Hi all, I just wanted to throw it out there cause I am so down at the minute. I’m a 55 year old mother of 4 and have looked for work from home opportunities on the internet before without any success. My children have nearly all left home now (1 still comes home every other week). Before having children I was a software developer and analyst programmer albeit this was 20 years ago now.
I worked through having all of my children, working from home and basically anywhere when deadlines where looming. I eventually gave up my role though because it just was not working and I wanted to concentrate on the children and sadly then the company I worked for were bought out and dismantled.
My role then became a full time mother and painter, decorator, soft furnisher and anything DIY doer which I did love. Out of the blue my partner was made redundant, it was as my last son was starting school so I took a part time job at a local college working in administration, it seemed perfect and fitted around the children. Little did i know! My boss in the office, I soon found out was a force to be reckoned with and would shout at people who came in the office, she would shout at my colleagues and myself, she would cross through our work with red pen. Senior management seemed to know what she was like and left her to it, she had worked there for 35 plus years and was powerful and she knew it! She said to me one day ‘you are one of those people who can smile through adversity’. I stuck it out because we needed the money as a family and the pay was slightly more than other jobs out there at the time which made a difference. Worse still you could not go to anyone cause the whole institution knew what she was like they would say "if it makes you feel better she is like that with everyone". She was the Union representative so you could not even go to the Union for help, senior staff would not come in the office just to avoid her which I found out a few years later.
After eleven years of this I applied for voluntary redundancy when it came up as a way out. For months prior to this there was feeling of unease though throughout the organisation so I undertook an Open University Degree in Web Design, thinking this would help me find work if I needed it. I felt so privileged to be able to do this and fit it around my life and work, it was not easy though still having 2 teenage children at home at that time, washing to do, meals to make and a job to go to. I came out with a 2.1 though which I was so chuffed about, my mum said to me when I called her to tell her the good news, “thank god for that, have you finished now?” I was in my absolute element on that course, there were only 7 of us and I was the oldest with everyone else in their early twenties, but we all worked together.
After being made redundant from the college, finishing the course and being out of work for 3 months I felt I needed something to occupy my head and I needed to earn, things were starting to feel tight and I my redundancy money was running out. I took a job at the local Council working in their Planning Department. Jobs are so difficult to find round here, I live in quite a rural area and you seem to get jobs through people you know. I don’t know anyone my age who has any interest in technology, my friends aren’t interested and have said in the past ‘oh the younger ones are so quick, just leave it to them’. I never talk about what I’m working on or doing I find it easier this way as we have no connection apart from the family and the children.
While then working at the Council that awful year of covid hit and I was the only one working in the office or the whole building (we occupied a building outside of the main Council offices). It was a matter of delegation and priority, I was absolutely fine I just remember looking up one day and basically everyone had gone and there was only me and another guy who wanted to come in as he had no internet connection at home. I told myself there are people out there that are far worse than me, soldier on and it will be ok. I kept reassuring my close colleagues, I know they felt bad, they all had children so they had to be at home and for the majority of that time had no access to the computer systems we used so I carried everyone and did all the day to day tasks. I loved it though, loved the prioritising, getting jobs done, being busy all day.
Gradually as the covid situation improved people came back to the office and quite a few made fun of me for being the only one still having to go in to the office and I just felt so low and fed up. Totally burnt out I left, looking back maybe I should have looked for something part time at that point but I had been helping a friend with her small caravan site business and it was so busy the year after covid but since has closed down.
I listened to an online talk yesterday on the metaverse when I talked to my children about it they laughed at me for pronouncing some of the words incorrectly, I just feel like I should be put out to pasture, worthless, I spend my time making sure everyone else is ok.
I do make clothes, having made my wedding dress a few years ago now, sewing is in my blood and has always been a hobby. I am learning pattern cutting and learning social media marketing and thinking of getting setup on LinkedIn. Is there anyone out there in a similar position or knows of any reputable companies who need online workers in admin or just basically anything where my skills would help? I have knowledge of WordPress, having created a couple of basic websites and Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and so much more but just don’t know where to start and don’t feel ready to go out to pasture just yet!