It's been a very strange week job wise. In September 2021 Dan got a new job, a remote job for a company in the Czech Republic which allowed us all to move to France. On Tuesday they made him redundant with 4 weeks notice. This was one of our biggest potential worries about moving, because I've left my job (obviously because it was in England) and my ability to earn money is a lot more limited here, due to the fact I'm language disabled. That's the new official PC term for the fact that I don't speak good French.
So far we've survived ok on just Dan's income, which has meant I could focus on learning French, and I have learnt a fair bit of French. My favourite word is "talkie walkie" that's French for "walkie talkie." It was a bit of a shock for him to be made redundant, and I feel like they could have given him more notice.
When he started the job he was employed (rather than self-employed) because the company had an office in London, but when we moved he had to become self-employed because they didn't have an office in France. It was a bit of a faff to set up and he had to pay someone to do it because it's a bit complicated if you don't understand the system. It was all going well and we felt really lucky that he had such flexible work, but the problem with being self-employed is that it's very easy for people to get rid of you, in a way that they can't really do if you're employed. So this week they just told him, "we're not really using you to your full potential, so we're going to get rid of you" and then the next day they said a different reason like "it's just not really working and we're going to take on someone else and give them a slightly different role," which was a further blow.
There's loads of people in his company that love him and some are very angry with the fact this has happened, like the lady Dan manages who has said he is the best boss ever and she doesn't really want to do that job without him. And the person who originally gave Dan the job said some incredibly nice things about him too.
It is a shame and it is a bit worrying because we don't have as many safety nets as we previously have had, but this is at least the third time Dan has either been made redundant or chose to leave a job with nothing lining up, and every time, eventually, it's worked out for the best, so lets see what happens. If you have any ideas let us know.
Meanwhile I had an interview last week for a job teaching English in a sort of fun club. It's just for Wednesdays because kids don't go to school on Wednesdays. The kids learn English though crafts and games and cooking, it's all really creative. Yesterday I had to go back to show a lesson plan and talk though my activity ideas and I got the job! So I'm happy about that. It will in some ways be similar to the work I used to do in schools - apart from the English bit. I was told I was the least qualified in teaching English, but that's not actually the thing they were looking for the the most. It was pretty weird getting the job the day after Dan lost his job. If Dan still had his job this extra money would be like bonus money for holidays and stuff, but now I'm already trying to think of ways to get more hours. If I can sign up some kids from my village for example I might be able to do more work.
I told the kids today that after our holiday to England Daddy will be looking for a new job. Eric said, "what does Daddy love to do?" and Percy said, "it doesn't matter what he loves to do, he needs to get a job so that we don't all perish!" That's pretty much what the people at the job centre said to me when I told them I had an Art Degree.
In other news, we got a free meal at our village Bastille day celebrations...
The boys made sunglasses cases using the sewing machine and I think they would do ok in a sweatshop, if we were about to perish. (If you want to see a video of them doing it it's on my art instagram @artisthannahjones)
I did some photo embroidery too.
And we're looking forward to hosting the lovely Rachel Goodsall next week.
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| Today's parenting was greatly improved by this beautiful sea. |
