Olivia Kelleher
A west Cork supermarket owner who is recruiting summer staff has been bombarded with applicants, after he posted a tongue-in-cheek advert warning he did not want to receive CVs from teenagers forced to apply by their parents.
Colm O’Sullivan of Sam’s Gala store in Dunmanway, Co Cork laid out exactly what he did not want from applicants.
The list of preferences is as follows, according to the ad:
"Daddies asking for a job for their son because he’s a big strapping lad, is a good footballer, feeds the neighbour’s goldfish when they’re on holidays and cuts the lawn every Saturday.
"Mammies asking for a job for their daughter and telling us she’s great around the house, emptied the dishwasher at Christmas, cleans her bedroom every Saturday and loves meeting new people yet is sitting in the car outside the door!
People who cannot work on Sunday because it’s their next door neighbour’s third cousin’s First Communion
"People coming in, handing in their CV over the counter and running out the door like Paddy Cullen running back in to the goal in 1978 to catch Mikey Sheehy’s free.
"People who cannot work on Sunday because it’s their next door neighbour’s third cousin’s First Communion.
"People asking for a 'job' instead of asking for work as the country is full of people with jobs who don’t do a tap of work."
'My mother doesn’t want me hanging around the house for the summer' or 'my Dad told me to call down' are not the correct answers
Mr O'Sullivan then went on to list what the shop did want:
"Teenagers who want to make the transition from pocket money to earning their own to come in to the shop unaccompanied by parents, ask to speak with Noreen or Colm and simply tell us why they want to work for the summer.
"Top Tip: 'My mother doesn’t want me hanging around the house for the summer' or 'my Dad told me to call down' are not the correct answers.”
Fantastic response
Mr O' Sullivan told Patricia Messinger on Cork's C103FM that the response to advert has been fantastic.
"People have taken it as it was meant to be — tongue-in-cheek with some seriousness in there," he said.
“I have teenagers myself and they took the decision at about 14 to distance themselves from myself and my wife because they think they are adults at that stage.
"I think young people should go and fend for themselves, go and look for a job and they appreciate it a lot [more] if they have to go out for the first time in their lives and go looking for work.
All we want is for them to come in and have a chat and tell us why they want to work
“They learn there is a lot more to getting a job like opening a bank account, paying PRSI and in the space of two weeks they have had a serious reality check.
“We are not going to do a rigorous interview process where they have to provide details of exams or tests, all we want is for them to come in and have a chat and tell us why they want to work.”
Mr O’Sullivan has devised a plan whereby he intends to provide the successful teens with up to 10 hours paid work a week in order to spread the earnings around among them.
He said: “I want to see the teens coming in on their own and leaving the parents outside. I hope at the end of this they will have CVs with work experience as part of that."
