Job flux

The job is over a week old now. I don’t get to feel like a trainee any more and can’t get away with ignorance as a defence for mistakes. This could be a serious problem. Does anyone else out there suffer from a perennial inability to engage with menial jobs and successfully carry out simple tasks that they can’t bring themselves to care about? I had my first day off yesterday so I zoomed home to Eastbourne to see the family for an evening and a day. Mum is deeply annoyed by the bipolar nurse she works with and who, she says, is getting her down. As she has taken many of the practical steps open to her (speaking to HR and occupational therapy) I suggested she try to focus on making the best of a bad situation and not letting it follow her home. However she took this as criticism of her handling of the situation.
My days of being a bar bitch may be numbered; I have an interview tomorrow for a position with a company who deliver administrative services between patients and private healthcare clients. I don’t know, it sounds like it could be a bit dull in truth but I do need office experience and it is better pay than my current job. Other dilemmas are thrown up; will I be able to leave it something else comes up? Will I still find time to do my volunteering?
Speaking of volunteering, I went with Refugee Action today to present a three sessions at the student nurse conference. This is a day about the ‘social context of people’s lives’. We were there to raise the profile of asylum seekers and highlight the difficulty of getting through the application system. Initially I was worried about being patronising or boring but the entire day seemed to go quite well. It was surely vindicated in the third and last session when we asked if anyone had any questions. A girl a couple of rows back put up her hand and passionately asked us ‘why aren’t we told all this by someone?’ She had been struck by the bleakness of trying to claim asylum and it sparked a good old right-on type discussion about how unfair the system is. The onus is on the asylum seeker to prove they are worthy of refugee status, they have to prove individual persecution to the Home Office and small inconsistencies in the case can be used to fell it. Furthermore they generally receive only a third of mainstream benefits while they are in the application system, can only make one appeal and, if they are unsuccessful, will likely face poverty or return to a dangerous country that may not even allow them to be repatriated (China will not accept returning seekers of asylum in other countries). A very good day in all and it really made me realise how much I would like to continue doing awareness raising stuff and public speaking.