Until the start of last year I worked stupid hours. Weekends, late nights, 6 sometimes 7 day weeks, week in week out. 'Annual Leave' - A term I was familiar with but rarely used, being unwell was just not 'convenient' to the business operation - in the beauty industry having a sick staff member means either clients get cancelled (and god forbid someone can not have their waxing or facial done because their therapist had fallen ill) or another staff member would be called in on their day off to cover the shift, so being sick was simply not an option. So I worked and worked until one day I didn't anymore.
Burnt out. Confused. Unemployed.
I spent the first 3 weeks on vacation, time meant nothing except for how long till happy hour at the swim up bar? I was floating on cloud 9, not a worry in the world! However, as soon as the wheels of the plane hit the tarmac upon my return it was like the entire sky had fallen on my shoulders. Faced with job hunting, something I really had not even thought about for almost 8 years!
Did I even have a copy of my CV anymore? Nope. When I upgraded from my old clunky PC to my spiffy MacBook I didn't have 'office for mac' and therefore I didn't even bother to save my old CV because at the time I thought, not going to need that again! I'm not leaving where I am, I love it.
But as Murphy's law will have it, things change, we change, other people change and we grow and change directions which sometimes means we have no choice other than to move on and we need these things we thought we would never use again!
I started from scratch, re did my CV and started my new job as a job seeker. It was draining, exciting and humiliating! Over qualified for most 'beauty' jobs I was lucky to even get an interview with most places that interested me to work at. When I did I found that managers reacted negatively to me due to my extensive experience in running multi-site salons. I couldn't get a foot in the door outside my industry because I didn't have the 'piece of paper' to back up my skills (hence why I am doing this course).
After 4 long exhausting weeks I finally secured some employment. Time was no longer on my side. I wondered 'why didn't I enjoy being unemployed more?'
When I decided I was going to study my employer kindly agreed to my proposal of working a 4 day week, it meant long days so I could still do my 38hour full time week and with the business operating extended hours this was easily done. Then just as Uni started for the year my role at the salon changed and I was now promoted into the Manager position, a compliment to my abilities yes but it also came with going back to a 5 day week. We were understaffed so there I was, back to 44+ hour weeks and uni on top of that!
I truly believe that if every single full time working person worked a 4 day week there would be less animosity and negativity in the world. (Generalization yes but seriously, how much happier is everyone when they work a 4 day week!) You might not have 3 days off in a row, I didn't, but that extra little day, mid week, was all mine - to do with as I pleased.
Reading this article prompted me to relay my personal experience of the 4 day working week. Yes it would mean 4 long days but trust me, loosing just 1 little day each week not spending time getting ready for work, traveling to work, thinking about work, winding down from work is priceless.
http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/time-most-precious-commodity-of-all/story-e6frfm9r-1226613972894?from=public_rss
My aim, to get back to being able to work that 4 day week, ASAP!
My motto - work smarter, not harder - now I just need to convince my bosses that I can manage this role without needing to be there, 5 days a week!
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