When
my husband died, one of the things I knew I’d need almost right away, was a
job. I prayed hard for help in this area. I had the good fortune to find AARP
Senior Employment Services right away. As they pointed out from the beginning, though,
this was NOT a permanent job, but a way to work at one or more host
agencies (of a charitable foundation nature) in order to gain job skills and
maybe even some contacts with the potential to help me get that job. They
helped me find places to apply and offered to help pay for some types of job
training or education in order to gain certain job skills.
During
this time at AARP, I
earned minimum wage for part time services to the two host agencies for whom I
was assigned and used and many of my off-hours as possible hunting for that
permanent job. The point of this exercise was not just to look for a “job”, and not just to get paid for learning a few basic job skills, but to
learn how to make my efforts mean something. Getting as much out of the
experience as possible was dependent on my putting as much as possible into
the experience.
I
picked up many valuable job skills while working at these host agencies (these
gifts were delivered in packages I was expecting: copying, scanning, running both
a mail-fold-and-insert machine and a mail meter machine, 2 programs used by
non-profits to keep track of donors and potential donors, 2 health records
programs, and Excel. But even though I learned these skills fairly quickly and was
applying to hundreds of jobs, I still wasn’t getting THE job. I prayed harder,
sometimes wondering if He was listening. How many times would I hear “No” before
I realized that “No” was His final answer?
Still,
I received a few gifts that came in unexpected packages. One of the harder
lessons, for me, was to go from being a stay-at-home mom and grandma to getting
out in the world and working with
others. The other hard lesson for me occurred because I was feeling sorry for
myself (I just lost my husband and needed to find a way to earn my own money to
pay the bills). Maybe my self-pity was a
little bit justified, but I needed to look beyond my own needs and care about
others who were quite possibly worse off than I was. I learned (a) ways of
working with people who were in the uncomfortable position of needing to ask
for help and (b) how to treat them with the dignity and respect they deserved.
I
also began to see, at my second host agency, that as soon as I started seeing
myself as part of the group effort and aiming my efforts more and more toward
the greater good of the clinic and the patients we served, the more I felt like
I belonged there. And the more the people I worked with started treating me
like I was a member of the staff.
Around
Thanksgiving, though, after a couple more rejections from jobs I’d interviewed
with, I went back to the prayers. “Alright God, you can see I’ve been fulfilling
my end of this job search, and picking up a lot of valuable job and life
skills. Don’t get me wrong. The minimum wage and my husband’s pension have gone
a long way. But…. What gives? What do I need to do to get a “Yes” here?”
Turns
out he wasn’t saying a flat-out “NO.” He was saying “Wait for it! Wait for it!”
The first week in December, the clinic (host agency) came to me with a job
offer. They hadn’t posted the position on their website or any of the job
boards, I didn’t even know the position was available.
It
seems because I was willing to pick up the slack in several positions (in both the
administrative and clinic end of things), and because I already knew the programs
for the health records, check-in/check-out, and appointments setting, they knew
that I could be trained quickly for the position. So, for the last 2 weeks I
have been training to work their Aftercare Clinic (sort of an urgent care
clinic), with my hours from 2:30 to 7 PM (7:30 if it’s busy), 4 days a week. No
more minimum wage! Wahoo!
Wait!
Wait! It gets better! Last Thursday (Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve), they let me know that they were expanding
my position. They will be giving me some additional administrative duties beginning
next week, the week between Christmas and New Year. The pay is the same – who gets
a raise after 2 weeks, right? – but I will be working an additional 10 hours a
week. I’ll be working from 12 noon to 7-ish for 4 days a week. This wasn’t the
job I was looking for, but it was most certainly the best Christmas gift - wrapped
in an unexpected package – that I ever got. Praise the Lord for answered
prayers.
