Headscratchers / The Full Monty

• So Gaz, Dave, and Gerald attend Job Club, which is a meeting group facility in which unemployed individuals try to seek employment through networking and training- and yet all what two of them do is smoke cigarettes and play cards (even though there’s a No Smoking sign in the room). Do you think maybe that’s the reason why they still haven’t found employment, because they goof around rather than fill out the required paperwork they received?
  • It's not that simple. In the late 90s, especially in a city like Sheffield, jobs were thin on the ground, and Gaz and Dave don't seem to have any qualifications outside of having previously been steelworkers. If Gerald's job interview was one of the only opportunities he'd had in six months, then Gaz and Dave are even less lucky. Then there's the matter of personal situations. Gaz has a kid that he's meant to be looking after once a week, and based on how fiercely he's willing to fight to keep even partial custody of Nathan, it's unlikely he'd be willing to give that up to accommodate a job. And finally, there's the matter of pride. It might seem silly, but it's obvious that the security guard job at Asda is seen as a step down for Dave, which could put paid to certain other jobs. And really, how do we KNOW they're not filling out their paperwork? We see them chatting and smoking and playing cards, yes, but unemployed people are allowed some time to unwind, too.