The one i go too is the same, i find it quite funny inside though, some of the agruments can be quite entertaining

They're such soul destroying places.    Glad I don't have to go there to be honest.

Is the dog on a bit of string?

YESSS!

I've been there! Not nice places at all

They are places of despair. Of people desperate to work. Of older men dressed in suits clutching leather folders with references..
Of young students promised the world if they go to uni and signing on  with their Cvs in hand,

Of people who have always worked and have been made redundant and are being herded through the system,

No - they are not nice places...

did anyone ask you for a pound for bus fare ?  * ie a can *

They call 'em "Job Centre Plus" these days don't they?
Why 'Plus'?  Where did that come from and why?

I've got to admit that during my current stint of joblessness I've found job centre staff to be helpful, friendly and understanding. 

Previously I've tended to find them to be intimidating and depressing places staffed by small minded inadequates who get their jollies from feeling superior to and humiliating job seekers.

Don't get me wrong, they're not fun places to visit, but never the less, at least in my recent experience, the staff do seem to be human beings rather than jumped up twats.

The staff these days are (mostly) fine. It's the policies they have to enact that make being on the dole so especially depressing.

I have mixed views.  I agree with Carnelian that they don't seem to treat people like scum like they did in the 1980s (I was unemployed for half a year or so then,)   but then again, they weren't helpful with me at all, when I went 2 years ago.  Friendly, but not helpful. 

I had been made redundant from a firm after 10 years, (this was mid 2008,) and got 10 grand redundancy.  Because of this I was not allowed to claim state benefits.  I was unemployed (of course,) but not claiming anything. (Because I had had the 10 grand, I wasn't allowed to claim for six months.) 

Well after about 2 months, I wasn't having any luck getting a job, and couldn't even get an interview, and so I went to them for help, to see if they could help me to do a training course or something, as I hadn't got any recent training or qualifications for anything.  All I got was 'no we can't help, we can't do anything for you..'  I also said I was fed up in my line of work and wanted to change careers, but they said I was probably 'leaving it too late' to change careers..and it wasn't worth re-training.  I was 33!  I wouldn't mind, but the person that said it was only about 3 years younger than me.

Apparently I was quite welcome to trawl through the jobs, but they 'couldn't help me.'  In the end, when I scraped the surface, i discovered it was because, although I was unemployed and struggling to get work and needed my qualifications refreshing and updating; I wasn't claiming any state benefits.  So they basically weren't interested in giving me the time of day.  If I had been claiming anything, they would have been ushering me off on every training course and every job interview going, to get me off benefits!  It pissed me off no end; they wouldn't help me because I wasn't claiming, so it didn't benefit them to help me.
So in the end I had to use some of the 10 grand (which was dwindling fast as I had NO income but still a mortgage and all the bills,) and use it to pay for training for myself..  After five months, I got another job in a different line of work as I did training in something different to what I had done before.., but I will never forget how they weren't interested in helping me.

So although they don't seem to treat people like pondscum as much; they will only help if it suits them, and benefits them.

They were jumped up twats that treated me like scum 5 years years ago Hopefully they are better now, what with more people being unemployed... I would like to go back and see that woman who told me my expectations were unrealistic though