Redundancy Eyes?
Rachael Ladd - Strategic Marketing and Community Lead
Leaving New Zealand on my travels never did I imagine that 14 years later I would be settled in the UK, married to a military man. Raising my children, as a military spouse, inside the magnolia walls of an SFA never crossed my mind either – why would it. and would I find a group of individuals that understood my feelings and celebrated the highs and the lows of this life.
e50k found me, in December 2020, at a time when I felt lost.
After thinking I had the balance right with my previous job (a designer for a leading design build company) I was made redundant and with my confidence at an all time low and wondering ‘what next’ I set about deciding how I could juggle the uncertainty of military life (of moves and deployments) and find something that would work for me and my family. I mean, what company would want a military spouse who may only stay 2 years, and a mum of a child with additional needs.
Then, one night, I set about looking at it with a different set of redundancy eyes – ones of new promise. I started looking for support for spouses and realised a lot depended if you ‘spoke to the right person or was on the right Facebook group’.
Through many late nights of scrolling I found The Military Co-working hub and Milspo. Here were groups of spouses who were setting up their own businesses - working around spouses’ deployments, innovating, and most of all connecting. Military life can be so isolating at times and here was a network of zoom meet ups and virtual lives which I knew I needed to be involved with.
Through the networks I found a job advertised. Architectural design work -planning and costing a community space for a start-up charity. It boasted flexible hours, working from home and a ‘creative, innovative headspace’ – I had to apply. Having the confidence to not only apply but to take that job when offered has opened up a whole new world of work for me. I now find myself the architect of not only physical spaces but digital, online space too – a spaced that will change the way spouses, like myself connect and ‘experience’ our postings.
When I began the creation and development of the e50K portal one of the goals I set myself was to give every spouse the information they need to – giving them back their evenings which would have been given over to manically scowling and/or stumbling across the ‘right information’. But what is that? What is it for you? Is it the big things – finding a new career, upskilling or educating, finding reviews of schooling? Is the simpler things - conversations with new people, floor plans of your next SFA, local toddler groups or where to get the best takeaway? Or is it all these things – they are certainly some of the things that have made me feel powerless and out of control.
e50k found me, in December 2020, at a time when I felt lost. But no longer! I have control again, and so can you – you don’t have to feel trapped instead you can feel empowered to make the best experience of each posting for you and your family.
I know now I’m not alone yet so many spouses we have spoken to say they feel the same why I did. Together, as a collective, we can change the way we experience our postings and even find people to connect with in person with times that work and not having to sit awkwardly in a coffee morning!
