And where do you work ?

[Pupuce]

My husband who thinks I spend way too much time on this website.... and was told by me that most of the messages are always by the same group of women wants to know where all the other mum work - I do work but yes I do go on this site 3 or 4 times a day (I am hooked).... and he wondered if any of you lot were as efficient as me ;-)!!!!
I work for a large multinational as a business consultant.

Thanks a lot Pupuce and Bugsy. As soon as baby number 2 arrives, I think I shall seriously investigate it. I feel too old now to sit on a trading floor and too old to start work at 7am!.

Tigger,
I might be!!! We're lovely people really! I'm in the east - are you in Scotland?

Eric, we're in the South West of Scotland, near the port of Stranraer. We were up the East coast at the weekend, staying in Edinburgh and then out to Haddington to my aunts.

Tigger

I would love to try your job for a week - just think, loadsa fresh air and exercise, no more having to wear make-up and suits, no more sitting in front of a bloody computer, and no more arguments with male chauvenist Contractors. In fact the reason I became an engineer was to plod about in my green wellies and hard hat in the first place!

Only thing is, aren't farmer's wives supposed to be very good at the home-cooking bit? I'm crap at cooking, I'll stick with the chickens!Actually I've always wanted to keep chickens, but haven't got the energy to defend myself to the Surrey neighbours!!

Well Lil, my husbands comments were "has she plenty of money!!!!". The home cooking, well I'm not to bad, but it is more the sort of "home baking side" that farmers wives are meant to be good at, and as my sponges usually resemble a UFO then I'm not good at it at all. Pancakes aren't bad though.

Ha - do you think there is money to be made from us naive townies? you could put us to work for a week on your farm emphasising the outdoor life/hard work's good for you - and even get us to pay for the priveledge!

I agree with Lil... and Tigger don't think that the City and urban life is all great... it is as stressful (but for other reasons), it pays well but look at our cost of living (and the crap of commuting)... and after 10 years in the corporate life I am really fed up with it. Fed up of having to be diplomatic, efficient (all the time), "faultless",....

Would I change my job for something less well paid and different? (Tigger's question) Yes, a)if I thought it would 'add value' (worthy motive) and b) if my husband earned more (material motive).
I too would do your job for a week, Tigger, but being a townie (not a London one, a Bristol one), I think you'd run the risk of losing your livelihood...
My 'system' works at the moment, but my oldest is due to start school in September, so I'm not sure how I am going to reconcile the logistics of 9 to 5 (albeit only 3 days a week) with school hours (not in itself a good reason for having a third child, but quite tempting to try and use maternity leave to try and keep the show on the road!)

He was only joking!!!!!, that is what he always says if someone ask him if he would "Trade me in for a younger model". Our system of farming is really very easy, has been since DH had the car accident, and I do think you ALL would give it a damn good go, and really enjoy it when we were lambing/calving and haytime.

Sid, I think it's one of the things 'they' don't tell you - that working doesn't get any easier when the kids start school. In fact, I think it's more difficult because when they're younger you can send them to nursery/have a nanny and then you've got the whole day. But with the 9 - 3 of a school day, it's all more awkward. Really you've only got five half days. And that's not much to do a job in.....and then there's holidays.....and sickness.....and the washing etc. Does anyone here just long to stay at home?

Roglyn, how you cope then? You wrote earlier that you work from home. Does that mean you do all the school pickups/ holiday and sickness cover yourself? I've always thought that working from home means that you get all the drudge of working, but none of the benefits eg. child-free lunchhours, the ability to escape into a grown-up world (you can tell I am not working for job fulfilment!). But then, I don't have much of a commute to get to work, which is a definite advantage.

It is a bit like that really, Sid. I do quite miss shopping in the lunch hours etc. But I prefer this to before when I had a live-out nanny and a commute up to central London - I felt I had to scoot everywhere and was constantly looking at my watch. The commute was a nightmare - my timings only worked if trains worked like clockwork...and that doesn't happen often.

I like taking the kids to school though, I feel a lot more involved with them than I did before - even if our usual conversation after school is something like:

Me: What did you do at school today?

Them: Nuffink

At least I get to hear the nuffink first hand!

Did you read in the paper yesterday that working mums are generally stressed and exhausted??

To go back to Tigermoth and Sml's chat about web authoring, does anyone out there have any experience of it, or sites to try and get started?
I came across this one, based in the states, and seemingly aimed at librarians & researchers wanting to earn some extra cash in the evenings and at weekends.
Click'n'Work

Now are they genuine, or is this the electronic version of sending away for envelopes to stuff...

Thanks,Marina. Just checked out the click'n'work website. Looks worth investigating, though I'll need more convincing that there's no catch.

Roll on the day when I have a computer and internet access at home. I think it would be a bit too cheeky of me to register my interest here at work don't you think?

Does anyone know of any recruitment agencies that cover this area of activity?

I just checked it out too. It does look promising, though I guess they are really oversubscribed and they don't pay all that well when you translate the $ into £. The biggest catch as far as I'm concerned is that they seem to want you to write in 90 minute chunks - the thought of having an uninterrupted 90 minutes makes me laugh! If I did, it would probably be worth more than what they are paying!
Don't know about agencies for web writing, but there are contractors(agencies?) who sub-contract technical writing, which is done from home, though factfinding half days spent at the client are sometimes necessary.

Azzie
what's you're backround?
How did you get into medical wrting?
it sounds interesting..

I'm an infant teacher, love the job. Especially as I've only got 22 in my class this year. Hate the way the Govt keeps jerking everything around - and the media portray us as a bunch of incompetant no-hopers,though.
In answer to Tigger's question (ages ago!), I'd give it all up to run a wedding dress shop! Don't ask me why - a little fantasy, that in reality probably wouldn't last a week!!!!!

I've just managed to get back on track with my job. It's only admin one night now at a newspaper but it will do and I do political polls and write the odd article for websites and things. I might be doing a newsletter as well.

This is the first time in months my password hasn't been rejected for this site!!

In praise of outside work - I've just gone back to secondary teaching this week, 2 days a week on a job share after 9 month's mat leave and I have to say it's great! I was head of languages before so just being a bog standard French teacher now 2 days a week is v easy - but it's really nice to go out into the world again and talk about things other than babies - strange but true I've also missed the kids!
There seem to be a lot of people thinking about teaching and I have to say that for all that it's not an easy job i've been doing it for 14 years now and I love it and always have. I teach in an inner city comprehensive with a high Hindu population and the kids are, on the whole, very nice - hideous to admit that those neighbouring schools with white kids are hell holes and I'd starve rather than work there!
I think if you get onto a good PGCE ( and the standard does vary enormously )and then choose your school with care ( not hard given the teacher shortage...) it's still a brilliant job if you aren't motivated by money

Rachel, I'm a freelance writer too, largely writing for the Daily Express and Scottish newspapers too, although I've just filed a piece for the Daily Mail too. I've got three children too and work from home as well. I'd love to get in touch with you and share experiences etc. Would that be possible, how do you go about that on tis website?

Eric - there is another civil servant out here! I work in London, though if I had a choice I would work locally. But the only local work as a civil servant is things like tax office (figures not my thing) or job centre, dole office, whatever the government has renamed them this year, too much abuse and not enough screens in those places, so I have to brave Connex South East train network every day. Three cheers for flexitime though!

I am an industrial relations advisor - translates as giving advice to employers on employment law and good practice. I have one son and work two days a week from home (the company set up a telephone, computer - with office link and fax).

If I was any good at it, I would love to be a potter - either with clay or just pottering around the house and garden!

...and another civil servant. Used to be part of the much hated MAFF, now cleverly renamed DEFRA ('it wasn't us that ballsed everything up, it was MAFF and they're gone forever' - great thinking Tony). 3 cheers for flexi time though, and fantastic contractual maternity leave (which I start tomorrow! Hooray!)