Going back to work after a 7 year gap

Gosh…I haven’t written a personal blog post for so long that I thought I’d all but given up on it. I sort of ran out of things to talk about. The kids are getting older, life is hectic, and I just really ran out of words and subject matter. Funny how you can go from writing so regularly to hardly writing at all, but it certainly happened to me.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages now, but again, I couldn’t find time or willing to do it. So here I am, sat at my laptop on the first day of the October half-term holidays, and I’ve opened up the laptop and started typing away.

I started this blog back in 2014 when I was a frustrated working mum. I hated spending my days away from my little man who was 18 months old, I hated the fact that I had to work full time, and I hated the rushed time that I did get to see him – the post-nursery pick up when he was tired and ratty. So when I started earning an income from this blog, I saved up all the money I made and when it was time for me to think about going back to work after my second maternity leave, I discovered that I didn’t have to so I handed my notice in and became a stay-at-home-mum. It was tough at first, but then my Husband started earning quite a bit more money and we started getting more and more comfortable. That was until the financial crisis hit and things started getting a bit harder. We were still ok, but it started looking like we might have to cut back on the kids’ activities and that was something I didn’t really want to do. They don’t do a huge amount of expensive stuff – it’s mainly their swimming lessons that cost a fortune, but I didn’t want the situation to affect them. I know that’s a very nice position to be in and it can so very easily change, so I started thinking it might be time to get myself a job – to go back to work so I could add to the family income.

After 7 years the thought was quite scary, but I started keeping an eye on Indeed and looking for things that might work. We wanted to try and keep them out of after-school club and I still really wanted to be around for them as much as I could be, so I thought it might be quite tricky finding something that suited. I previously worked in Events, and even though I have been out of the loop for a long time, I knew it made sense for that to be the first kind of thing I looked for – that or social media as I’d been doing a lot of that over the 7 years.

And then I found one. A job as an Events Officer for a Hospice down in Cambridge. It was advertised as hybrid, with some time working from home and some in the office, and it was 22.5 hours per week – a perfect amount of hours. So I applied. I didn’t even tell the Husband because I didn’t think I stood a chance of getting it. Little did I know! I suddenly received an email inviting me to an interview which sent chills down my spine. I hadn’t been for a formal interview for almost a decade!

Along I went on a Friday morning, and upon arrival I was in awe of where I was. The most modern, welcoming and beautiful building where amazing Drs and nurses were looking after people who were either at the end of their lives or dealing with a life-limiting illness. The interview lasted an hour and I gelled immediately with the two ladies interviewing me. It was so relaxed, we had such good chats, and I answered all the questions with ease. I felt like I’d nailed it and when I was given a tour, it cemented my belief that this is where I wanted to work.

When I got home I got emotional telling Dean about it. I didn’t just want any old job – I wanted one that mattered, and this mattered. Time went on and I didn’t hear anything. Assuming that I hadn’t got it, I got back on Indeed and started looking for alternative options. And then it arrived. The phone call telling me they’d like to offer me the job. And I got emotional again! Of course, I accepted on the spot and the next few weeks were spent filling in forms, discussing working hours, start dates and my first day (which happened to be the whole team away day in Cambridge, which was quite a start!)

I have now been there since the 25th April, I passed my probation period with flying colours and I feel like I have grown as a person since I have been there. I work the 22.5 hours across 5 days which means I still take the kids to school and pick them up, and I go to the office twice a week and work from home the rest of the time. As time goes on, there might be a chance to up my hours, but for now, while Oscar is still quite young, I’m happy with what I’m doing (even though I often feel like I could just carry on working).

Working in events can be stressful. It has been a bit of a hectic start because the other one of me left, managers got promotions, and we’ve been busy recruiting. We now have another one of me (who works full time), a new manager incoming, and an Events Assistant joining soon too, so it feels like it’s starting to calm down a little and I’m looking forward to getting to know my new team fully. Until they start though, things will remain hectic with the events we have to organise, but I absolutely love the fact that the events we run help the hospice to look after all the people who need it. When I’m up in the office, it’s quite easy to forget where I work. Easy to disengage from what is happening downstairs. People dying and families being bereaved. I’ve been there myself and seeing the ward that first time was super triggering for me. But there are days when I go down to grab lunch, or leave for the day, when there is an ambulance in the car park, or a patient being stretchered in from the nearby hospital to spend their final days with us, that it really hits home. I thought that would be hard but it actually makes me want to do what I do more.

I’ve always fancied working in charity events but I never thought I’d manage to transfer into it. I proved myself wrong though and I can finally say that I’m quite enjoying being a working Mum! Of course, I’m lucky that it’s so flexible around the kids, but as they get older, they need me less and less and I am back to becoming the me before them. It’s a lovely position to have found myself in.