This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/10/rbs-university-recruiting-bad-taste
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Fight poverty with RBS? Not on your Nelly | Fight poverty with RBS? Not on your Nelly |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| Ping! An email arrives from a young student friend of mine who, for reasons of anonymity, I'll call Derek. "I've got an interview on Monday. Any advice? What should I say?" Attached was an invitation for exactly the kind of progressive, socially aware, community-minded employer that any young person would be proud to work for. | Ping! An email arrives from a young student friend of mine who, for reasons of anonymity, I'll call Derek. "I've got an interview on Monday. Any advice? What should I say?" Attached was an invitation for exactly the kind of progressive, socially aware, community-minded employer that any young person would be proud to work for. |
| "We are looking for people who are open-minded, motivated to help others and are keen to develop those all-important employability skills," it said. Attendees at the informal interview would have the chance to win a trip to Mumbai, where a promotional video explains they'll also "get to experience the dark side of this bustling behemoth where great swaths of people live below the poverty line… you'll be working with our charitable partners to help some of these less fortunate young people." | "We are looking for people who are open-minded, motivated to help others and are keen to develop those all-important employability skills," it said. Attendees at the informal interview would have the chance to win a trip to Mumbai, where a promotional video explains they'll also "get to experience the dark side of this bustling behemoth where great swaths of people live below the poverty line… you'll be working with our charitable partners to help some of these less fortunate young people." |
| Which employer, you're thinking: Oxfam? Save the Children? Maybe one of the more ethical big companies, the John Lewis Partnership? The Co-op? Or is it the bank, which last week was fined £390m for rigging the Libor exchange rates and is facing possible criminal charges? Whose traders boasted they could make the rate go up and down "like a whore's drawers"? And whose CEO, Stephen Hester, has yet shown no sign of giving up £2m of his bonus even though it was awarded during the period when rates were being rigged? | Which employer, you're thinking: Oxfam? Save the Children? Maybe one of the more ethical big companies, the John Lewis Partnership? The Co-op? Or is it the bank, which last week was fined £390m for rigging the Libor exchange rates and is facing possible criminal charges? Whose traders boasted they could make the rate go up and down "like a whore's drawers"? And whose CEO, Stephen Hester, has yet shown no sign of giving up £2m of his bonus even though it was awarded during the period when rates were being rigged? |
| Correct. The answer, of course, is RBS, 84% of which is now owned by the taxpayer after we bailed them out to the tune of £45bn. | Correct. The answer, of course, is RBS, 84% of which is now owned by the taxpayer after we bailed them out to the tune of £45bn. |
| But back to those poor Indian children in the dark side of the bustling behemoth and how RBS is using them as part of its promotional campaign to recruit graduates. It's nice, isn't it, that the poverty-stricken get to play a role in RBS's global HR strategy. There's nothing like acting as a piece of corporate honey bait to lift the spirits and fill the stomach. | But back to those poor Indian children in the dark side of the bustling behemoth and how RBS is using them as part of its promotional campaign to recruit graduates. It's nice, isn't it, that the poverty-stricken get to play a role in RBS's global HR strategy. There's nothing like acting as a piece of corporate honey bait to lift the spirits and fill the stomach. |
| But then that's RBS all over. "Being a truly successful organisation is about more than just numbers," the graduate recruitment section of its website points out. "It's also about understanding how as a business we can best use our resources to contribute to our local communities." | But then that's RBS all over. "Being a truly successful organisation is about more than just numbers," the graduate recruitment section of its website points out. "It's also about understanding how as a business we can best use our resources to contribute to our local communities." |
| To underline what a fabulous company it is to work for, it is, this month, carting a life-sized fake elephant to university campuses all around the country. It's called Nelly (honest) and it seems to have no obvious purpose. Other, of course, than to make you think, what's that bloody great elephant in the room? And has RBS's PR department just given up and gone home? | To underline what a fabulous company it is to work for, it is, this month, carting a life-sized fake elephant to university campuses all around the country. It's called Nelly (honest) and it seems to have no obvious purpose. Other, of course, than to make you think, what's that bloody great elephant in the room? And has RBS's PR department just given up and gone home? |
| But the elephant in the room is this: is it OK to dress yourself up in this way to young people? We now know that RBS was at the very least spectacularly incompetent, taking a catastrophic gamble in buying ABN Amro. | But the elephant in the room is this: is it OK to dress yourself up in this way to young people? We now know that RBS was at the very least spectacularly incompetent, taking a catastrophic gamble in buying ABN Amro. |
| Of course, thousands of decent people work for RBS, but the behaviour of those at the top – Hester and, previously, Fred Goodwin – sends out the clear message that rapacious self-interest is what you require to get on. RBS should be carting a great tub of money around the country and showing students videos of the dark side of the bustling behemoth of Glasgow. Of young disabled people whose benefits have been stopped. Or the 55-year-old whose job with the council got axed and is unlikely to get another. People whose lives have been blighted for ever by Osborne's hapless and ineffective austerity cuts designed to fill the financial gap made by bailing out RBS and co. | Of course, thousands of decent people work for RBS, but the behaviour of those at the top – Hester and, previously, Fred Goodwin – sends out the clear message that rapacious self-interest is what you require to get on. RBS should be carting a great tub of money around the country and showing students videos of the dark side of the bustling behemoth of Glasgow. Of young disabled people whose benefits have been stopped. Or the 55-year-old whose job with the council got axed and is unlikely to get another. People whose lives have been blighted for ever by Osborne's hapless and ineffective austerity cuts designed to fill the financial gap made by bailing out RBS and co. |
| You don't have to go to India to look for the dark side. It's right here in Britain too – including at RBS, where the failure of leadership and lack of any moral direction just go on and on. Even Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's favourite chancellor, said recently that it's a disaster and he believes it should be nationalised. | You don't have to go to India to look for the dark side. It's right here in Britain too – including at RBS, where the failure of leadership and lack of any moral direction just go on and on. Even Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's favourite chancellor, said recently that it's a disaster and he believes it should be nationalised. |
| So, what should Derek say? Because I really have no idea. | So, what should Derek say? Because I really have no idea. |
| The Saga story about ancient trolls may be a fairy tale | The Saga story about ancient trolls may be a fairy tale |
| Forget teenagers with their cyber-bullying and their slut-shaming. It turns out it's the old folk you should really look out for online. Or so Saga claimed last week when it announced that it was closing down the Saga Zone, its social network site for the over-50s, because of "controversial and offensive content". | Forget teenagers with their cyber-bullying and their slut-shaming. It turns out it's the old folk you should really look out for online. Or so Saga claimed last week when it announced that it was closing down the Saga Zone, its social network site for the over-50s, because of "controversial and offensive content". |
| "We have had problems with offensive messages posted on the Saga Zone and issues with the timely moderation of the site and so today we decided to shut the site," said a spokesman. | "We have had problems with offensive messages posted on the Saga Zone and issues with the timely moderation of the site and so today we decided to shut the site," said a spokesman. |
| Now, while it's heartening to learn that the older generation can be every bit as badly behaved as the younger one, which gives one hope that one's golden years don't have to be spent in a haze of Heinz Cream of Chicken soup and Take a Break (though I certainly intend to spend them this way), it's hard not to smell something of a rat here. The spokesman continued: "We even discovered what I believe are called trolls with multiple online personalities." | Now, while it's heartening to learn that the older generation can be every bit as badly behaved as the younger one, which gives one hope that one's golden years don't have to be spent in a haze of Heinz Cream of Chicken soup and Take a Break (though I certainly intend to spend them this way), it's hard not to smell something of a rat here. The spokesman continued: "We even discovered what I believe are called trolls with multiple online personalities." |
| Trolls! On an internet forum! Whoever would believe it. What's more, "there were some particularly vicious exchanges recently about the Middle East". Well, yes. You see, there's this country called Israel and then there's this thing called the internet and that's what happens when you put them together. Has there ever been a discussion about the Middle East anywhere ever that didn't involve a number of "vicious exchanges"? | Trolls! On an internet forum! Whoever would believe it. What's more, "there were some particularly vicious exchanges recently about the Middle East". Well, yes. You see, there's this country called Israel and then there's this thing called the internet and that's what happens when you put them together. Has there ever been a discussion about the Middle East anywhere ever that didn't involve a number of "vicious exchanges"? |
| The charitable explanation to this is that Saga, a company valued at £3bn, with a portfolio that includes travel, insurance and personal finance, was just a bit naive about what this internet thingy involved. Or then there's the fact that its private equity owner, Charterhouse, is £4.1bn in debt and is looking to shut down unprofitable parts of the business and sell off the rest. | The charitable explanation to this is that Saga, a company valued at £3bn, with a portfolio that includes travel, insurance and personal finance, was just a bit naive about what this internet thingy involved. Or then there's the fact that its private equity owner, Charterhouse, is £4.1bn in debt and is looking to shut down unprofitable parts of the business and sell off the rest. |
| Or, you know, you can blame it on the old folks. | Or, you know, you can blame it on the old folks. |
| Don't shed too many tears for Jemima Khan | Don't shed too many tears for Jemima Khan |
| And so it ends, not with a bang but with a celebrity denunciation. Holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy with only a sunbed for company, Julian Assange suffered the ultimate humiliation when Jemima Khan, by far the most glamorous of his celebrity supporters, publicly dumped him across multiple pages of the New Statesmancorrect. | And so it ends, not with a bang but with a celebrity denunciation. Holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy with only a sunbed for company, Julian Assange suffered the ultimate humiliation when Jemima Khan, by far the most glamorous of his celebrity supporters, publicly dumped him across multiple pages of the New Statesmancorrect. |
| Poor Assange. Or the "Australian L Ron Hubbard", as Khan described him. Ouch! It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for him (note the word "almost"). But that's the fickle world of celebrity endorsements for you. | Poor Assange. Or the "Australian L Ron Hubbard", as Khan described him. Ouch! It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for him (note the word "almost"). But that's the fickle world of celebrity endorsements for you. |
| From the moment Khan turned up on the steps of Westminster magistrates court, and WikiLeaks lost its status as a radical new global power broker, one knew that no good would come of it. Because celebrity bandwagons come and then they go again. | From the moment Khan turned up on the steps of Westminster magistrates court, and WikiLeaks lost its status as a radical new global power broker, one knew that no good would come of it. Because celebrity bandwagons come and then they go again. |
| Peta, the animal cruelty charity, was quite excited when Naomi Campbell appeared in its ad saying she'd rather go naked than wear fur. Until, you know, she started wearing fur. In this instance, the dumb animal is Assange. | Peta, the animal cruelty charity, was quite excited when Naomi Campbell appeared in its ad saying she'd rather go naked than wear fur. Until, you know, she started wearing fur. In this instance, the dumb animal is Assange. |
| Khan has said she doesn't regret losing her bail money but then she's done not so badly out of it. She was routinely described as a "socialite heiress" when she turned up on the steps of the court. She's now a freedom-fighting "associate editor" of the New Statesman. Not bad for the reported £20,000 bail money she put up. Less than it would cost to be an unpaid journalistic intern for a year. And she probably didn't even have to make the coffee. | Khan has said she doesn't regret losing her bail money but then she's done not so badly out of it. She was routinely described as a "socialite heiress" when she turned up on the steps of the court. She's now a freedom-fighting "associate editor" of the New Statesman. Not bad for the reported £20,000 bail money she put up. Less than it would cost to be an unpaid journalistic intern for a year. And she probably didn't even have to make the coffee. |