It occurred to me this morning that my appointment at the dole office is on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. I never thought I’d be wearing my poppy and observing a two minute silence in the dole queue.
My appointment was 40 minutes late. I thought about legging it. Surely some work would come up soon? Did I really need to be here?
I listened to the interview taking place in front of me. The man in the shell suit was an out of work hairdresser apparently. There were several hairdressing jobs coming up on the system, but he didn’t do colour so they were no good.
Finally it was my turn. The nice lady took down my particulars and asked me what I’d been doing about looking for work. I filled her in on all the agencies I’ve signed up with and all the emails I’ve sent, plus the fact that I’d had some freelance work.
“Lets have a look if we have anything on our system for you”, she said as she logged on to what looked like an early 1970’s prototype.
“Here we go. Cad operator at a printing company in Shepherds Bush”.
“Errmm... that’s not quite what I do” I replied, not wishing to sound unwilling.
She printed the job spec out anyway and told me to call them. I also had to make a diary of everything I do to find work in the next 2 weeks and bring it to my next appointment. I’ll get about £60 a week, paid every 2 weeks.
Let’s hope the phone rings soon.
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