Casual Work So Far .....

When I was imagining what life would be like living on the road, I was excited about the opportunities I would have at working a variety of jobs and the people I’d meet. I realised my pay would be less, however I‘d had enough of feeling stressed and the endless need to gather evidence to prove I was doing my job. The thought of doing all sorts of jobs, meeting a range of people and being able to go home at the end of the day and leave work behind me seemed appealing.

To date, since leaving teaching, I‘ve had two jobs.

1). Care Giving for the elderly

The care givers I worked with were ‘gems’, they were professional and very caring. They’re super busy and understaffed and sadly are paid a very low hourly rate.

2). Quality Control for a Fruit Company

My hours of work are 8am to 5pm. It's physical work and super busy…inspecting boxes and boxes and boxes of fruit…signing off export fruit… packing and grading… moving 20kg boxes of apples.My hourly rate is only $16/hour! This surprised me, and not in a pleasant way! I thought doing various jobs wasn’t going to be about money. But, after working my butt off all week and then to discover … I was to be paid (after tax) $12.96 and hour! I wondered how anyone could pay a mortgage, groceries, petrol, power, etc

However on a positive note, I’ve met some lovely people…

While working at the retirement village, I met a cool Scottish lady who was so bubbly and a joy to work with. She'd never worked with the elderly before coming to N.Z two years ago. She seemed like an asset to the place, she lifted everyone's mood with her empathetic and positive demeanor.

At Compass Fruit, I met a couple from China, they’re both ‘Graphic Designers” traveling around N.Z. on a working holiday. Also at Compass Fruit I met a couple from Taiwain, back at home one of them was doing research on birds. But took this job while on a one year working visa.

Most of the staff at Compass Fruits are Tongans. They come to N.Z. to work the Apple Season and sign a contract to work for the company for two years. The company has an arrangement with a motel at Best Island for accommodation and their airfares are organised. This seems an attractive package as work is scarce in Tonga and the hourly rate as low as $3 to $4 an hour. So it’s understandable that some Tongans agree to leave their families and work here for $14 an hour. However out of their wage, they have to pay their accommodation, pay back their airfares, and send money back home to their community in Tonga. So, it doesn’t take long for their wages to disappear.

Bernie said his job at The MDF Plant is B.O.R.I.N.G…..it’s very repetitive and working 12 hour shifts in a timber factory. It's shown Bernie that he’s not an indoor working person and that mining is a job that he enjoys. Luckily he gets lots of days off so that’s a bonus.

After reading this post, it sounds as though we are ungrateful. However, it’s the opposite….we are both very grateful to be working and to have found jobs easily. I guess for me, it’s been a big wake up call about how low some wages are. So now it's up to me to make the most out of these working experiences.