Back into a Routine

Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that Hubby has been featuring on my blog more than usual and we have been off an experiencing some fabulous local days out.

I have also kept it quite light as it was my escape from everything that was happening at home, but the truth is we were having a tough time as hubby lost his job at the beginning of February.

Out of respect for his feelings, he asked me not to blog about it at the time as we were both going through all sorts of stress and emotions, him more than me.  I took my role of the supportive wife very seriously and rallied to try to keep his spirits up.

He was made redundant 18 months prior to this and pretty much walked into his new job with just a week off in between. He had a fairly decent redundancy package that time and we invested it in the house, replacing the windows and bathroom and taking the kids on holiday to Disneyland Paris.

This time he had nothing as the job he had been on a temporary contract and they can let go of people as they choose. It was a bit of a shock if I am honest, as they had asked him to go to various other stores and turn them around during his time with the company.  They had a major manager change before Christmas and it seemed the new team just didn’t support those in store anymore. He was constantly firefighting customer complaints whilst trying to manage his store.  He was working 12 hour days and taking numerous phone calls on his day off which isn’t fair on any member of staff.

As he had pretty much walked into this job before, we didn’t foresee any issues with him finding employment but this time it was a real challenge.  He waited a couple of weeks to gather his thoughts and decide which direction he wanted to take before starting the application process.

After phone interviews, hubby got a couple of face to face interviews quite quickly and one was a role he was actually very excited about.  He had the interviews and then waited…….and waited……..and waited.  Despite being told he would find out with x number of days, both companies didn’t get back to him when they said they would, which left us both feeling anxious.  It is hard to know the correct etiquette for chasing things up in this situation too and any messages left were never returned.

The other grumble I have with these interviews they make you travel.  He had to go as far as Bristol and Basingstoke, which when you have no money coming in is a long way to go.  All our savings for a holiday to Disney have now evaporated so we could continue to pay the bills and eat, as apparently we weren’t eligible for any help!

It took one of these companies 2 weeks to decide that he didn’t have any experience with what their store sold…….so why interview him then?  The other took 3 weeks to get back to him and couldn’t offer any feedback as to why he didn’t get the role.

It was a real dent in his confidence and I now understand why you see people getting so despondent whilst job searching.  It did give me the kick up the bum to start childminding full-time again and to pass my Childcare course that I had been struggling to get done.

The bonus of having him off is that all those niggly little jobs that get put on the back burner have now been done and he got to spend some real quality time with the children, although I am not sure the teen appreciated it at times.

The great news is, 3 months on and he has a job – ironically with the company that he decided against joining after he was made redundant the first time.  He started last week and much as I loved having him at home to help, my routine was shot to pieces.

I couldn’t blog when I wanted to and have got really behind, my organisation went out of the window, I felt guilty if I sat down with a cuppa and I would frustrated if he didn’t do something when I asked.

This week is all about getting back into a normal routine of lunchboxes, school runs, swimming lessons and work.  It seems strange to think that I have missed it!