…I forgot my diary…

Dear Diary,

If you were a paper journal, Dear Open Diary, I could say I lost you…

But I have to say thay I forgot to write here!

Desparate for a friend to talk to, I have spoken to face-to-face friends, but nice to be here too.

Huge newses…..

I was on 6 months probation with my new job as Adult Literacy/ESL teacher. I had to submit 6 page detailed reports on prospective new students that I had to meet, interview, test and assess literacy/numeracy levels in one hour, often while I was actually teaching a class full of students.  The reporting process was very particular and I had a couple of hours training in it. Well, I was assessed on my ability to produce these reports (mostly put together at 11pm at night after my kids in bed, dishes done etc a few days later) and apparently one of them was not detailed enough… Well, anyway… with that apparently huge infraction, combined with me having to have two days off work to take my 8 year old to the city to have eye surgery… and they were unable to find a suitably qualified releif teacher… they decided to…’not continue my employment after the probation time’…

I was really angry and shocked…. as I had no warnings… but did not show it… except for some tears… they came when I had to tell my students (yes I had to tell themthat I had to leave and that they had no replacement teacher….) and they had tears. It was really horrible. I felt so bad…..

I was given a huge send off, by some very angry people in my workplace and my students, and some very guilty fellow staff, flowers and pressies and a slap-up lunch…. Another teacher who started her employment the same time as me and we had training together has since left of her own accord and my students all boycotted my class with the unqualified temporary releif person. My position was advertised, but I don’t think anyone has accepted the job, as it was advertised only for three months and I was actually the only person they interviewed that had some relevant quallies in the first place.

Probably, alarm bells should have been ringing a bit earlier with the position as I found out after I had been in it for a while that it was grossly underfunded and I was actually being underpaid.

After I got over the pissed-off-ness, I have no regrets as I have proven I am able to in demanding full-time employment which will help my resume look better as it is hard to prove work ethic when you are self employed…..and work alone….

I immediately applied for and got accepted into a full time fully funded TAFE course, after the initial ‘weeding-out’ course. There were 15 places for 30 applicants so I was lucky. It is a 10 week course in Mining Pre-employment.

The course covers White Card, WorkSafeSA procedures for mining sites, ‘lock-down and isolation’ for plant repairs, 1st Aid (mine had expired recently so that was good), measurement, Forklift, Loader, Confined Spaces, Excavator Lift Licences also.

We have to wear totally sexy (not) men’s work trousers, a ‘high visibility’ shirt – neon yellow, steel-cap boots, safety glasses and there will be hard hats at some stage.

Yes, there is ONE other woman in the course, thank God, but before I got my safety gear the visiting lecturers would tend to ask if I was ‘lost’ when I entered the training area! Still a male dominated industry, but there are certainly many women actually employed on sites.