Yes it’s that time of year again, the time when people who work in recruitment for retail start to go a little greyer and wish they had become an accountant/solicitor/dentist/teacher, writes Charlie Cashdan.

Our clients need us to find lots of extra Christmas staff for them and we place ads, book rooms for recruitment days, organise interviews then hang our heads in dismay when no one turns up.

On the occasions when people do actually arrive for the interview, you get all excited and book them in for work only to receive the inevitable phone call – ‘I can’t work now because I’m ill/family problems/they will stop my benefits/my boyfriend has dumped me/I’m going on holiday.’

We were so desperate for staff at one of our regional offices that we actually stood outside the local job centre stopping people on their way in and offering them an interview.

Not one of them turned up for said interview.  Or called.  Not one.

I know there are exceptions and I must admit that we have found some absolute stars this year who were a pleasure to hire, but the unreliability we encounter at Christmas is absolutely shocking.

Loads of people do call our office in the West Mids looking for work in all fairness, but getting them to turn up for an interview is a challenge.  Regularly people try to change the time or even the day to one which suits them better.  And not in an apologetic sort of way, but in a you-must-work-around-me sort of way.

If I had agreed to attend a job interview I would move heaven and earth to be there.  That attitude was the norm once but now I feel old fashioned even writing it down.

And before you all write in and complain, yes I know there are lots of genuine jobseekers out there who don’t behave like this and are desperate to work.

These people shouldn’t be angry at someone like me who is just commenting on what we observe – you should get very angry with the people who do these things.  They are giving all the genuine unemployed people a bad reputation.  And we waste so much time faffing around with those who don’t really want to work that we have little time and energy left to help those who do – which is so very sad.  We do know they are out there and it’s brilliant when one of them walks through your door.

So to sum up, if you apply for a temping job this Christmas – turn up for the interview on time rather than a time which suits you better, in a smart outfit not jeans, and if you get offered work don’t let down the person who has had faith in you.

No family problems, hangovers, ill pets, family funerals/weddings for distant relatives in other parts of the country which you must take a week off to attend and only found out about the day before.  Turn up, work hard, and for goodness sake smile – it’ll soon by January.