A slow emergency

I went on a First Aid course a few weeks back, something I'd been meaning to do for some time. Not a First Aid course for a career in crisis more's the pity, but one for what to do if someone has cut their finger and a Winne-the-Pooh plaster will just not solve the problem. But if it had been for a career first aid course just think what I could have done.

• Defibrillator for a career attack.
• Mouth to mouth for interviews.
• Putting the career into a recovery position until the Paracareerists arrive.
• Putting the CV into a splint to hold it in place until we can get some professional work done on it.

Well that's worked that metaphor to death, in a manner of speaking that is.

Anyway one of the big messages from the course leader is don't rush. Take things steadily and methodically like the paramedics as they descend from the ambulance and assess the situation before getting out the plaster of Paris, Savlon and machines that go "beep, beep, beep", like moorhens do.

This seemed to me like a good way to think of unemployment which is really a slow emergency in many ways. I mean you don't have to turn on the blues and twos for unemployment. The adrenalin pumping as you race to the scene of the incident shouting in the radio "We have a 10-15 in progress with an RTC involving a bravo india kilo echo and a whiskey alpha lima lima alpha bravo yankee. Or something."
No this all unfolds slowly over time. No wailing sirens and blue lights with a message over the airwaves saying "We have a 4th redundancy in progress, call in the tactical CV writing teams and forensics to go over the corpse of the career - no it's not dead we can rebuild it better than ever, just need to airlift it to the UK's finest career consultant." Nope don't recall that at all. You just have to take things methodically, assess the position and continue to apply treatment and eventually someone with a big clipboard will declare you well/employed again.

What you have is a slow burn heading slowly towards a disaster of months out of work, more rejections, the desert of jobs that is August as most of the rest of the world goes on holiday so decides not to recruit. Though who would want a holiday on a canal boat in the UK last week? The real emergency is many months away though it is still a gentle slide downwards towards it. However the emergency does slowly evolve around you - company car goes, stop spending money, cancel holiday, only buy clothes if necessary, do not go out anymore for meals/theatre, buy cheaper foods.

I continue to pick up small amounts of work here and there so it could be a lot, lot worse. Could have had the house flooded like so many people in the region where we live. Outgoings exceed incomings but not by a huge margin. We've just cancelled our summer holiday, a prudent move as Gordon Brown might say. We couldn't face being abroad but afraid to spend money - abroad will still be there next year anyway and we'll go somewhere then.

So 10-4. Roger and out.