A message from an Ex daughter in law

Sue is one of the four ex daughters in law who also attended the funeral of my late wife,  Sue, has a caring nature, despite the opinion of a son of mine,

Good morning Les reply to RYOK.

Good thanks for asking, hope you have been too. 

I have been working through the COVID 19 outbreak as an essential services worker in the Courts. There are many precautions in place around the workplace and trains. Previously Greg drove into work and dropped me off when the pandemic seemed rife. Then he was able to work from home.

Sadly, he has been made forcibly redundant after being a loyal employee for 31 years after the company was sold off and some staff moved to the new online one. His skills and experience not required along with a few others including his immediate manager and one of Greg's staff. The other staff member retains a position with the new company mainly as he's cheaper. Amazingly that fellow has the most time off sick leave including was interested in finding a new job and was bagging out the new employer! 

I thank God for my government job, at least I can feel reasonably secure, notwithstanding, unfortunately though, there will always be crime and a need for law and order and my job working for the Courts. I have recently applied for a higher position and so far have passed, at any rate, I have made it through the culling stage so I will be on the talent pool. 

So there will be a good payout, but after 31 years, hardly any sick leave, loyalty and the only original employee left, so should it be. But alas, it won't last forever, there is an entirely new lifestyle ahead, one we didn't plan on. Given his age, specialist skills set and the economic climate in the future, there is next to zero chance of finding employment. I now find myself in the task of the breadwinner. This was not the road plan for my twilight working years.

So along with many thousands out of work and scrambling to find out a decent living wage, the older generation will be cast aside in favour of cheap labour. We will definitely be spending less like so many others and keeping our money in the kitty for another rainy day. For the rest of our lives, however long that may be. 

But we'll get through this, we have to, we have to be strong, life has dealt me yet another blow and as usual, I will have to pick myself up again. I have a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, son in law, gorgeous grandsons, my brothers and other family and friends I hold dear. I will not let this latest blow defeat me. But it's still daunting. 

We will have to use this new abundance of a windfall wisely. I did want to travel to Israel, Egypt and Jordan in the next few years, maybe take my grandkids to Disneyland like I did with their mother but I can always dream and with determination can make the latter workout, I want to. 

So technology can be a good thing but also a destructive thing. Many things have and continue to go online, my husband is one of the latest casualties. I even had an online video interview and assessments. Sad really even if it was due to COVID 19. In the future, no human interaction, just look at the self serve checkouts, online banking and days of old, getting petrol at the garage, someone would pump the petrol, clean the windscreen even, separate butcher's, hardware stores, fruit shops, now it's all in one and shopping centres and we think this is all good but in effect, a detriment to all of us. 

So we should be looking at the human population, how can we sustain ourselves if there aren't enough people working to keep others? Just food for thought.