Jobs are hard to come by, especially with the high unemployment rate in this country, so every opportunity to be employable should be appreciated.
Recently, my family hired a new domestic worker, after the previous one left saying she had medical issues.
Fair enough, she obviously was unable to work, and perhaps thought it was best to leave.
Anyway, we hired the new one. I happened to be around as I was slightly incapacitated at the time.
She was a bit evasive about where she was employed previously, nonetheless she was hired.
ALSO READ: In my view: A little compromise won’t hurt
She worked well, the week I was at home, and continued in the same manner the following week.
By no means was she policed while she was working, however, it so happened that my elderly mother (who is alone at home during the day) decided to check on her while she was cleaning a bathroom.
As my mother neared the bathroom, the domestic came out of a bedroom, which my mother found strange.
No words were exchanged as to what she was doing in there. She continued with the chores, got paid and left at the end of the day, which happened to be a Friday, the end of her work week.
Only later, my mother told my sister and I about the incident and that she felt uncomfortable. On checking her cupboards, we found items had been moved in one section.
The trust was broken, and the domestic was told on her return that her services were no longer required.
I wondered how she would manage financially – she has four children, three of whom are still in school – and with the rising cost of living it is becoming more difficult to provide for a family.
I know from personal experience what it is like to be unemployed – a few years ago, I was unemployed for about 15 months, and horrible months they were too.
While I had a roof over my head and food to eat, trying to get job was literally trying to squeeze water out of a stone. I sent hundreds of applications but nothing positive came back.
Just when I started to despair, a friend came through for me with an opportunity that put me back on the job market.
I was lucky, but many are not in the same boat.
Search any job site, and there are literally a few hundred jobs available in various professions. And there are so many who are unemployed, at the end of the day who gets the advertised job.
If experienced jobseekers are finding it difficult for opportunities, I can only imagine how hard it is for a recent university graduate to become employed.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
