So ... how did I get here?

Friday 22 April 2011

In my last post I mentioned that in a previous employment I was a lowly Council Minion.  I emphasis the 'lowly' because I was nothing more than an office grunt who had no say in anything.  Regardless, I worked hard, most of the people I worked with were pretty good people, and there were a few perks to the job that I appreciate more now that I'm not getting them!  Flexible start times being one of them - not necessarily a good thing to tell someone who hates getting up in the morning and therefore starts getting up later and later ... I fell into a very bad habit not getting to work until nearly 10am!

Anyhoo.  Like most places across the country since the proverbial brown stuff hit the fan, there were a lot of changes and redundancies going on. It was only a matter of time before our department was up for review and my team were extremely apprehensive as to what was going to happen to us.  More than likely a few of us would go. A team of 9 or 10 people would probably be considered excessive, even for a department as big as ours.  It didn't help that various responsibilities and tasks were being siphoned off and given to other people or teams to deal with.  Couple of my own tasks were removed, leaving me with less and less, and then an entire team I provided support for were being transferred elsewhere.  I had a sneaking suspicion that my post could be one to go.  There was simply not enough work being left for us to do.

I don't believe for a minute that I was the only one keeping an eye on the job market in the hopes of finding something to go to before being made redundant.  Naturally, we kept quiet on the off chance some bigwig higher up caught wind of it and picked us for redundancy.  Better to leave on your own terms than be told to leave, right?

I thought I was extremely lucky to be offered a new job with another company.  For me it was like a dream come true.  I had an interest in their area of work, it would be the start of a whole new career - it was a training position with a little sales work on the side.  The money wasn't brilliant, it was a drop no question, but ultimately, the offer of a training position in my career of choice - I was not going to say no!

Thus I escaped the drudgery and uncertainty of the office and embarked on my shiny new job!

Until I realised I had been lied to.  :(

It became apparent, horrifyingly so, that there was no training forthcoming.  At any point.  The job had been pitched to me as primarily training with a little project management/sales on the side.  Imagine how frustrated and angry I was when it turned out to be nothing but project managing.  NOT what I signed up for!

There were a myriad of other reasons for rapidly loathing my new employers, and whilst I'd never before left a job without another to go to, within a few weeks I was at breaking point and told them it wasn't working out.  Had I been able to job hunt or been permitted time off to attend interviews then I might have stuck it out.  But the sheer despair and frustration rapidly became far too much for me to handle.   I don't particularly want to go into too much detail, primarily because it would make for an extremely long and miserable rant of a post that I don't think you'd want to read!  But I think you've got the gist of the situation.

So, there I was.  Unemployed for the first time in my ten-year working life.  It was coming up to Christmas, but I was out of luck with any temporary shop work as they had all been snapped up or places were not taking any more applications. That sucked.

But I made the best of it.  I had plenty in the bank to tide me over, it wasn't a dire emergency by any means to get a job immediately.  So I tired to relax a little in the run up to the holidays.  Spent some time working on improving my CV, scouting the newspapers and job websites, although there was precious little available. 

Christmas and New Year came and went.  I applied for anything and everything that came up.  Eventually applied for work delivering leaflets in the local area.  I got offered some work and I gratefully took it.

But the pay was minimal.  I had to keep looking, either for something to replace the delivering, or something to do as well.  And luckily something 'as well as' turned up.  Part time sales work about half an hour away.  Again, I snapped it up, grateful for the work.

That is where I am today. Two jobs and still looking!

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