Do you enjoy your job?
My first job was when my parents handed me a bucket of soapy water and I cleaned the car. I remember it, simply because I was handed a shiny fifty pence piece afterwards. However during the cleaning the water slopped on my t shirt shorts and plimsoles. The sun seemed hotter than usual and the warm water was cooling from the exertion. As the grey water ran into the gutter and into the drain… Then the chamois cloth with ragged edges that magically turned from stiff board like consistency to soft maliable silky wet fabric. Squeezing it then watching the residual water soak into the fabric as the wipe marks dried immediately in the sunshine. The work was fun, I loved it, sunshine, promise of pennies in return and getting messy. It was perfection. My reward was purchasing a pick and mix sweetie bag and smash hits magazine to place posters on my walls.
Now ever since the earliest age I have had jobs. If i didnt want it, or people were mean, didnt treat me well I left. For me a Job is service, delivering a service to a person with a reward of some sort. As I grew the rewards were greater and my favourite job of all time was working for Coca Cola and Schweppes. It was fantastic, fun and the rewards were ones that money could not buy. I gave this up to serve my commiunity in Portsmouth and Southsea. The work was hard as a police officer but supporting communities and working to make places safe for famillies and communities was a priviledge that is unsurpassed.
Then the attacks and now on reflection, writing my first book and blogging about famillial and geder based violence, allows me to share my experiences for both financial reward and emotional satisfaction of people actually discussing these issues, there own experiences and making those who are paid to serve the communities actually do so. A Job for me is a mutual exchange, a reward for both sides. This blog and writing I hope is a way of people and communities seeking to hold those people to account who are paid to serve and keep communties safe.
I have never enjoyed any job, it is hard work, effort and sometimes tears and and emotional toil. I often say that the biggest and most challenging Job is being a mother. Whereby my body was sacrificed from the inside out to bring a life into the world. The Job being 24/7 yet as I was to discover, England is not the place to do this Job. There was no support for mothers, in workplaces. In fact it was the hardest undervalued and comletely dehumanising Job I have ever had. The Fathers expected cleaning, cooking and the onus was that I provided unquestioning care and financial contribution. In return I was verbally abused, beaten, raped and then later drugged into submission. It is not a Job I highly recommend on such terms. In hindsight it was a job I would only undertake with no legal input from another person, with full support and recognition in law and rights from the governmental environment, educational opportunity in both schools and communities. Not unlike a car, it requires the right environment, great garages, warranties, mechanics, great road surfaces to stop damage to axles and tyres, places to park safely. This is not England, it fines and challenge at every level for parents and car owners. The centres for support have been closed and women are as they were then, lower paid than male counterparts and with less opportunity despite being better qualified.
So not I do not ever enjoy my Jobs, however like being a mother, I have loved every Job I have ever had, if not why do it ??