employment after 56 | Not Just a Granny

Posts Tagged ‘employment after 56’

leaving my comfort zone

Posted in It's my life, tagged 56 and looking for work, employment after 56, leaving my comfort zone on August 9, 2011| 3 Comments »

So the first day after resigning was spent in a haze of shock and a not unsubstantial state of terror!! then it was time to pack and take all my belongings back to storage. I didn’t realise just how much I had managed to accumulate once again and how much I had brought out of storage. Lucky that I was planning a break from the 6^th anyway, so I had taken a huge suitcase full of books and paperwork and winter clothes back to the storage on Wednesday – the day before I quit. Needless to say there was loads more to move over and I was not feeling too happy. Even though I had made the decision to quit, I still felt quite a lot of resentment….not sure who it was directed at, but I was not a happy bunny.

So Friday night I again made my way over to the storage unit with yet another massive loads of stuff….I really have to downsize one of these days. As I was standing staring into the storage locker the thought crossed my mind that if I was to buy a campervan and start travelling, I would never in a million years get everything I had in storage into a campervan. Urgh!!! possessions!!!!

Saturday dawned bright and as I have for the last few months, I woke real early and tossed and turned, eventually dragging my sorry ass out the bed and headed off downstairs for a most wanted cup of tea. Heaven. I sat out on the verandah and just soaked up the peace and quiet, enjoyed watching the wee birds flitting back and forth from the feeder to the bushes and wondered why I had not seen any of the squirrels for the last few days….not even Sue! 🙂 who was usually first one at the table. It has been a great treat to sit out on the verandah and watch this little creature who has gotten so used to my presence that it doesnt even run away now when I come out the door. In fact it had gotten so tame that I almost managed to entice it to eat out my hand!!! 🙂 I am most definitely going to miss this garden.

I felt really sad actually, as I sat there. This has been my home for the last 18 months and I had grown to love the house and the garden and especially the wildlife. The foxes in the evenings as they come to eat the food I put out have been enchanting to watch, and the baby has now grown quite fat (no surprise) and lovely in the last few weeks. Of the four pups I saw a few weeks ago, only the one still returns. I think it may have made itself a home in the undergrowth. But, I digress….

The day did not go at all well after that, and I got a call with a very unpleasant situation (which I won’t go into), but suffice to say that thankfully I had packed up the last of my possessions the night before and only had minimal cleaning still to do before the take-over Carer arrived at 12noon. However, the events of the morning just reminded me really of why it was time to move on! By 1.30pm I was done and finally….freedom!!! no time limits, no night calls, no bossy visitors, and no salary!!!! 🙂

I set out for Richmond. I had planned to stay with my daughter for the 2 weeks of my break, hoping to get extra work in the period, but now as it transpires……since I am not going back, it will be new pastures for me. Not sure at this stage if they will be greener.

Two hours later and I was settled in and we strolled into Twickenham for…..guess!!!!! yeah! You got it….cupcakes and tea. Time to celebrate my freedom and with my whole life and future ahead of me the world is my oyster. Now it was time to figure out what to do. Although I can easily pick up the phone and request another caring job, but to say that I am reluctant is the least of it.

So we; my daughter and I sat and chatted, sipped tea and made the most of a cupcake. Afterwards we took a walk along the river and enjoyed the early evening.

the river near Twickenham Bridge

The first thing I have to do is register with agencies. The only hurdle I can forsee is that I have been out of the Credit Management environment for 10 years and when I tried to secure a Credit Control position a few years ago…….already then my CV was out of date. In fact to my dismay I had forgotten many of the terms related to Credit Control…but hey! I am damn good at collecting outstanding monies. 🙂

My daughter and I are going to update my CV to reflect my newer skills, especially the Internet related skills and then I am going to go full out for interviews. I have already approached a well known Women’s agency that work specifically with women who have been out of the job market for some time. So although I haven’t actually been out of work, I am most certainly out of practice. It’s quite daunting actually.

Sunday we woke early and went for a walk along the river for breakfast at the Tide Tables Cafe in Richmond. A snug little cafe situated beneath the arches of Richmond Bridge. We settled in for tea and croissant and read the sunday papers. This is something I have not done for ages and ages and it was such a treat…to just sit and relax, sip tea, munch my way through a croissant and scan the papers for interesting articles. Heaven. And the beauty of it was that I had no deadline. Hooray! On the way there I spied what could be a residential option if I find myself on the streets 🙂 heehee.

I could set up my tent on the riverbank 🙂

I spent the afternoon sorting out and repacking my daughter’s office and cupboards, filing and tidying documents and stationery and much else besides. Right up my alley. I love taking piles of paperwork and and stuff and putting it into order. So that was the day. We had a snooze in the afternoon and then headed out in the evening for supper at Giraff in Richmond. Their food is great, and I had a very healthy pizza and a fruit smoothie. Yum! On the way home we stopped just after Twickenham Bridge and sat on one of the park benches situated on the path. It was so cool out and the evening was soft and lovely.

So although I am still feeling somwhat terrified at not having a secured position with the relevant income, it is quite exciting to plan for the future. Raising a glass to adventures yet to come!

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into the abyss….

Posted in It's my life, tagged being unemployed, employment after 56, finding work after 56, resigning without a job on August 8, 2011| 2 Comments »

hmmmm....

So finally after months of wanting to and not having enough courage to….I finally quit my job! I recall a few months ago when I learned of Elizabeth Taylor’s death, that I wrote in my blog it was time to quit my job, and that I should really look at the prospect of doing just that very seriously now, but I hung on and hung on! Afraid really. In the event it was done in a fit of anger brought about through months of frustration, but I am pleased that I finally took the plunge! So now it’s ‘sink or swim’ 🙂 or become a rubber ball and bounce back!

On the day in question, I had once again been insulted by a visitor to the house and finally enough was enough. One of the things I loath is being talked down to by people, and sadly in this type of job, you are just ‘the carer’, a nothing to most people, just there to pick up and clean up and shut up! I am amazed at my capacity of endurance and by the level of how much I am prepared to endure before I reach my limit! Actually it was quite ironic that just a couple of days before I quit, I had sent my daughter a text that said “Am I just too ingrained for make do and get on with it, or is my discomfort zone not narrow enough?” and the response I got was “In fact here’s a better idea: stop thinking about it in personal development terms….go back to basics: what the %*@ do you want to do with your life?” 🙂 she also reminded me that it was me who taught her how to be a ‘rubber ball’.

So yeah, good idea! Time to bounce back. Now, what do I want to do with my life? I know what I don’t want to do and that is continue working in the same environment I have worked in for the last 10 years. I do want to travel, I do want to get back into an environment where I am exercising my brain, using my skills (of which there are many) and getting my life back. I have become so old and slow in the last few years, and working in that environment has limited my horizons to such an extent that I still feel like there is a box around me. It’s almost a physical feeling of limitations. Limitation of freedom… a huge issue for me, as one of my highest values is freedom! It was in the end horrible to work in an environment where I was unable to just ‘go out’ whenever I felt like it. I realise I had time off and they were generous, but the feelings of being tied-down were most unpleasant, and slowly but surely it wore me down.

Of course there are other considerations; like the financial issues that I wrote about in my book (How to turn 1p into -£50,000), and of course the obligation to meet my debts is very strong. So that was a bit of a deterrant to the ‘jump off the edge and let’s see if I sink or swim’ mindset for which I have been known. However, if I look at the other aspect; the ‘rubber ball’ syndrome then hey I will be just fine! Finances can be sorted, arrangements can be made and I can in fact use my experience and knowledge to generate the necessary!

I phoned my younger sister that evening (thank goodness for skype) to pour out my woes, I was feeling just a bit terrified at the prospect of no money coming in, in the next two weeks (the limit of my current horizons), and she came up with a brilliant idea. Like my daughter she is a font of bright ideas. So here’s the thing! I am 50+, living in a country that to all intents and purposes is going through a recession (or so the papers would lead us to believe), I have been out of my qualified area of expertise for the last 10 years, and in those years have not gained any new quantifiable skills besides all the Personal Development courses I did! Hmmm.

So what to do? Well the first thing she suggested was that I blog about my new journey, about what it’s like for a 56year-old woman to start off afresh at an age where you are no longer considered viable in the Corporate Field, about how I plan to get back into the job market (if that’s what I decided to do), to share my experiences, good and bad of whatever hurdles or successes I may have. To sit down and list any new skills I have gained over the last few years – like figuring out how the internet works, learning how to blog, how to do research on google (at which I am getting pretty good), how to build and manage twitter and facebook profiles/pages, and of course now seriously make the most of creating and conducting London tours. Well thats easy, I love conducting tours!

My first step of course will be to write up a skills based CV, and start advertising my services. No! Cheeky, not those kind of services 🙂 ). hmmmm. Watch this space…….

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