Between A Rock and Hardplace

Garden Service

When I lost my retirement job in September last year I was devastated. I worked for a garden service contractor in the retirement village where I live. The garden service came up for review in August 2013. The contractor that I was working for told me they were very keen to have the contract awarded to them again. But when all the tender results came out they were way down on the list.

The contractor whose price was eventually accepted, did offer me a job but at a salary much lower than the one I was getting. When I explained that I could not accept their offer, they said they had no option but to let me go.

Although the job was pretty demanding, when I got home from work I still had enough energy left to work on my WA lessons.

A New Beginning

This was a severe blow but it did mean that I could now devote more time to building my website,which is about helping retired people make extra money through the internet. Click here to learn more about what this is all about.

I spent the next 3 months glued to my computer and absorbing the bootcamp lessons as fast as I could. Because of my financial situation, I knew it would not be long before I had to seriously start looking for another job. By the end of December I was in dire financial straits once more and I put my name down with several employment agencies, including the admin. department here in the village where I live.

Repairing The Stormwater Drainage

Fortunately I had established quite a good reputation, whilst in charge of the garden service here in my own retirement village. Within a few weeks the general manager came back to me and offered me a job repairing the stormwater drainage, which the developer had left in a terrible mess. I was given a team of 5 workers and told to get on with the job. Unfortunately they were raw recruits and had never done this type of work before. I was going to have to train them from scratch.

Getting Physically Involved

The problem with this job, was that I couldn’t just supervise, I had to get physically involved and show them how it had to be done. All the levels had to be altered so that the stormwater could flow away from each living unit. Inexperienced staff have to have someone like me to put the correct levels in so that they can dig the new drains.

My background is 35 years in the building industry, so drainage is something I have done most of my working life. Because the levels were all wrong it meant that in most cases the stormwater was collecting around each unit and not flowing away to the stormwater drains. To add to the problem is that I am 72 years old, so not quite so agile as I used to be.

I usually arrived home from work completely exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was sit down in front of a computer and concentrate on the next lesson.

If anyone else has been or is in a similar situation please let me know, because we may be able to help one another.