I'm in quite the mood today, for reasons not entirely unknown.
Yesterday, a woman came in to the office (I was all alone yesterday - no tea, no lunch, just work) and told me that she wanted help finding a job. She was in Group 5 of the program and had gone through it in June and July.
She looked at my job board, took down a bunch of my postings and then asked me to send them off for her. Email address? I asked her.
No.
So we made one.
And then I sat, crunched considerably further into my corner than I would have liked, while she invaded my personal space from the left side and I attempted to type without full range of motion. I emailed her CV to no less than seven places.
I wrote seven slightly differing cover letter that started to lose momentum as I was going.
I admit that I was starting to lose patience.
The last cover letter was two sentences. It had no formal greeting. It said, "Hello, I wish to submit my CV for consideration for the available position. Please see the attached file for my contact information."
I apologize. In all fairness, she did get a call back from a place nearly immediately, so I'm not entirely overly concerned for her wellfare.
The reason the last cover letter was that way? (If you can call it a cover letter - it was the body of a recklessly addressed email.)
She had the nerve to tell me I had no responsibilities.
I bit my tongue.
It began with her telling me she'd left her R900 per month job because it wasn't paying enough. The conversation went like this:
Me: "I know it wasn't a lot, but it was something."
Her: "They weren't paying me enough! Transport nearly took it all."
Me: "How much was transit?"
Her: "R250! What does that leave me with?"
I pause, certain this is a trick question.
Me: "R650?"
Her: "That's nothing."
Me: "That's R650 more than nothing."
Her: "They weren't paying me enough. I've got a husband and a child. He didn't want me working at a horrible job like that. I'm desperate for work."
Me: (Obviously not desperate enough, I think. Leaving a perfectly good job without having gotten another one first.) "Sometimes you have to do jobs that you don't want or that don't pay enough for awhile."
Her: "You wouldn't know, you don't have any responsibilities."
Me: (Sharp biting of tongue. Two sentence cover letter. Mental damnation.)
Here's the thing. I may not have a lot of responsibilities, but that's because I'm responsible enough to have done certain things to avoid having those responsibilities, if you follow the insinuation.
I may not have kids and a husband, I've got quite a bit on my plate. Enough that I was willing to suck it up and work at Subway (this is where I might insert a "no offense" sort of thing but I'm not even going to bother because I mean it, with spite) all summer for $8 an hour. Trust me, there's nothing more fun (ah, depends on your definition of fun) than being patronized, but that patronization ensures that I will never have the spirited nature that might allow me to be snarky with someone attempting to help me find a job, or with the person who's typing my application when my CV declares me "computer literate."
Maybe she's partly right. Maybe I'm not wildly buried under responsibility. But then again, that depends on your definition of repsonsibility.
Debt? Check.
Unemployed? Check
Homeless? Check
Cat with AIDS? (Maybe that should read, Expensive Cat with AIDS who manages to get very expensive illnesses) Check
Car that needs regular upkeep and whose bumper is held together with duct tape? Check
These seem so trivial, I know. But trust me, I've got a lot of expectation hanging over my head. When I get back, I can't sit at home and wait for handouts, or ask my husband to provide for me. And I, too, will have to enter the job market and find myself employment.
Maybe my responsibilities are different, but trust me, they exist.
I'm frustrated. Today was not a good day as far as job hunting goes.
I've yet to find anyone a job.
I'm doing things that these learners should be able to do themselves - Googling. My resources are limited and I'm unfamiliar with the job market.
And yet, I need to stop complaining and get it together.
And so today, I posted another six pages of job openings available for consideration. Today, I got a Twitter for the programme and I got an email address as well. This way I don't have to keep emailing from my own personal account.
I bought yesterday's paper with the job listings after my boss neglected to do so last night.
I also attempted to get to the bottom of a possible nursing scam. I emailed a SETA and an NGO, and heard back from the NGO.
I am attempting to start an email list so that I can send out job postings and CV hints and such to the learners on a weekly basis.
I've got my job boards.
I'm trying to help them register their CVs with recruitment agencies.
And yet, I'm missing something.
Here's to brainstorming and some sort of miracle. Sheer determination is not enough, because sadly, I simply lack the drive. There's nothing fueling this endeavor. There is not enough need on this side - the contentment of unemployment is strong, the desire for work doesn't last.
And yet for some, it does. But they are self-starters. They don't want me to email for them because they're doing it themselves. And I wonder if I can just offer support, offer something that those who are movivated might need, something that might give them the edge.
Tomorrow I may be attending a dance show with the current group of learners in Cape Town. This could certainly be an adventure.
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