I haven't decided if I prefer 'Global Financial Downturn' or 'Current Economic Crisis'. Both are disgustingly pessimistic and overwhelmingly depressing which is why I'm now only using their abbreviations - GFD or CEC.
It's the story of every person's life right now isn't it? if you haven't been affected yet, when will you be? Unless you're comfortably employed in a government agency the country will just never do without, then it's almost certain you're going to be affected soon enough.
Six months ago our life was going along swimmingly. We were working, saving and looking forward to moving to Vancouver with a sack full o' cash and hundreds of prospective jobs. Then Shan got made redundant in November last year. She was working at a legal firm as a secretary and due to work slowing down they had to let a secretary and a lawyer go. She was kind enough to let them know she'd be going travelling again when she started there and that was enough of a reason for them to choose her over the other girls, oh and she earnt more. When she left we didn't think much of it. We thought she'd take a few weeks off and then just take one of the many secretary jobs that had been available in the months before. So Shanny took a much needed break and then went back to job hunting. Then nothing. Combine the GFD/CEC with the impending Christmas period and even the many reruitment agencies were saying there wasn't anything available right away. So we decided not to worry about it til after Christmas.
During the Christmas break my friend Sharon told Shan about a job which had come up at the Teacher's Union where she was working and encouraged her to apply for it. Which she did and thanks to her superior skills she was offered a permanent job. It's better pay, better conditions, she can ride to work and she gets a 9 day fortnight. me jealous much? yu-huh!
So then it was my turn. About 2 days before Shan was offered the new job my work became very unstable. I work in PR and up until recently most of our clients were travel and property related and when those two industries had dibilitating strokes last year we suddenly went from raging to limp. I've been at my current job for over a year, since arriving home from London, and have seen a complete turnover of staff so they were kind enough to offer me a few options rather than just hand over a redundancy right away. I came home and joked with Shan about how funny it would be if she were to get a job right as I lost mine. She didn't think it was funny at all.
But then Shan did get the job and I worked out with my job that I would stay on, get paid less until we were making more, and then get reimbursed for all the time I've worked and not been paid for. OR give it a month, re-evaluate and take a redundancy then. I still spoke to a few recruitment companies who, six months ago would have 5 jobs I could take, told me if I left now I'd be waiting in a line. So I have to wait it out and hope for the best.
The fearful thing is, even if we do stay employed, save lots of money and really do make it to Vancouver - what if we get there and can't find work? What if we can't find work, run out of money and come home only to find we can't get work here either? It's really scary and really worrying and for me personally I think I'll feel like a bit of a failure if I can't support my family especially if we want to start having little Shazanne's in a few years. But for now I'm going to try avoiding that with more education and just working hard and trying to keep things as stable as possible for as long as the GFD/CEC will let me. Damn you money.
It's the story of every person's life right now isn't it? if you haven't been affected yet, when will you be? Unless you're comfortably employed in a government agency the country will just never do without, then it's almost certain you're going to be affected soon enough.
Six months ago our life was going along swimmingly. We were working, saving and looking forward to moving to Vancouver with a sack full o' cash and hundreds of prospective jobs. Then Shan got made redundant in November last year. She was working at a legal firm as a secretary and due to work slowing down they had to let a secretary and a lawyer go. She was kind enough to let them know she'd be going travelling again when she started there and that was enough of a reason for them to choose her over the other girls, oh and she earnt more. When she left we didn't think much of it. We thought she'd take a few weeks off and then just take one of the many secretary jobs that had been available in the months before. So Shanny took a much needed break and then went back to job hunting. Then nothing. Combine the GFD/CEC with the impending Christmas period and even the many reruitment agencies were saying there wasn't anything available right away. So we decided not to worry about it til after Christmas.
During the Christmas break my friend Sharon told Shan about a job which had come up at the Teacher's Union where she was working and encouraged her to apply for it. Which she did and thanks to her superior skills she was offered a permanent job. It's better pay, better conditions, she can ride to work and she gets a 9 day fortnight. me jealous much? yu-huh!
So then it was my turn. About 2 days before Shan was offered the new job my work became very unstable. I work in PR and up until recently most of our clients were travel and property related and when those two industries had dibilitating strokes last year we suddenly went from raging to limp. I've been at my current job for over a year, since arriving home from London, and have seen a complete turnover of staff so they were kind enough to offer me a few options rather than just hand over a redundancy right away. I came home and joked with Shan about how funny it would be if she were to get a job right as I lost mine. She didn't think it was funny at all.
But then Shan did get the job and I worked out with my job that I would stay on, get paid less until we were making more, and then get reimbursed for all the time I've worked and not been paid for. OR give it a month, re-evaluate and take a redundancy then. I still spoke to a few recruitment companies who, six months ago would have 5 jobs I could take, told me if I left now I'd be waiting in a line. So I have to wait it out and hope for the best.
The fearful thing is, even if we do stay employed, save lots of money and really do make it to Vancouver - what if we get there and can't find work? What if we can't find work, run out of money and come home only to find we can't get work here either? It's really scary and really worrying and for me personally I think I'll feel like a bit of a failure if I can't support my family especially if we want to start having little Shazanne's in a few years. But for now I'm going to try avoiding that with more education and just working hard and trying to keep things as stable as possible for as long as the GFD/CEC will let me. Damn you money.
No comments:
Post a Comment