Achor in The Happiness Advantage. I have worked hard for ten years but have not felt successful. I feel unpropitious. Unpropitious or perhaps Inauspicious: I believe society prevents my happiness/well-being by refusing to accept the system change required for a well-being/ circular economy. The social norms of society are not designed with childhood medulloblastoma survivors with a BA (Hons) and MSc in mind.
Childhood medulloblastoma survivors with a BA (Hons) and MSc are not supposed to have an interest in social policy. Challenging the top-down approach to governance is forbidding. Ironically, without membership in The Alliance, I wouldn’t feel so strongly that a system change is required.
I interviewed numerous Alliance staff members for my MSc dissertation. A staff member who now works for the Scottish Government told me The Alliance’s remit is to strengthen the Scottish Government’s social policy, not contest the social policy. What is ironic is that by default, The Alliance is part of the system of governance, and The Alliance staff are civil servants by proxy.
My first unpaid role with The Alliance was on the People Power Health and Well-being reference group. The Alliance set up the reference group. However, the reference group was funded directly by the Scottish Government. The remit of the reference group was to advise on the framework for the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014. My role as a person with lived experience or a person with long-term conditions was to attend meetings and provide professionals with insight into the daily lives of someone with lived experience.
As part of The People Powered Health and Well-being reference group, I did my first non-academic research, asking: Does engagement and inclusion promote well-being and recovery, and if so, how? The rousing thing was that that research was not part of the original plan. The original plan was for professionals to observe the reference group members and produce a subjective qualitative report. I could not be prouder that The People Powered Health and Well-being reference group members rejected that idea outright.
People with long-term conditions can do research, too. The reference group showed it. Now, society needs to acknowledge it.
Thank you to Lisa Curtice, the project lead on the People Power Health and Well-being project. I am not sure that without Lisa’s contacts at Strathclyde University, I would have had the opportunity to complete my first non-academic research. Readers can still watch the People Power Health and Well-being project’s Vimeo videos. Vimeo.com/pphw.
Interestingly, while I was in the process of being guided in research methodology by Dr Ailsa Stewart, a lecturer in social work and social policy at Strathclyde University, my Open University tutor worked in the same department. I cannot remember the name of the tutor I had for ‘Introducing the Social Sciences’. I cross-referenced Dr Ailsa Stewart’s published papers to see if I recognised any co-authors. The name of the tutor still evades me. However, I recognised one name. Gillian Macintyre – Gillian also added to guide my knowledge of research methodology. It is fitting Gillian also receives a mention.
I only mention my Open University tutor because, by the time I was given the opportunity to collaborate with the Scottish Government again, I was either studying DD203 Power, Dissent, and Equality or A222 Exploring Philosophy. The project I had the opportunity to be part of was the Scottish Government’s community eye care review. I have a mention in the Annex A of the community eye service review report. To date, that mention is my claim to fame.
As for my role, my fellow stakeholders and I met monthly to discuss current services and hear from various partners on potential developments in the community eye care services.
In 2017, my well-being was at a high point. I studied topics I enjoyed and collaborated with fellow stakeholders on social policy. However, I have not replicated the feelings of personal and professional identity that I had in 2017. I was a PPE student working in collaboration with fellow stakeholders. A career in research and policy is still my preferred area of employment today. Given that my job in 2024 is so divergent from my personal and professional life in 2017, my well-being is low.
My final Open University module was DD313, International Relations: Continuity and Change in Global Politics. The module is not so important; what is essential is the date—2019. I did not mention my four weeks volunteering with Global Vision International in Cape Town, South Africa when I commenced this chapter. South Africa was a personal development, not a professional development. Also, I don’t see my time in Cape Town as unpaid employment in the same way as I view the People Powered Health and Well-being reference group or the community eye care review. My time in Cape Town shaped me and profoundly affected my vision, values, and principles; more on that in the next chapter – Social Enterprises: A-LEAF.
To finish this chapter, I must finish at a low point. As of March 2024, my well-being is low; I am frustrated and annoyed that I spent a year between 2022 and 2023 doing unpaid work on the Scottish Government’s Human Rights lived experience board. My well-being is at the time of writing low because I don’t have the professional identity I had in 2017. The launch of the social enterprise – A-LEAF and a grounded understanding of Human Rights issues in Scotland was intended to recreate the subjective well-being that my perceived personal and professional identity provided me in 2017.
2014, I gave up my full-time position with Sainsbury’s because my well-being was low. I needed something more than a job in retail. Everything I did between 2014 and 2024 was designed to improve myself and the community. The outcome was not what I envisioned. Despite my frustration and annoyance, I don’t regret the past ten years. However, I am low on hope for a better tomorrow for myself and the wider community.
David M Howie 