Pandemic Tales: Finding a Job Whilst Looking After the Kids
Orm Vs…Unemployment
Picture the scene:
You’re sitting in your new home office, your new home office mug at your side. You’re staring out of the window at your lawn, which you could mow at lunchtime.
After all, you have the Pandemic-induced freedom (O.K. freedom’s a stretch) of home working and no longer have the dash to the office canteen.
Now, that has all changed, I no longer need my newly set up Laptop, Printer and coveted Zoom log in…it's all unnecessary when you no longer have a job.
I now spend my days looking for work and managing the children in lockdown.
This is the position I have suddenly found myself…and I know I’m not the only person out of work right now. A lot of you are going through the same daily actions and emotions as myself.
During lockdown, I found myself no longer required by my current employer. A corporate reshuffle and the small matter of a pandemic meant that, quite amicably, we parted ways.
Now I find myself going through a repeated daily routine that begins with an early morning coffee with my wife before she heads to work, a brief wave, and kiss. Then I have an hour or so before I wake the kids up to begin their homeschooling.
A delightful task, just ask any parent with teens. A task made all the harder by their reluctance to adhere to more normal sleep patterns, it seems they have chosen to adopt the sleep cycle of night-shift workers!
The most important part of the day begins at roughly 08:00 am, scouring for job applications, the usual places: LinkedIn; Job Sites; Job Agencies; and then company websites. As always I start with great hopes.
I scour through and note that there’s not the greatest of change since I looked whilst in bed the night before on my mobile/cell phone…Drat! Ever the optimist, I refresh the page, and refresh, and refresh…F5 I’m afraid to say has become my most used key of late!
O.K., a rest from the job search and a chance to remind the homeschoolers to at least wash; brush teeth and grab a drink, after all, they’re mid to late teens why would they deem these a necessity…crazy old dad! Then a glance around the home to see if I can complete any chores, today was oven cleaning…and now I find myself looking for a good hand moisturiser…You live…You learn!
Still with me? Great. After all the excitement of the morning, next comes the soul searching — I contemplate whether I should continue on the same sales career path, explore my dreams of being a writer (hence the blog), and whether tea and crumpets are okay to partake in at 11:00 am? Of course it's ok, and I take a few minutes out for the most British of past times, a tea break.
I knuckle on with the job search. Refresh the Job pages a few more times (crumpets = optimism boost) … nothing. I remind homeschoolers that they should at least consider the fruit options, and I think about going for a run.
Thinking defeats actual exercise and thus begins the self-loathing and body inspections, a quick promise that tomorrow I will run and I won’t have that drink whilst on the sofa in the evening… again, all good intentions. I’m about ten days in and the second most unemployed thing in the house after me is my running shoes!
Slowly the day continues in these highs and lows until my wife returns. We talk whilst one of us prepares the evening meal, my cooking skills are great for grand gestures but for day-to-day eating my wife wins hand down, especially on a budget.
So this is my day. It usually ends with us watching TV and discussing what tomorrow will bring (see the above and repeat is my internal downbeat message) but I like to assure my wife that I’m optimistic and not letting it all get me down.
I know she sees straight through the ruse and offers comforting words of support, behind every great man, etc etc.
Then off to bed after reminding the homeschoolers, who have long since stopped any academic exercises, that I will be waking them at 09:00 am tomorrow. I think they acknowledged and understood, but then again it wasn’t online via a console game, nor did I put it in a short Tik Tok video, so probably not!
If you’re in a similar situation, I’m sure this seems all too familiar.
Now go grab your hat and coat (probably best to grab a resume/CV too) and walk with me on what hopes to be a successful journey, here’s to that first day in the new job and dropping the kids off at school on the way.
