Work...

Image from Microsoft office clipart

It's funny how life is. A week and a half ago I was out handing out my résumé and wondering whether I had done the right thing by changing career. Then there was the added hiccup of my 'real job' (the business admin role which I do from home) will probably no longer exist in the near future. While it's not full time (it’s about 15 hours a week depending on the time of year / month etc) it’s employment. . While it sometimes it drives me insane because things have to be done at certain times and I often have to work while I’m interstate  (people need to be paid), I still like the fact that I have a job. It’s a very flexible job at that. I’m proud that I work.  Goodness knows, I’m not proud of my lack of house keeping skills.

A fair chunk of my self esteem is connected to the fact that I work. I found this out when I stopped working for the government many moons ago and starting just doing the business admin role. I felt as though I had lost myself and rarely felt validated as a person. But I have managed to claw some self esteem back by being fairly good at what I do.

However, when we started discussing the demise of my job I may have just lost the plot majorly a little. Suddenly, I was saying aloud things I didn't consciously realise I thought. I'm proud of the fact that I have always worked. That is obviously very important to me.  I have been employed consistently since I before finished Year 12.  Prior to that I was retrenched from my casual weekend job at Grace Brothers (back when it was Grace Brothers and not Myer) but apart from that little glitch I have been always been employed in at least one job or other. 

I’ve been aware that my business admin role was a little tenuous as it doesn't make the company (me and the Mr’s company) money and the less staff there are, the less I’m needed.  So we will be back down to 3 staff in a few weeks and then it will be reduced to 2 not long after.  It doesn't make financial sense to keep that part running. But I was still cut up about it.

Then on Thursday I got a phone call about Learning Support Assistant (LSA) work. Yesterday I had a meeting and I have work. I'm happy, excited and nervous all at the same time. It's at the school I did my prac hours at and while it’s only a few days of work for four weeks, its a great start. They think they may have more work for me after that. Maybe I will be able to make a go of my new career choice.

In this case it seems there is something true about the saying when one door closes, another one opens.

Would you stand up and be counted?

There's been an issue been occupying my mind (and Mr E's as well) for a few months. While it is fairly minor, it has taken a lot of our focus. It appears to us and others, that someone wants to change something for what appears to be changes sake. For the rest of this post I shall refer to this person as the Agent of Change. The Agent has attempted to make this change and convinced some people that this change is inevitable. Pity that those people are very excited about it and actually don't have final say in it.

Mr E. went to a meeting about this change late last year. Things that were agreed at this meeting have not occurred and the issue of change has been pushed even further. The Agent of Change has denied any agreement at that particular meeting. Along the way the Agent has called people liars and seems to feel that if there is any less than positive discussion or comment toward the change then the only place it could have come from is myself or Mr E. However, the Agent has said that a number of people had objected to the change but it seems that we may have been the only people to sign our names to their objection.

It seems people are quite happy to object as long as they aren't identified. Someone has even gone up the chain but is afraid of the consequences so is hoping that their name isn't mentioned. Mr E has taken the plunge and written to a number of people include the Agent of Change and their superiors. After another meeting, it seems other people are more willing to stand up and oppose the change.

It remains to be seen if it makes any difference or if they are willing to put their name to their opposition. I've been a little upset about this as I received a phone call from the Agent of Change assuming that a particular negative response was ours due to being nameless. To a certain extent I've felt that other people have been gutless by not owning up to their opinions. That said, I'm probably being hypocritical because I asked (or pressured, perhaps) Mr E. to go the the first meeting. Things just snowballed from there.

Perhaps with the number of people talking about going above Agent of Change's head the issue may get dropped. What really concerns me is the number of people who seem to scared to stand up for their opinions. It's quite disconcerting to know that at least one adult has even said that they are too afraid of the Agent of Change to own their opinion.

Surely that in itself is enough to get the Agent's superiors to look at what's been going on. I'm thinking that this change is only a tiny piece of what's been happening.

Is it worth voicing your opinion if you are too afraid to own it?

 

Trying to sell myself

My goal this week is to sell me. No, not in the sleazy way (please get your minds out of the gutter). I've been doing the rounds of the local schools handing out my résumé and trying to get relief work as an Learning Support Assistant (LSA).

I tarted up my résumé which I found quite difficult given i hadn't touched it in about 4 years. I also had to rewrite it due to heading in a completely different direction. I wasn't sure how to distil 20 plus years of admin and finance work into transferable skills that reflect my new career choice. I'm not sure I actually managed to do it. Regardless I went and introduced myself to a number of schools and left a copy of my resume at each.  Hopefully this will lead to some casual work.

Some of the people I did my course with have work. There were 10 of us who were studying fulltime and a few part-timers cycled through some of our subjects as well. I was under the impression that the majority of our class had LSA work this term. Two of them had had contracts last year and I heard that three people got contracts at the schools where they did their 60 hours of prac. Another had been interviewed for a job and been given the news that she had got it. I was feeling quite despondent and last week I had a little dummy spit because I felt as though I had wasted 6 months of my life studying and was never going to get a LSA job.

The 5 people I keep in touch with, caught up and had dinner recently. Of them, only 2 have work.  Unfortunately for my friend the new job fell through. I’ve been told that there is a push to fill roles internally at the moment so the contracts haven’t materialised this year. While it’s sad that we are mostly all in the same boat I did I felt a little better after that.

Hopefully my introductions at the school will lead to some work.  If not, I’ve been told I’m on the top of the list for relief work where I did my prac.  I’m lucky because I have another job to fall back on. A lot of others don't have that backup.

We survived the school holidays

Yes, we have survived the school holidays. Amazingly, I was only tempted to run away from home a few times.  I’m putting this down to actually feeling quite relaxed this time around.  We seemed to do quite a lot of things which probably helped keep things are a fairly even keel.  We went to family for Christmas and my solo break was great. I also took the kids away twice.  Once to catch up with family interstate again and once for 5 nights away at the coast.  Here are a few pictures of our coast trip.

 

Sun, surf and sand

I found a take away that sells Gluten Free Battered Fish, Potato Cakes etc.

It was delicious!

 

What family holiday would be complete without Mini Golf?

We also saw a few movies and hang around the house. Bothe Boy Child and Girl Child went to friends places as well. Girl Child and I also did some craft. No, I’m not actually a crafty person but these Friendship Bracelets were good. I think they are pretty impressive. Check out the flowers on the top one!

 

Aren’t these cool?  You can probably tell pink and purple are Girl Child’s favourite colours.

It was making these that I realised that perhaps Girl Child has got her need for perfectionism for me. I have taken a few completely apart so that the pattern works out.  We already had a Friendship bracelet foam circle with one pattern but we downloaded the other patterns from here: Friendship Bracelets Circle Patterns. I’m still not very quick with these (especially when I keep starting over!) but they are a fun activity.