A lot has happened over the past few weeks. OK, so I still haven't received a letter telling me that my former position will be cancelled. But old job and the regular long commute out west is not really an option for me any more, and my hope that I could work part time in the main office seems to be out of the question.
So off I went on a quest to find "quality part time work". This is a phrase that someone I talked to at EOWA introduced to me. It's part-time work that isn't secretarial or clerical, and with a higher salary rate (even though the annual salary is down due to you not working the full complement of hours). It means creating jobs that go for less than 5 days a week that aren't casual or shift work, and are actuall worthwhile taking up (ie would cover expensive inner-city child care costs, and bring in enough money to cover living costs where one household income is not enough). Finding suitable quality part-time jobs to apply for is hard - opportunities don't come up often.
But alas! One came along that I thought I could apply for, is with the same employer I'm currently with (ie is close to my home and where I am down on childcare waiting lists), and pays enough money to be worthwhile. They advertised 4-5 days a week, but when I rang to see if they would consider me even if I could only work 3 days, they said it was more about getting the right person. So I applied.
And got an interview.
And got offered the job. I'm doing 3 days a week, plus another 1/2 day from home. We'll see how things go after 3 months and review whether we need to get someone else in part time, or whether I'm likely to want to go up to 4 days (I'm not sure how I feel about that, and won't be pressured about it).
So yay. Can relax about paying the bills, and wondering where I'll work for the next year.
2 comments:
yay! Congratulations, that's great news. Doesn't this workplace in questions have its own childcare too, or is that the same as the public one?
Thanks, BSharp! Yes - E-chan will most likely be going to one of the places we visited last year when I was on Mat leave. The centre is a company wholly owned by my employer, but also open to the general public. Employees and students are supposed to get preference, but from what I have witnessed, people move up the waiting lists by making increasingly desperate phone calls to the centre manager! There's also an element of being in the right place at the right time (ie when there is a vacancy).
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