A wall post is not a status update...

After my long battle with Facebook (as is outlined in my first year of blogging), I eventually conceded that it was too big not to be a part of. Too many publications that I read, organisations and profession specific groups which I belong to post regular updates for jobs, training and other related topics which I simply wouldn't have access to without Facebook. So for me being a part of Facebook is the digital equivalent of reading a daily print publication which caters exactly to my needs.

In many ways, my interaction with the site has removed the social aspect, as the bulk of my 200+ friends list is simply me showing some Internet etiquette in not offending you, in the off chance that I might actually bump into you on the street. Or, in other words, I only care about you enough that I would prefer to avoid an awkward "you deleted me" conversation should we cross paths (to the hundreds I have deleted already, I obviously couldn't care less).

So, anyway, removing the social aspect has its drawbacks, in that I appear to be the only person who has done it. While I might post a legitimate question to an organisation, my friends see this on their news feed and have the ability to comment on it. While mutual friends posting on a status update, or on a comment made on the wall of a mutual friend could be seen as nice, the inappropriate banter which occurs on official "pages" when people comment is completely unnecessary and inappropriate.

The problem is that email is no longer the most viable method of seeking assistance, where as a professional community bulletin board or Internet forum is no longer relevant due to the immediacy and mobile interaction that is available with Facebook. It's no surprise So in the past, where a message to an organisation would be private, or directed in a theatre which was only frequented by like minded people, Facebook opens up the typical query to a banter that is completely useless, and potentially career limiting, or in a case of need, might cause those who would typically answer a query to be put off by the white-noise that infects the comments section.

So readers and possible Facebook users, please, for the love of God, realise that a Wall post to an institution (i.e. not a mutual friend) should be left alone, as the user is obviously seeking advice from other people directly linked to that page, and not from their well meaning friends (unless you are both a friend and have actual experience in the matter). It's not your moment shine and crack a joke, post something warm and fuzzy or offer irrelevant advice... Just as when I post something as a status update it is directed to those who can see my status and in fact is like every status update every made - to be commented upon, when I post on the wall of a business or organisation the desired audience is the organisation, not you.

So I say again, a wall post is not a status update, of course anything posted on Facebook is open to the forum of the Internet, available for all to see and comment on - all I'm asking is that you use the benefits that the Internet (unlike speech) affords you... The power to think before you type.

I suppose the best thing about having such a small reader base is knowing that this entry, at least, will not get commented on.

Funemployment...

I don't necessarily know what's worse. That I've only had 3 days of paid employment this financial year, or that I'm finding my life mirroring the intro song to one of the most refreshingly honest musicals of the modern era.

It sucks to be me, and I'm starting to wonder what anyone actually does with a BA in English. Or as my expensive piece of paper declares, a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education. 

Of course, after taking a form of gap year last year while preparing my marital home for my wife-to-be, being dicked around for months waiting for the powers-that-be to approve my teaching credentials (approximately 5 months), helping to plan a wedding, being forced to resign from my part time night/weekend job in order to have the wedding and honeymoon they knew about when they hired me, and then becoming a live-in carer for my wife while she recovered from a bad case of Bells Palsy (a form of facial paralysis that comes with a helping of chronic fatigue like symptoms), and then dealing with the partial relapse of said Bells Palsy due to the added stress of family calamity over the Christmas period, I may have been forced onto the back foot in beginning my chosen career as a High School English & Drama teacher.

But all that aside, I am astounded at the dificulty I am having in finding some form of casual or temporary (let alone permanent) work as a teacher. For the 4 years that I spent at UNSW studying education, every lecturer would paint the prettiest of pictures of the future and financial stability that our chose vocation would offer us. The benefits of becoming teachers at a time when 40% of the current teaching workforce would be retiring, meaning that there will be more jobs than teachers to fill them. 4 years of mindless babble by the people who were meant to be training us and preparing us for the future left me stumped. A heterosexual, male, highschool English & Drama teacher. I was told I would be the prized bull that everyone would want! 

What wonderful dreams and expansive joy and hope they inspired in we, the naive minded learners. If only it were true. What they failed to mention was that the GFC in 2008 obliterated a heap of existing teachers super annuation forcing them to continue working well past when they would have originally hoped to retire. Or that the only way into a school as a new starter would be doing casual work. Only problem is that most schools don't need new casual teachers as the ones that actually do retire from full time work stay on at the school in a casual or temp role, and those already retired have come back to the work force as casuals to bolster their post 2008 super funds. One less avenue into a school to build up the rapport and reputation required to fight for the illusive maternaty leave position.

So after being unemployed for what is coming up to seven months now I can quite easily say that it is no longer fun, and perhaps stopped being fun as soon as we returned from the honeymoon. Not that I wasn't trying to get other part time work for the last 4 months, but being screwed around by my previous part-time employer at the promise of getting my old night job back has left me without work for the whole duration, and with a feeling of worthlessness that I can't even begin to describe. 

Funemployment? I think not. Who ever out there believes that the long term unemployed have it easy are gravely mistaken. The constant anxiety of a looming mortgage mixed with the absence of self worth or value from being unemployed have taken their toll on me personally, and I can only beginning to understand how many other long term unemployed people must feel, as at least I have the support of my friends, my family, my wife to keep me going. If not for the continued need to repair and improve the house I would probably have slipped into a deep depression, thankfully finding some personal worth and satisfaction in the value I have added to our house, and our lives as a resulf of my physical labour.

I am now starting to see the glimmer a turnaround in my luck in my pursiut of paid employment, but have been doubting the worth of the $25,000 piece of paper that I have hanging over my desk. Was education/teaching, a noble endeavour and honorable vocation, the right choice? Was leaving a career in retail management (that paid more 6 years ago than a full time teaching salary does today) the right choice?  I no longer know. I know the feeling of worth and satifaction I get from teaching is far greater than the sense of worth I had when seeing how much earned each week in retail. 

I suppose it's remembering the pride I feel in watching my students learn and achieve that is helping to keep me focused. Helping me to not lose faith, and driving me to schools different schools every week searching for work. 

It is a noble and honorable vocation, and anything worth doing isn't easy. At least when I say that to my future students I will understand what that phrase actually means, as this test is far more trying than any suffered at university.