12 days of thankfulness – Day 7: New beginnings
Day 7: New beginnings
On the seventh day of thankfulness…
In June 2011 I began a new job as an employment consultant. It was my job to regularly meet with people on unemployment benefits and help them find work. You know, tidy their resume, show them job adverts, that sort of thing. I’d meet people with some pretty serious issues – physical, mental, emotional, you name it, and have to try to understand their motivations and help them where possible. The job was part social worker, part parent, part career counsellor. It was damned hard work at times, especially when confronted with people like the 19 year old bloke (I really hated using the word ‘client’) that swore in my face, said he didn’t want to do any of his required further study/training and still believed leaving school at 16 was the best decision he ever made because ‘I really don’t care if I have to just hammer nails into wood for the rest of my life…why do I need an education?’. I dealt with people at the end of their tether, people who seemed to have lost all hope. In some cases these people reminded me of how I was when I was out of work a couple of years ago. Yes I sympathised, but there was only so much I could do.
I threw everything I had at this job, determined to make a difference, for it was surely better than the job from which I’d come (see my previous post, New Horizons). I was in an office with friendly, chatty people that bonded as a team, a good manager, and a modern workplace. I was only a 15 minute drive from home, and the piece de resistance was that I no longer worked Fridays. Thursdays became my new Fridays and I had a long weekend every week. Once fully immersed in this role I wondered how I had lasted so long at my previous employer working ridiculous hours, driving silly distances, with very unrealistic expectations. Finally I felt like I was getting somewhere again.
I am thankful for new opportunities. I am thankful for being lead on a better path. I am thankful for three day weekends. I am thankful for the journey.
