MCCOOLTOTALK

When did this become normal and acceptable? Someone please help me out. So as well as all the open profiling of our gender, ethnic background, age, sex, religion and possibly being blatant discriminated for jobs (using AI) as a result, now, major organisations, including our own football governing body, the maker of the rules, the best in class promoter of equality and wellbeing, want to know what my dad did for a job? why? why is it relevant? so my class of upbringing is now being judged? I lived in a council house, so what? My dad was unskilled hard grafter who escaped conflict and came here to work, build roads and paint & decorate houses. My mum was a grafting cleaner and buffed floors. So what? What has that got to do with you in recruitment and HR? What data are you obtaining and what's it for? What about those who have violent, drug addict, criminals as parents, so what? That is no reflection on the child. Equally if your mum and dad are professors, own a country estate ...

I won’t lie, it was tough. I can’t say that it was every rejection, more being ignored because the vast majority don’t even reply. But every failed job application was like another chip at me with an axe. My confidence hit an all time low. I lost all self esteem and worth. I questioned everything that had happened over the last 6 or 7 years. I questioned what I stood for. I became frustrated, I questioned the relationships I had built. I thought I had a lot of friends and family, but my phone stopped ringing. I was deserted. Let’s go back It was now 7 years ago that our lives got turned upside down. My wife had collapsed and rushed to hospital. She survived but this chronic disease took over her life and at one stage she was offered palliative care. Thanks to two of the best humans I’ve ever met and their teams in London, she survived albeit with life changing implications and ongoing care. Since then, she has had 23 operations/interventions along with CPR that have kept her in this ga...

  So, as we close off the working week of Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, I'm going to put it out there. Whilst' s it's great to raise awareness and genuinely look out for people, I question a lot of the people and organisations jumping on this for positive PR and marketing. Not all, some, before you all get defensive. If you mean it, and actually action it for no publicity, then good on you. But many sadly, don't have that motivation. It feels very fake to me. Certainly some that I have worked with, or for, or that I know of. Lets be real, they don't really mean it, do they? They don't care, and actually, I'm OK with that concept. Just stop pretending. They are trying to establish their business as the benchmark of 'caring'. Let's cut the crap, some of the same organisations are making waves of redundancies having treated people appallingly and silencing them with NDA's. Small short term pay offs that abuse peoples desperation and person...