Mother of Invention

 Deciding what to write? I used to wonder where and how bloggers found their raw material.

It  seems that just about anything  goes. It helps if it is relevant to the website theme, but  the choice of subjects can be huge.

My website is targeted at women who are facing unemployment and how they cope with it.

There are many aspects to this, therefore plenty of blog material. 

Self esteem, finance, loss of job satisfaction, sense of failure, and mental health issues, are  the very relevant negatives  related to loss of employment whereas relaxation, the natural world, shifting mindset , opportunities, a sense of purpose,  and developing calm ways to deal with stress, are also relevant and a lot more positive.

Much of it hinges  on how the time without paid work  is spent, which may impact  on the level of positive or negative  mental health.

Many women are actually quite pleased when their job ceases to exist as they may have hated the work, but felt it paid the bills . They may have had a secret ambition of turning a hobby  into employment, or looking for an opportunity  to turn a dream into reality, but felt it was a bit too foolhardy.

Some women may have financial support which removes the immediate dependency on a regular pay cheque and will give time to shop around for other options.

However most women whose employment has been terminated for whatever reason, feel quite cheated, especially if little warning has been  given.

Currently,  times  are hard in the employment world, and many places of work are struggling to keep afloat and so reluctantly are having to let staff go.

Added to the fact that any loss of earnings is happening when the country  is almost in recession, gives  a huge sense of worry and stress for women caught in that position.

The first thing to do is make sure that all the money due from work will be made available as soon as possible.

Any other government or other entitlement  should be applied for quickly.

If finances are going to be so tight that  mortgage or any other loans may difficult  to meet, the companies concerned should be notified. Often some help may be available through banks or mortgage lenders.

The worst thing to do is  head burying in the sand. Debt builds up very quickly, so the sooner the amount of money coming in and what is going out is sorted, the better.

Family budgeting including food, clothing and bills need to be kept in check. This will involve taking the whole family on board.

Some women find it easy to budget, many struggle a bit whilst others if perhaps  not being used to it, find the whole idea daunting.

There are many things around the home which can help save money. At the moment, everyone is watching their energy consumption and there are  plenty of small things which are useful, such as switching off power plugs, limiting the use of devices, switching off lights and power sources.

There is a great deal of assistance out there offering everything from financial advice to budgeting and producing meals.

During  the  Pandemic, a rise in unemployment was predicted. This hasn`t happened, as many places are indeed cutting back on workers, but in general there appears to be a shortage of staff. This should be good news for women out of work.

There are a variety of reasons given for this turn of events.

 Brexit was considered the main cause, as thousands of continental workers could no longer stay in the UK due to Brexit rules. At a stroke, this mass exodus hit many forms of employment.

The hospitality sector, health and social care, farming and horticulture industries, haulage, local authority working and the air traffic industry have all been seriously affected.

This situation has had several knock on effects.

Within the agricultural / horticultural industries, crops have not been planted or harvested to their full potential as working personnel cannot be found to carry out this work.

This limits the UK produce  market and so increases prices and reduces choice and availability.

It has also been the death knell for many farmers.

Added to that, transport which moves the produce from farm to processing depot has experienced a shortage of drivers, which  adds uncertainty to the food journey and headaches for the supplier and distributor. There is now the additional cost of increased fuel to add to the mix.

Foreign workers have been the backbone of health and particularly social care for years.Many of these workers had no professional or workers` rights  or support and were often paid below or just the minimum wage.

The departure of social care staff especially,  has exacerbated an already badly funded sector and has left a huge problem with providing care for the most frail and vulnerable in our communities.

Successive government promises to fix this important area have yet to materialize.

The hospitality industry which accounts for massive earning power has also been badly hit. Hotels, bars, restaurants and food outlets have all experienced a shortfall in staff which has created a massive problem throughout the country and has resulted in many catering establishments closing down.

As many of these jobs  generally involve hard physical work which is often unpleasant,  with anti social hours, they are not popular with  U.K. workers, so the anticipated unemployment wave following Covid  did not  materialize. Now  instead, there is  a gap in the market  with thousands of jobs left unfilled.

With so many job vacancies, this can be seen as a new challenge for unemployed females.

As mentioned earlier, much of the employment on offer is considered unattractive and poorly paid, with minimal training, which really shows how exploited the foreign workers were.

Anyone used to office work, may not wish to work long hours in a restaurant or care home.

Many of these jobs are considered by many to be inferior, but when  no one is doing them, it becomes apparent how vital they are.

Without them, the hospitality sector  does not function properly, food production slows down, our elderly population  is not being properly looked after, freight transportation becomes erratic, air travel experiences disruption and the NHS queues grow longer.

Whilst all the credit for a successful country tends to go to business, financial services and the like, the infra structure of the country relies on the building blocks of these poorly paid services.  It`s like building a house on a poorly constructed foundation.

With the emphasis being on aspiration and moving away from manual work, perhaps it should be on a more realistic level?

Many of these jobs, whilst  being physically demanding, often have a degree of satisfaction to them which  sitting in front of a screen can`t give. Many people prefer to work physically rather than in confined environments.

If they were properly paid, with training and support, and recognized for the value that they bring to society, many people would be happy to do these types of work.

Social care is something that we will probably all require, but if we treat it as  second rate  employment, what does that say about how society feels about becoming old and infirm? The dignity  and empathy which  is so important to clients and staff alike is being stretched like never before.

It takes special qualities to deliver social care, and it is so under valued,  and yet we allow our parents and eventually ourselves to be part of this broken system.

Working in the fields and orchards is back breaking work, and doesn`t appeal to many. It is a fact which escapes the  general public when purchasing fruit, vegetables and flowers in the supermarket. 

 There are many ways how this area of hard physical work can be made easier and more efficient but the input still needs to be recognized in monetary terms. It is an area  with   opportunities for improvement and innovation.

There are always opportunities, in the employment world,  and where there are shortages there is always room for invention and creation of new  ways of doing things.

Perhaps a new way of handling baggage at airports might lead to inventing some new piece of equipment  or  inventing a new staff rotation system within the hospitality sector.

Women have such great powers of organization and so good at finding solutions  and multi tasking and  can  adapt to so many situations, that they are in a prime position to look at employment in new ways.

Traditionally women are not generally linked to the world of invention, but although mostly unaware of it they are constantly inventing new ways to do things within their families and personal lives.

Instead of  unemployment  making life difficult for women, perhaps  thinking out of the box may throw up some  creative solutions  to  the very thing that is the problem.... the gap in the employment market!  Who better to find answers than women?

The phrase "Necessity is the mother of invention" was  indeed very well chosen.