Diary Management

Last year I missed out on a position I'd applied for with a well known corporate. Yes, I was punching below my belt but I liked the idea of a front-line position with harbour views and having been in this exact role before, the hours allowed for work/work balance I sought. A week or so later I got a call from this organisation saying I had missed on on the job but would I like feedback? Sure, I agreed, although with hindsight I might have been better not to put myself up for this as I had just stepped out of the Coroners' Court after a grueling first day of the inquest into my younger brother's death three years before. However Ms Personnel Manager was not to know this and I was bluntly told by her that I had missed out because I didn't have the skills of “Diary Management” .

Later that same week I was talking with a friend who incidentally manages much of her high profile partner's life with grace and aplomb. She told me she had just been turned down for a position for the very same reason.

What was this “Diary Management”, this holy of holies we asked each other? How had we reached this point with abundant life and work experience behind us, yet had never been initiated?

For some days, I fumed over probable replies to Ms Smug-Under-Thirty-HR Manager.

Dear Ms____

It came as a surprise to me that I was turned down for this position because I lacked the required skills in DM.
(Honey,you sure kept this card up your sleeve for this was never mentioned at the interview).

This has prompted me to develop a new program for Microsoft Office, requiring the user to have a microchip inserted into their brain. It converts all the parenting and life experience outlined below into transferable skills required for Diary Management. Incidentally you can download an app to your smart phone.

• Working full time in a deadline driven job as a sole parent to three young children
• When above mentioned children were older, working in same deadline driven environment incorporating children's after-school activities into my after work hours
• Managing to get away Boxing Day for annual family holiday after working long hours getting two publications to print, the lawns mowed, car and roof rack packed with camping gear, all three children accounted for and the dog not locked in the house.
• Being a language a teacher, both here and overseas, who was expected to chew through the curriculum by end of the term with measurable learning outcomes for fee paying students.

P.S. However in my mind I still hear you ask "What has all this got to do with Diary Management? " Very little perhaps but it has a lot to do with AGEISM and ATTITUDE to mature people applying for jobs. Shame on you AMP.

Yours etc...

Strategies to Cope with Unemployment

 

It's a few weeks, possibly months down the track and you've got over the novelty of lying in bed, strolling down the road for a cup of coffee on the way to the library; or maybe not. This would be a fine lifestyle if only you had the funds to sustain it, but maybe you still have a mortgage, the kids haven't finished university or you hoped to have saved way more in your retirement fund. With all the things you hated about your job, whether it was the politics, the bullying or the boss, you're feeling nostalgic about how your salary magically appeared in your bank on a regular basis. 

• If offered a career mentor as part of your redundancy package, accept the offer. During my first redundancy I resented this like hell yet found the experience really helped identify what kind of role I was best suited for and the kind of workplace environment I flourish in.
  
• Work and rework your curriculum vitae. Remember your CV should not be a tombstone for dead jobs, so remove any experience more than ten years old unless you are, for example, an architect with an award winning built project. Get professional help if you can afford it, failing that some up-to-date books on building your CV.
  
• Maintain a job search spread sheet with all jobs applied for, contact details of who received your application, and your impressions overall if you get to an interview. This process of keeping a record is a good aid to memory if you go for a position at the same agency or company later on.
  
• If you missed out on a position you were particularly sold on, politely phone the employment agency or company and ask if there was any specific reason you didn't get the job. Explain that this is to assist you with your future job search. Express appreciation for their help.
  
  
• Up-skill. Find out what is offered through local institutions such as Citizens' Advice Bureaus, high schools or universities. I have found some free self led courses surprisingly helpful. It will never hurt to add a few more skills to your CV. Remember any positive action taken, however small, will help stave off the onslaught of hopelessness and depression you could be experiencing.
  
• Undertake volunteer work. While it may be difficult to commit when you believe that your next job is just around the corner, the experience is beneficial in a number of ways. It directs your focus beyond your navel offering social contact with purpose. Volunteer work creates a sense of being employed whether paid or not.
  
• If you must deal with Work and Income New Zealand, do it online where possible. I find my self-esteem goes down a hundred points the moment I enter the portals of a WINZ office. In my experience WINZ is not about empowering individuals but rendering them victims serving a system in which boxes must be ticked.

• Finally, find someone you can talk to who knows how to listen. The best person is someone who has shared a similar experience and come out the other side. While most people want to leap in and offer a reason you may not have got the latest job you've applied for, remember again this is for them to try and make some sense of your situation, rather than you. With this in mind, I suggest you nod and smile politely. 

You have already gone through massive rejection with redundancy but believe me there is more to come. Like endeavours to find that one true love, rejection is all part of the process. You'll feel flat, disappointed and wonder if anyone is going to want to employ you / love you ever again. Take a break from job seeking for a while, then gird your loins and get on with it!

The Nature of Happiness

Today I feel blissfully happy. This sun is shining, there is no wind and having just scrambled up the side of my local volcanic cone and back down again after viewing the stunning view from the top, I still have oodles of energy to spare. I've sanded down my front steps and primed them ready for painting and tugged a few weeds from my garden.

The reality is I am unemployed and don't have as much financial security that I might have expected at this stage of my life. I do need to earn a living but having had periods of unemployment post redundancies where the job search hung over my life like the sword of Damocles, I don't want to repeat this pattern. I am blissfully going with the flow as life presents itself, unsure what my next step will be.

So right now there is no plan beyond getting as much out of each day as I can. I am happy, today, here, now. I know happiness isn't a static state and it can evaporate in an instant. I know that because I have known great unhappiness, depression and anxiety. 

What do you think? Am I naive, burying my head in the sand and live to rue the day I was so careless about my future, or am I on track to an exciting and unknown destination life has in store for me?

Isabel