Unemployed Turn to TV Show to Win Jobs.

Sep 26, 11:13 am ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans competing in a new television game show will not be bidding to win a luxury car or exotic holiday. In a country where four million people are out of work, the prize is much more sought-after: a job.

Two unemployed people will compete for one job contract in each show, and viewers will get to decide who they think is best suited to the post, said Marcus Wolter, program director at the Neun Live channel.

"There might be two hairdressers for example, who have to show how well they treat customers and, of course, how well they can cut hair," he said on Thursday.

Neun Live, a game and quiz show channel, largely finances itself through viewers' phone calls and by selling holidays.

The new show, which will go on air in late autumn has triggered criticism from unions and social organizations.

"Those who want to exploit the unemployed for visual ends are playing with the fears and hopes of people in a shameless and despicable manner," said Walter Hirrlinger, president of the VdK social federation.

Germany's DGB trade union federation told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper finding jobs for the unemployed should rest with professionals and not a TV show.

But Wolter said TV audiences were well-equipped to choose the better candidate without being employment experts: "If people can vote for their favorite song in the Eurovision song contest without having a music degree, why shouldn't they also vote in our show without being job experts?"

I see spinoffs:

• Keep Your Job, defending against challengers. "Take backstabbing out of the office and put it on TV where it belongs."
• Termination Court, supervisor and worker hash out workplace disputes in a small claims court.
• The Employer, like The Bachelor, with a hundred candidates winnowing down to a final offer over the longest, most intimate interview process.
• RealJob, using 360 degree interviews with your boss, colleagues, supervisors, and subordinates to see what they really think of you. Guess what they say about you to win vacation days.
• BlogWerks, 5 studio musicians angle for the same job using email and their blogs. Who can muster the most linkbacks? Who can get the most traffic and downloads? Who gets the most prominent mention in industry trade press?

I really hope life doesn't imitate art.

Update: Anita Rowland says "They have this show in Argentina already!"

As mentioned in NPR's On The Media, the show is called Human Resources.

PETER HUDSON: It's basically a competition to win a job; unemployment in Argentina is running at over 20 percent. There's a lot of people who are desperate for employment, and so-- one of the leading channels here, Channel 13 has set up this program, Human Resources. Two contestants come on and talk about their lives, talk about what they were working in before they became unemployed, and at the end of the program one of them is, is awarded a job.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The format of Human Resources which really seems to weigh sob stories against each other rather than talent reminds me a little bit of a game show of sorts that there was when I was a very little girl called Queen for a Day where a bunch of unfortunates would talk about their lives and invariably one or several of them would cry and the audience would vote and, and the winner would win, you know, new kitchen appliances or something like that. [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

PETER HUDSON: That, that's - it sounds very similar. I've not seen that show, but the idea is very much the same; if people are not competing for a job, they're competing for a cash prize. The, the common denominator I think in all of these is, is desperation.

See also:

• A review of Recursos humanos (es-to-en).
• Christian Science Monitor:  Come on down! You've just won ... a job.
• The official recursos humanos home page.

[a klog apart shortage watch]