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Wysiwyg, that's weird about the childcare thing. One of the specifications in the work from home policy at my work is that you are *not* to try to combine any substantial caring duties with working from home. Yeah, maybe ok for an hour or two, or if you had an older child who was lying around watching telly, but not for whole days at a time with small children - that's what personal/carers leave is for.
All of that pretty much goes out the window when contracting, even when I have worked as a permanent employee for large organizations that have HR policies on working from home, although the policies have been similar to what is stated above about if you want to have "working from home days" in your employment terms, when it comes down to it there is an expectation of work, it is all unofficial of course but the type of roles I have worked in on projects with deadlines etc. you end up digging a big hole for yourself if you can't work because is not like someone else does it while you are not there, it is all just there for you when you get back and the deadlines don't change either.:
Email back from colleague today - trying to be sympathetic I think about DD school sores said "I remember those days when my kids were small, my wife had to quit her job to take care of them"
I so need to get out of this line of work, just stop fighting it and find something else.
About to go meet someone for a coffee/chat/interview about a job for after this contract, fingers crossed I suspect the travel requirements will be too much but you never know.
Good luck, I hope it's your perfect job:
wysiwyg - good luck with the interview. I also noticed Elk Accessories are looking for someone on their Facebook page who has logistics experience - they're in Melbourne.
Thanks, it went well - we shall see if anything comes of it, although there didn't sound like too much travel - it did sound like they might need someone who can be more flexible with their time depending on what client they are working with. I think the woman I spoke with would like to give me a job but just depends if right opportunity comes up. Is always a problem with organisations that ship you out to work for clients in that they have to meet their clients 'wants' rather than allowing for their employees to have lives :-)
The Elk thing is interesting, I would quite like to do something like that but I only have experience in deploying IT systems to help people do those activities rather than the actual activities (and sounds like Elk don't use SAP which might have got me somewhere with them). I have applied for similar before but because of the strange way the SAP world is - the IT skills are valued much higher than the actual business skills (in my opinion the wrong way round) - so people don't believe you really want to go 'backwards' into this type of role, and think you only want a stop gap.
Interesting. I work from home 1 day a week. DD (20months) is with me and DS is at school, so I duck out for the school run also. My boss and workplace are fine with it. I generally get 5-6hrs of work done and the rest I make up by starting early/having a working lunch break so do at least my minimum hours, usually more. I really think workplaces need to be realistic and support work/life/family. As long as your overall productivity is not impacted and your are performing well then there is no reason employees cant juggle both. There is so much productivity lost in the workplace while people gossip, catch up and have extended breaks (however good it is for 'networking' hehehehe):
I work full time but have a fair amount of flexibility. I work from home 3 days a week.
I am gone 13 hours on the days I go to the office, and it's hard because it's such a long day.
I do feel lucky to have flexibility but I'm about to join a global call at 10pm which makes me feel very unlucky lol
I hope it's great news, wysiwyg !!
Similar here I am just finishing up working with India. To most companies I think flexibility means you work when they want you to, and if you need to take an inch like leaving early to make childcare pickup then they take a mile in terms of all sorts of out of hours work. I actually don't really want flexibility - I would far prefer that I just had to work during set work hours only - after all with childcare I don't have any flexibility around days etc and you pay a full day whatever they stay for - I prefer a clear demarcation between work and home.:
MN - I really am amazed you can do so much work with your DD at home - I don't think I would get anywhere near that done with DS at home. DD when I had to stay home with her I managed maybe about 5 hours but she watched a lot of TV. I think companies need to be more flexible, but also realize that not all jobs are possible while looking after children and that is also very dependent on the child as well.
I would agreed about the flexibility thing in previous roles but I work for a great employer so my experience is a good one :)
The night calls are a pain but I chose how I make back the inconvenience
Good luck wysiwyg.
I work reasonably set hours but my brain doesn't know this and wants to think about work lots!
FL - have you always been like that? I have always had problems switching off from work, my dreams usually involve warehouses etc. but in the past it didn't matter so much - I didn't need so much brain for the rest of my life :-):
I think I have been wysiwyg. It's worse when I'm stressed, tired or depleted.
I wish I wasn't like that. I think I'm trying to do lots of reflection, planning and problem solving.
Today I got home and went to bed.
I'm sick. The boys are sick. One of the boys is acting up majorly, meaning DH hasn't been able to get much done.
Today was a huge day at work, I didn't stop, I didn't get lunch, I didn't breathe ... I was about to leave around 4.30pm when a very urgent thing came up which I had to deal with pronto. I finished it just on 5, went home, went to bed.
Going to sleep now.
PN hope you feel better in the morning
WYSIWYG - she generally has a three hr nap. If she didn't sleep so well I wouldn't be as productive. I can also attend to lots of things via email, meaning I don't need to literally be in front of my laptop. I often shoot things off from my phone while juggling DD. Today I was ploughing away through my workload, heard DD wake and realised it was 5 mins past the time I usually leave to pick up DS from school. Thank god DD woke or I might have just kept going. Got there in time luckily. Mother of the year candidate for sure!! Have set an alarm on my phone for the days I do school pick up now!!
I'm in a rut though, the daily grind of balancing kids, work and getting to childcare/school etc. DH and I feel like it's Groundhog Day. DD is rather high maintenance which doesn't help. Need to invest in our social life and get out a bit more, with and without kids in tow.....
Same. Time just feels like it is flying by and we feel like we are not doing "anything". Trying to do more fun stuff and things that have a purpose.outcome like finishing the curtains, redoing the girls wardrobe, sewing for me ;). Just means we have to stop being so lazy of an evening and do some boring housework, so our weekends are freer for doing those things.:
Just trying to work out vacation care. Ouchies on the bank account now as I have to pay for two of them. Wish I could pay it monthly in the lead up to it. I just have to get better at managing the finances!
Yes hope you are feeling better P/N.:
I know what you mean about the daily grind - we do still get out a fair bit with the kids in tow (in this little flat we have to get out) - but the house is a disaster area. DH often offers to take kids out so I can rest/sleep or do boring house stuff - but I don't always accept because I am sick of missing out/resting there has to be some fun in life, and I don't want weekends to be always one or other of us with the kids and the other at home resting or whatever.
I am so fed up over the whole work situation - yes this job I am finishing at Easter, but after that what - who knows. Everything I see in my arena just wants to many hours - it pays well but I don't really care about that - we just need a little bit more than DH earns (plus I like to be working some of the time) but so far all the more suitable things time wise I am too experienced for, or as I have never done that exact title then don't get considered.
I feel naive that I never considered working after having kids would be this hard (not the actual kids and working thing - which is hard but I expected that) but the sorting out a job which works for family life as well. But then I suppose since pre-kids the industry has continued changing along the off-shoring path and is all the jobs which have gone off-shore that were the most suitable for regular hours and minimal travel etc.
At least I am not regretting my decision to finish where I currently am, last night found out while online to speak to India (who no one had told me were on a public holiday) that managers at work have promised to deliver three significant pieces of work by next Friday - without even asking me on dates - and they reckon they have built in contingency. I have 5 working days left between today and next Friday and even if I manage an extra 8 hours spread over evenings - I won't even come close. There is at least 10 solid days work from me and that is not building in any time waiting on things to be done in India.
It's expensive isn't it. Ours is $50 per day, thankfully the Childcare rebate applies to OHSC and Vacation Care. DS is going two days in the April Holidays. I have arranged AL for the 2nd week and with my RDO, work from home day and my Mum we have the rest covered. DHs Mum/Step Father could have him, but..... I'm not a big fan of them as carers, the couple of times they've had him, they've disappointed me both times. They looked after DS recently when he was recovering from an ear infection and we wanted him to have another rest day from school and DH and I just couldn't take another day off work. We've sent a healthy lunch with a small treat, and they ended up feeding him three donuts instead :( I know they love him but I dont completely trust them. Step Father is a terrible driver. MIL encourages poor behaviour, then we have to undo it all when he returns home, so its just easier not to use them unless we are literally desperate (eg have used all our carers leave etc). So instead he will go to a couple of vacation care days. One of them is an excursion morning to 'The Food Forrest", and the other is an Easter Craft Day - he'll love both and is keen :) MIL asked what he was doing in the school holidays, I felt a bit bad but I just positioned it that he wanted to go to Vacation Care with his friends.:
WYSIWYG - I hope the perfect job with work/life balance comes up. I cant imagine how hard it is, I've got a pretty good arrangement obviously. My boss has 5 kids which makes him very accommodating even though I know he'd prefer I was full time. I wish all employers were so understanding. Fingers Crossed something comes your way that has the hours that will suit!
I hope you're feeling more sprightly PN.
Fingers crossed for you wysiwyg.
One trick that an ex used on his job applications( I think he was in the same sector as you) was to copy and paste the job criteria/ key selection criteria etc into the end on his résumé and then change the text color of what he'd copied and pasted to white. That way, it tricks the computer systems that sort applicants into yes and no (based on the words in the application), his application would always end up in the yes file. When his cover letter and resume was printed out or viewed on screen, the 'trick' was invisible because of the white font.
I've used it too and I think it helped my applications get seen more often.
Thanks for the tip, I hadn't heard that idea before. I don't actually have a problem with getting my applications seen or even getting contacted for jobs - I got three contacts yesterday - they may all have been for the same position though. If I was happy to do the full on 40+ hours a week with the added travel to wherever in Melbourne I could have a new job starting on Monday. The whole résumé thing seems not to matter much.:
Kids have driven me bonkers with their leaving daycare routine, I leave work at about 4:15 = 4:30 to beat the traffic an get to pick them up by 5:30 and they don't ever want to leave the place, so half an hour is spent faffing around trying to leave. It is good they love the place so much but sometimes I think if it wasn't for the traffic I would be better off just arriving at 5:55 (it shuts at 6:00). DD has begged me so much that she wants to go one Friday (one of her friends only goes on a Friday as is at an ELC kinder the other days) - that I have booked them in for Fri 11th - and I will have a day at home doing a couple of hours work (as a contribution to the extra fees for the day) chilling, and trying to get the house in a fit state for when my parents arrive back.
I had a work from home today which was lovely - didn't have to drag kids out of bed at 6:00AM (and they actually slept in till about 6:40) and walked them round to daycare - I love the walk to daycare so that was good - very glad I negotiated to do Wednesdays from home for the last three weeks of my contract.
While I will still look for work - DH and I have basically decided that I won't go back full-time and will try to get something with more suitable hours than the past contract - after thinking I could do five days if days were abit shorter we have reevaluated and decided everyone has just been too frazzled with this current contract that unless it was five days with school hours it would be a no go. I have saved a load of money this contract so can fund daycare while I am looking (although that seems painful - seeing the hard earned money go on daycare when I could have them at home while I am not working - it will only be really painful this tax year - if I don't find something then next tax year our CCB will go back up so it won't be so bad).
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