This morning I offer my followers an update on my employment situation. In fact calling it an “employment situation” drastically sells short the whole scenario, but it’s a concise term for an introductory sentence.

Here's a picture of a passport, we'll be needing more of these government issued documents in the future I suspect. More on that to follow...

Recap

For my new followers, the context lays in my deciding to resign from my “good job” now over 6 weeks ago based upon a fundamental disagreement I had with stakeholders at that office. Those after detail can find my original post about it. It was the first time that I’d truly taken a stand based on a breach of how I expected to be treated and although considered, it was a fast decision.

I’m a planner and this move was made without another job to go to or really any pre-positioning in place. It was hence really out of my comfort zone but I’ve not felt the pride that I have since doing it and I think that’s really worth something to my self-value.

Developments

This week I was made a formal offer for a new job and, dispassionately said, I didn’t have to try all that hard to pick this one up. Sure, there’s always a lot of luck involved in such endeavours but I can’t help but wonder whether my newfound relaxed attitude to life had something to do with the ease at which this development materialised for me. I guess we’ll never really know.

Even more exciting is the fact that this new position is a hybrid role. I’ll be utilising some of my technical skills but will also be now engaging my writing as a formal part of this new position. That’s really a lovely balance to have found as I enjoy writing (especially blogging on Steemit) and to leverage that interest in order to diversify my work time is a positive step.

Now, this position isn’t the ground changing, career diverting move that perhaps dreams are made of but my mind is open for whatever may present itself in the future.

Depreciation Of Identification

Along the road to acquiring this new job, I’ve made quite an interesting observation. We’ve long heard about depreciation of purchasing power in our monetary system due to inflation; that’s a concept most people at least have some awareness of, despite not perhaps grasping the pernicious and deliberate nature of it.

For some time too, education has followed a similar pattern. It’s not uncommon to hear that in times past, a year 12 education was considered to have been sufficiently more advanced than a year 10 education; so much so that it made a difference in the employment landscape. Tertiary education on top of that and you’re looking at a small subset of elite.

Since then, university educations are now what year 12 graduations used to mean and for years we’ve heard, especially in the States, of college graduates picking up employment at Maccas or some minimum wage, tip-reliant occupation as that was simply all that was on offer regardless of qualifications.

I’m seeing the same thing now in identification. I attended two interviews in the process of job hunting over the past weeks and both required to cite my passport. My last job hunting process (which involved multiple interviews at multiple companies and presented me with two job offers) didn’t involve even a mention of a passport and that was only a year ago.

One of the recipients of my passport information was a recruiter. I was hesitant to provide the document and discussed the issue with the lady. She said that there are now in Australia a sufficient number of people illegitimately or illegally applying for work that they require proof of citizenship or residency before doing any dealings with job applicants. The fines involved for the recruitment firm are sufficient to impact their business model.

The other company I interviewed with also required copies of my passport. This was not a recruiter but the HR department of a company that was directly advertising for labour. Is the composition of our society now so unknown or diluted that we’re now subjected to depreciation in the value of identification? A drivers’ licence was formerly sufficient for almost anything except international travel but I feel like it wont be long before you’ll need your passport to sign up for a carpark space…

…oh and speaking of which, as I’ll be requiring parking at my new work place, I’ve made steps to lease a spot from a parking company near the building I’ll be working in. Now they were after the normal information, name, phone number, credit card etc. and that’s all understandable. They also however wanted to know the building I’ll be working in and the company within that building that will be employing me.

What

On

Earth?

How that at all impacts on me renting a car park I have no idea and so I refused to divulge that information. The parking company seemed fine with that, indicating as I suspected that the requested details were unnecessary. Another example of requiring more identification than is necessary perhaps?

TLDR; Conclusion

So I've acquired a new job. It will allow me to leverage my existing skill set but also allow me to employ my writing for 50% of the time. I think that's a nice deviation from what I've been doing for the last 15 years or so to keep me engaged and more importantly, is a nice step forward from my decision to make a stand at a personal cost at my last place of employment.

In the process, I've found that passports are becoming more necessary in every day life and that's a disturbing trend in my personal opinion. I'm sure my long-time followers will not be surprised to hear me write hesitantly of anything requiring more provision of information, especially if required in the form of government issued paperwork. History provides big lessons here...

Anyway, hopefully a thought provoking post and an update for some such as @cali-girl who have shown interest in how I’ve been getting along in the past.

Have a great hump day everyone!