Help and Hope. A short essay

No certainty but……

I was on a Zoom briefing by the CEO of one of the big promoter firms on Monday. He speculated a while about what a return to shows might look like, and then shot the elephant in the room. “No one knows, no one can know, this is complete uncertainty.” This was a CrewCare meeting. Because many people care.

There you go – so what can you do now?

First of all look for all and any support available. While I sit this out unable to earn money in our trade, I got lucky with casual work at the Community Transport company I had volunteered for. Over some years I did a regular day when I was in town. When this all hit, I quit – not wanting to take paid hours off casuals. Lucky me – they lost some, and needed to pay me! 
One of my regular gigs is to go collect 100 food boxes from Marrickville Food Pantry, where hundreds are dished out daily, for free, no questions. I met a guy from our industry there this week, his firm stood him down as they were not able to get JobKeeper. He is on the loose.

At the start of this I applied for every heavy truck job advertised, and got zero responses – probably due to my obvious age. But bus driving is another matter. They value maturity, and I’d had three years experience in my volunteer bus driver gig for Community Transport. That tickled the recruiters, they thought I was great.

The processes were similar. Apply. Recruiter calls. Sets up a Zoom interview. Make sure my laptop is elevated to eye level, acoustics and lighting in the kitchen are correct. Wear a white shirt. Set the laptop away so it gets me down to mid torso and I’m not right in there. All that is calibration. Same usual pattern – they ask you to describe how you sorted out a difficult work situation. How you apply safety? Whether you have any holidays booked. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

I can help you through this, as the bus firms everywhere churn a lot of drivers. Even now. I churned myself after six weeks. It was not for me.

Believe this. If you’re needy now it isn’t your fault or your failure – you’re in good company. Look around your district for food handouts. Then call Support Act. These good folk have a lot of Government money and if you are short for things like rent, mortgage, utilities, car expenses or medical bills, they can and usually will help.

You are eligible if you work or have worked in our industry. Better still, they have a Well Being Hotline, 1800 959 500 and it is staffed 24/7 by professional counsellors. The firm who provide the service also support paramedics, firies and police – so they are the real deal. Again, there is no cost if you work or worked in our industry.

Reach out to me, or on the CX Facebook. Do you need help with your CV, Linkedin or with job applications? I’ll help you.

Join CrewCare, where there are almost 500 crew like you. Also look at Tech Sisters on Facebook if you are not a mister.

Easy for me to say, but have faith in the future. Everyone wants shows to come back, and they will. There will be some form of vaccination emerge, I’m guessing we’ll all end up with proof of vaccination attached to our digital license or ID, and that there will be two classes of people – those vaccinated, those not. And venues and jurisdictions probably will discriminate.

For now, breathe, value yourself, take small steps. And ask for help. Go to CrewCare or hit me up. I have time.
juliusmedia@me.com or text (don’t call) 0408 498 180.