Raw Grace.

It is amazing isn’t it. No redundancy money left, no great savings, no great income and no job on the horizon, yet over the last 24 months or so, we haven’t defaulted on a single mortgage payment. With earnings from a part time job at minimum wage and cash from an occasional car boot sale, the figures simply don’t stack up.

We consider our mortgage sizeable and guess others might do too. What has happened however, is that money has appeared when needed. Many times we have recieved monetary gifts, enough for a meal, or a full tank of petrol,  a holiday, a months mortgage payment or money towards getting our car fixed –  we thank God for His incredible and unmerited ongoing provision.

The last week has been tough in a number of different ways, as recorded elsewhere, and I’m presently running low on ideas and energy.

This said, I read in the Bible, and know in my heart, that He (God) is able to do more than we can imagine or hope for, so whilst I continue to do my part in job searching and as a family we commit ourselves to his purposes and care – we will wait to see what He does next.

Am I getting anywhere?

Yes. But er… sometimes I do wonder…

I say this because this job search lark is taking far too long by my estimation! Twenty two monts and counting. What I AM doing however is trying to get somewhere. So far my focal point has been in the graphic design industry, but now the scope has widened to working in the Charitable sector in a non-design role, where my organisational skills, people skills and creative thinking and problem solving can be put to good use. Or maybe in teaching…

When it comes down to it, I would be more than happy to be employed somewhere or to be correct, anywhere I can use my wide spectrum of transferable skills (!) Until then I will press on looking, applying, and of course praying to Him ‘upstairs’ for a resolution.

In all seriousness I do feel I AM getting somewhere, partly because I know I’m making efforts, that’s half the battle, no way am I going to collapse into the soft cushions on the sofa in a miserable mess and give up. As for my my next job destination – all will be revealed in due course.

How will I know when I’m there if I don’t have a specific final destination in mind? Ah, good question. The best answer I can give is Peace of Mind, Yes, Peace of Mind.

Mary Queen of Common Sense

Well done to the BBC for putting on our screen entertainment in the guise of Mary Portas as Mary Queen Of Shops, and in particular those related to Charity Shops. Really enjoyed it. I found it very entertaining especially as she tried to inspire charity shop workers and other independent shop owners, and in fact whole high street traders to work together to save their businesses and bring back ‘green shoots of recovery’ commentators are talking about.

Surely we’ve all had enough of hum drum, boring, smelly, uninviting and overpriced charity shops in the high street. Mary (bless her) in the course of the series endeavoured to turn such places into vibrant shops which serve the charities better, by making them more money and giving customers a better and more consistent shopping experience all round.

Every one wants a bargain and the WorkHope family are no different. Not having a regular income means that when we are shopping we want good value and are prepared to look around for it. Charity shops though, are usually high on our agenda whether shopping or for that matter, window shopping. We do however expect better from them.

Primark of course can offer clothes cheap, with the likes of TKMess and Peacocks also competing in this market, but all charity shops have the opportunity to sell quality (second hand) goods at competitive prices and raise their game. Come on guys and gals in Charity Shopland, sort it out! It really isn’t rocket science, most of what happens in retail is based on common sense after all.

In the retail sector, the presentation of stock to customers is one thing, another aspect seemingly absent in a number of establishments is Customer Service. It would seem that if you can find staff with product knowledge, a degree of enthusiasm and a grip on the English language you’re well on the way. A smile and eye contact would be a real bonus! Of course I generalise here, but only to make the point… All this said, it really is worth noting that retail is renowned as badly paid and if you are/ or come across a sales adviser (or is it advisor) who appears less than chirpy and positive in their job, it’s because they are often very poorly paid… It’d bring a tear to the eye if you knew how much they are on…

Back to Charity Shops. Hopefully the days of trays of (pre-loved?) paperback books left in the rain outside a charity shop, and black bin bags of donated crud are over. Let’s all see if we can donate better stuff!

Long live charity shops, their (often) hapless volunteers… Long live Mary Portas, good customer service, genuine and fair deals and increased footfall. Retail Sales Advisers? – I salute you.

It’s all gone quiet over there…

Bang. The ball hits the back of the net and Lampard and team are celebrating. Around the ground Chelsea fans bellow out ‘it’s all gone quiet over there’ while pointing to the now quiet opposing fans. Sure, a momentary lapse, maybe a mistake by the Arsenal defence has led to another goal. Nevertheless the fans are quiet. Chelsea are set to win this one.

It’s all gone quiet over here too. Deathly quiet, and I can’t even hear the tills ring. Instead, I can hear staff talking and price guns bleeping. Styling the nation? Not today.

If we were hoping for customers, we should have got on our knees to pray this morning. Instead we stand, we walk the department, we check the stock, adjust the price tags, adjust ourselves, sweep the floor and replenish stock. The professional touch!

When I eventually did have a potential customer within sight, all went pear shaped. My gentle offer to help was rebuffed with the words ‘rather than help myself you mean?”. God bless even stroppy customers. To add to my excitement today, my future working hours have been cut. working 4 or 5 days a week looks (again) like a thing of the past, as staff are returning to work after having babies. Working 2 days a week appears to be my lot at the moment, so, what I need is a miracle, and now would be good.

Its’ not just quiet over here in Bagland, other departments are quiet. Even at home, and according to my incoming emails, it would appear recruitment agents (er consultants) are either asleep, walking the streets or twidling their thumbs till another frustrated candidate phones in chasing them. The jobs are few and far between and there are only a few that even get my attention. Does working in Abu Dhabi or Spain appeal. Mmm, Abu Dhabi? No, even though the money is appealing. Spain? Well let’s think about it… No.

Right… How about becoming a minor celebrity, a bus driver,  a talkshow host, so I can get to appear on Matthew Wright show… or maybe become an MP or something equally worthy… At least i’ll get my expenses paid!

The store was almost deserted, and couldn’t even see any suspicious looking customers to report to security. If they’ve got any sense security staff would have switched channels on their store monitors and tuned into something more interesting like Bargain Hunt.

Time for a tea break I think – a long one.

No more Mr. White guy

Now for some (sort of) good news…

I no longer have to attend the job centre, plain and simple. As I am now working on average 16 hours a week in my ‘interim career’ as sales assistant, I am no longer officially, a government statistic (unemployed). Therefore my presence is no longer required at 9.50am every other Friday.

Of course should my circumstance change, I know I can reapply, and will have my case sympathetically considered. Thankfully I am aware of the procedures, and will be better prepared to cope with the (sometimes) inane questions. Meanwhile of course, my job search for a ‘proper job’ that will actually pay the mortgage, continues. My redundant and grubby signing on book, however is safely tucked away and hidden from view. (I really must get it either framed or burned one day).

As for Mr “I haven’t got a Cluedo how to help you” White, my one time advisor, I wonder how he’s doing. I imagine he’s in the Job Centre, at the same desk, still dong what he does, with his computer… (Or is it a candlestick?).

If you are now ‘Signing on’ or about to. Chin up, my thoughts are with you.
WorkHope (Mr).

The flip side

I have written elsewhere about the tremendous support we as a family have received over the last 18 months or so while I have been out of work. There are those who have prayed for us, given generously in different practical ways, listened to us and encouraged where they can.

However, there is also a flip side, and it is worth noting as a matter of record, that not everyone who we thought would stand with us during hard times and ‘trials’, demonstrating ongoing support has actually done so. There is surely a lesson here for us all.

When hard times come in life (and they do!) it is these moments and situations that are the testing grounds for our relationships. In these times we may of course be pleasantly surprised and truly blessed, conversely we might feel let down by those who we once viewed as our dependable ‘rocks’. Instead we find ourselves growling and muttering, at those who by their actions (or in-actions) have shown themselves to be rather indifferent, uncaring, unsympathetic, selfish and self absorbed…

Before we consider lashing out at those who’ve failed us, it’s possibly worth re-adjusting our own wonky halos, and taking a longer than usual deep breath and look at our own actions. After all we don’t know everything that’s going on in their lives – do we?

Finally, obviously or otherwise, there is actually a rather positive flip side to the flip side itself.
When we face trials, the people who stand along side us, are quite probably the very best people to do so!

Sort of good news

Quite unexpectedly, I received a letter in the post from the NHS the other week. In it they casually announced that both and and my lovely Mrs are eligible for free prescriptions, dental care and eye tests. At first I was relieved, then I looked at the date. Though the letter was dated February 2009, by my calculation we’d been eligible for this benefit since April 2008, ten months (without knowing it!) and with an expiry date of July 2009. Wonderful.

I phoned in order to establish the facts, maybe in a moment of haste someone had make a clerical/ error, surely no letter of such importance would have been flitting around the postal service for ten months. Sure enough the letter was spot on. At this moment the conversation began to falter, I could of course try to claim money back if I had my receipts over the previous year, but there again I might not get anything. Pat, then cheerfully explained this wasn’t anything to do with her, nor was it her departments responsibility, so the message was pretty much ‘Boo Sucks Buster’. (Well not quite those words).

Pat, vigorously maintained, that she was only responsible for sending the forms out, so any concern I might have would have to be taken up with an individual working Far Far Away in Tax CreditLand. Bizzarely, the same day the benefits office said I no longer was eligible for (JSA) Jobs Seekers Allowance on account of me working over 16 hours for a couple of weeks recently. I could of course re-apply if my working hours slipped, so let’s hope I never have the need to reappear in the Job Centre again. Now that would be good news.

World Domination and WorkHope

WorkHope/ Working Through Unemployment is getting hit. That is, hit on a daily basis, online by bloggy blog readers, thrill seekers, casual enquirers, by those who either stumble upon the Blog my mistake or have been prompted to do so by some wonderful friends, or some pretty nifty guerrilla advertising.

WorkHope employs some accepted forms of publicity in order to get the message of Hope across to those out of Work, (geddit? WorkHope) or those struggling after being Crunched by the Credit crisis.

Don’t be suprised if you or your associates come across a handsome chap, bearing down on you with either his business card, or a wad of small white flyers encouraging you to share the love of WorkHope with others. This service is free of course and borne out of a desire to entertain yet encourage those out of work to keep pressing on in what are, frankly, hard times..

Leaflets might appear in a coffee shop near you, on the bar of your local pub, shoved through your letter box, be seen on the side of a bus or on a banner trailing across the sky on the back of a Flora sponsored bi-plane, (well, maybe not!).

WorkHope is everywhere – nearly everywhere. And a very reliable contact in the pub two weeks ago assured me that this very blog is read and enjoyed as far away as a place beginning with ‘B’. Can’t remember, sadly the exact details, suffice to say it’s the other side of the world, somewhere. just left (or is it right?) of Borneo.

In all seriousness, given the times we live in with Unemployment and Redundancy an ever present, or clear and present danger, I trust this blog will achieve its original objectives which were to:

1. Encourage the job seeker to keep seeking, with his/her head and chin up
2. Share real life situations and observations from my (ongoing) time out of work
3. Point out possible hurdles and pitfalls
4. Expand on the reasons why I have Hope
5. Cause a smile
6. Get me a publishing deal which will set me on a new career path, leading to fame and financial security.

Do get in touch, maybe tell me where you are (county, state, country, continent, hemisphere  etc). If you have any comments or questions…

WorkHope (Mr)

http://www.workhope.wordpress.com

Happy Birthday to me (April 2008)

Six months after leaving work, we as a family, found reason to celebrate, my Birthday. How I celebrated was my choice, and between us we had money to spend. I elected for Brighton, one of our favourite (out of season) destinations. During the car journey, the boys, screamed, yelped, argued and were generally obnoxious. Don’t know what it was that triggered this breakdown in behaviour, they’re usually well behaved, distracted or gagged (only joking!). Needless to say, the start of this wonderful family outing to the south coast, was a rather tortuous affair, enough to age me.

Eventually, after a few necessary roadside stops for purposes of discipline and jelly sweet bribery, we arrived at our chosen destination. Pizza Express was empty, but I noted it was open. We trooped in and we enjoyed a quiet, hassle free and undisturbed meal. We had the staffs full attention, until it came to the desserts, when other hungry day trippers had the audacity to want to enter the building. Obviously the first of the few customers they would see that day, I complimented the chef via the waiting staff, sadly they don’t do birthday discounts. After lunch we visited the Lego store and the Pier. F.A.B.

Greed Busters

Since the demise of Woolies and Adams (God bless all who worked with them etc etc) I understand that the likes of Debenhams and Wilkos’ have availed themselves of their market and customers.

Pocket busters, price busters, purse and belly busters, and a myriad of other cheap/ discount shops are hopefully deliriously happy at their increased sales and profits at this present time.

There is also a new shopper on the high street. (Assuming you still have a high street!) The ordinary shopper has transformed into the canny, frugal shopper, and regardless of work status, everyone’s out for a bargain, and thankfully there are plenty around to chose from in the ‘Sales’. There’s the famous ‘Blue Cross Sale’, and ‘The Harrods Sale’ but hopefully somewhere near you are those with more compelling names such as  ‘The Red Slash Sale’, ‘The Green’ or ‘Yellow Polka Dot Sale’, to complete alongside the ‘Stock Liquidation Sale’, ‘Never to be Repeated Ever Again Really Truly Sale’, ‘Catch Me If You Can Sale’ and the ever popular ‘Closing Down Sale’. Advertised discounts seem to range from 10% to an amazing 90% (in the case of Superdrug) although at the most popular offer appears to be 70%.

This is not rocket science, but my own suspicions are that the online shopping phenomenon will continue to thrive and conversely jobs in retail will further nosedive. We’ll see a rise in street markets, increased popularity and attendance at car boot sales, (Check out my stall) and more independent traders will be trotting out of Peckham and alike.

The media are understandably enjoying getting on the backs of those (allegedly) responsible for the UKs economic meltdown – that is after all, what they do best, get on peoples backs. Maybe, in due course we’ll get to hear reports of the (odd) irresponsible city trader and investment Banker called to account (excuse the pun!), truly repentant, rumbled and humbled, and queuing, like the rest of us, either at the Job Centre, or at the checkout of Dirty Daves Discount Emporium for their weekly shop.

That, indeed would be a real ‘Bonus’ wouldn’t it!?