Post This to Post that!

Unemployment may soon become a past venture for me (hooray). I have what seems a more suited opportunity later next week, a job interview with TNT Postal Services. It’s a job that I not only feel will pull me out from the nether regions of society, but is also something can personal suit me and potentially won’t cause too much distress via demands of sales targets or disgruntled and poorly behaved customers, I should think.

Part of the problem in the past year has been psychological, as it shall be when you’re fighting against the inhumane government, businesses and seemingly arbitrary policies from various parties that prevent any real progression in life. The Jobcentre seem to believe that unless you are physically dead or in the surgical theatre, there could be no other reason for having to cancel an appointment, and they want to make you suffer as much as possible. Perhaps there is nothing personal about it, as surely the system is in place for everyone, but I’m convinced they like to put the individual in the spotlight and withdraw funds for basic survival, like teasing a starving puppy with a plate of meat. It’s abusive, although of course they would just refer to a handbook and make it sound like they’re only “doing their job”.

Anyhow, I think I’ve vented enough frustration there. My main psychological worry of late has been my increasing number of panic attacks, caused by things like agoraphobia and generally not coping in crowded situations very well at all. This is why the job as a postman, or should I say ‘delivery operative’ has specific benefits and, in a way, requirements of mine. I’ve always found it overwhelming and daunting manoeuvring my way through crowds but by being able to make my own way through backstreets delivering mail, instead of working next to high streets, I can enjoy the job rather than feel unduly nauseous and quite frankly, enraged by dozens of people buzzing around me.  You can’t always avoid crowds, like people on their lunch breaks and shopping for god-knows-what, but the massive disadvantage and risk of working in an office or shop in the city centre would be having to encounter a lot of people at least three times a day (rush hour in the morning, lunchtime rampage at midday and rush hour in the evening).

Now of course the job interview itself is my final hurdle in gaining a job as a ‘postie’, or more simply ‘mailman’ for our American friends. First of all I attended an induction for the job at Avanta, my employment work-scheme. This included a quite embarrassing literary and numeracy test, which I passed and probably could have done so using only my left elbow and a handful of brain cells. Then, after this pointless task, that includes a number of other possible applicants, we went through an online tutorial and test for TNT as a company and employer. It was a little tedious, but then it wasn’t supposed to be fun, and all in all it went well and so I have been awarded with an interview in a week’s time. Steady on with the champagne though, I’m still not entirely sure of the availability of hours and whether I’ll be completely signing off jobseekers allowance this month. We shall see, and also they have to offer me a job.

In other news I might be having a different interview to work as a street fundraiser. But before we delve into how annoying those ‘charity people’ can be, or at least how they relentlessly approach us, I must say that it is for the charity Guide Dogs for the Blind. So whilst there are factors that I briefly considered as I sent my CV to them, the main attraction for me is to be in any way involved in helping people of genuine disability and hardship as well as the thing I love most in this world – dogs. However, the obvious factor to be conscious of is what I’ve already revealed above, and that is daily operating in a crowd of angry shoppers and so on is impossible if not very uncomfortable for me. Other than that it is a job that is engulfed in rudeness. I personally feel people approaching you in the street with a sales pitch asking for money is rude, and on the flipside the majority of people passing feel entitled to be either absent of care or abusive. I can’t figure out who is really at fault, but I imagine that the job itself is about as rewarding as doing hours of community service for a crime you didn’t commit. Yet, as I’ve said it’s for a good cause and one I’m actually passionate about, so the I’m on the fence about it all but it’ll be best to do the right thing and attend an interview to see what they can offer me.

And that’s it really for this week. My brother has turned thirty in the last few days and has been enjoying some time off in London, and in the weekend I get to look after my younger brother who is pretty much a teenager. So I get to beat him up for a few days, at least playfully. It won’t be long before he’s bigger than me so I’m getting all the bullish mileage in whilst I still can. Tarrarr!

photo credit: angelsk via photopin cc