Wife limits new career choices

It’s been some time now since I was involuntarily liberated from my job, and joined the 7% of other British Columbians who are out of work. One day I was leading a talented and successful team, and the next, a cost-cutting exercise eliminated my job. It can’t get more humbling than that. 

On hearing that I had lost my job, my initial concern was for my wife and two young sons. I wondered how they would take the news that Daddy wouldn’t be going to the office everyday. When I told my five-year-old son, Jack, what had happened, he said matter-of-factly, “So, they don’t need you anymore?”  

My other son, Max, is two years old, and is too young to really understand the concept of having, and not having a job, though he probably did wonder why Daddy has been around the house more. To be sure, if there is one positive from losing my job, it has been the extra time I have been able to spend with the boys. Whether baking muffins, doing art projects, or simply playing with them, the time I’ve been able to spend with them is precious.

I remember one day, not long after getting the news that they didn’t need me anymore, Jack and I were in the car driving, and out of nowhere he announced that I should get a job at Toys “R” Us. He assured me that he would come and visit me at work, where he would presumably check out all the toys. Then he suggested maybe I should work at our local supermarket. He thought some more and then offered that a job at the Aquarium would be a good idea, so long as I was able to get him a free pass.

In fact, Jack has been very supportive during my career search, and full of great ideas. Like not long ago, when he said maybe I could get a job at BLOCKBUSTER. Surely, he was figuring he’d get a discount on movie rentals. Though he did offer to help me restock the shelves.

Someone mentioned that maybe I just needed to be retrained. Like to what, I thought? Plumbing? Welding? Carpentry? I’m not handy with tools (I blame it on being left handed). I can’t cut straight and I don’t know the difference between a Robertson and a Phillips screwdriver. In fact, my Grade 8 woodworking teacher said he would pass me as long as I never took another course. He lived up to his side of the bargain, and so have I.  And I’m sure if I attempted some plumbing the water from the sink faucet would probably start flowing from the toilet. 

While my son has been very helpful in identifying potential jobs for me, my wife, on the other hand, has been far more limiting in my career options. First, she told me I couldn’t become a police officer, soldier, or an airline pilot. Too dangerous, she said. Then she added astronaut, deep-sea fisherman, and miner to the list. Okay, how about being a logger? No! Roofer? No! Steelworker? No! Professional hockey player? She just laughed.

When Premier Campbell announced his retirement, I thought, how fortuitous. But before I could even consider that job opening, my wife said politics was out of the question. It wasn’t so much the physical danger of that position, but rather the verbal barbs one must endure.

Who knows what she’ll come up with today? Maybe, my son will have some better ideas for me.