Like most people coming from poor countries, I strongly believed that having survived in a harsh economic environment, excelling in Europe was attainable.I actually looked forward to the challenge that was sure to follow.
With that belief, I was determined to approach every obstacle that came my way as a stepping stone. With that mindset, today we live in our own tastefully furnished apartment in a leafy neighbourhood that is everything a home should be. After six agonising years of trying for a child in Africa without success, we now have a three angels running about the house. Do not be fooled though into believing that it has been a walk in the park because nothing came easily; the challenges were numerous.
When making this move, it helps a great deal if you actually have a place to live pending when you are able to afford a place of your own. In my case not long after our arrival, we rented a box room from a lady who lived in a two bedroom apartment. The monthly rent was £300. That is the equivalent (at the time) of half a year’s rent for a good 2 bedroom apartment back home. With that much expenditure excluding feeding, transportation etc, the little Pounds Sterling we brought with us would be exhausted in no time if no immediate source of income was found. So right from the very start, the pressure was on.
Before you are able to start work, you must have a National Insurance (NI) number and of course a bank account for the payments. The NI is the number used by the government to track taxes and national insurance contributions. The NI and the bank took over a week to sort out. All this while, we were essentially on a forced holiday, eating deep into the little cash remaining with no idea where the more would come from.
Then came the job search proper. Of course, I couldn't leave the wife behind so we set out to knock on doors of the recruitment firms that appear to have various vacancies waiting.
This was the last week of September, summer weather had just officially ended, autumn was upon us, but as new arrivals, it felt more like the peak of winter. With no knowledge of the local area, we had to walk most of the way. The first 3 offices we visited did not even let us in. We were told to state our mission via speakers on the entrance door linked to the desk of a receptionist /staff. The responses were either that they were a specialist recruitment firm or that we had to first register online.
We were lucky to walk into one office where a lady offered to sign us on as temporary staff so we could earn some money at least while searching for white collar jobs.
These recruitment agencies keep a few full-time personnel that handle administration and logistics and also solicit new clients. The firm then supplies semi-skilled and unskilled staff to companies who prefer to outsource some roles within their organisation. Sometimes the agencies are called upon at short notice to provide temporary staff to cover for staffs who are ill or unavailable for whatever reason.
These agencies get paid X amount per head for the services of a temporary staff (temp for short) and they, in turn, pay the temp X-Y where ‘Y’ represents the agency’s administration and other costs. ’Y’ could sometimes be as high as 50% or more. Like most jobs in the UK, you are made to account for every hour of pay. The temp is essentially a labourer and so it is, work and gets paid for the exact time spent working.
The temp is free to walk away at any time and equally the agency can terminate the temp’s agreement without notice. Asides the annual leave made compulsory by law (this has to be earned though i.e. the number of hours you put in determines the days of leave accrued), the temp is entitled to no benefits- no sick pay, pensions or bonuses.
As a new temp, if there is no immediate need for your service, you are told to keep your phone line free so you can be contacted when a job comes up. Sometimes this can take days and when your phone rings it could be as early as 5am.
As revealed earlier, my need for cash was getting desperate and consoling myself with stories of notable names like Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and Bola Tinubu who at some point in their life had to do debasing jobs, we signed up as temps.
My very first temp job was with a Landscaping firm, cutting/trimming grass at school premises and homes with overgrown lawn. The equipment I was asked to work with (after just a few minutes of training), I had never seen before. Little wonder then that I only lasted a few hours on that job. The supervisor at the office rang the team I was with to find out how we were doing. The team was scheduled to call at a given number of premises in a day and as at the time the supervisor called we were behind schedule. Yours truly was to blame for being too slow.
The supervisor called the agency and the agency contacted me. At the time I felt deflated but luckily the recruitment agency kept faith in me and gave me a lot more assignments in the four months I spent with them.
Other menial jobs I did included, sorting mail, arranging white goods at a warehouse, drivers mate delivering goods and numerous factories jobs. These jobs were on and off and with the weekly pay, it would have been difficult to make ends meet had it not been for my wife who also contributed into the common purse.
It helps a great deal to have someone to share your financial and emotional burden otherwise there is a good chance that an individual would cave in.
The need to keep earning money for sustenance by working as a temp would later turn out to be a barrier to my hunt for a city job in my chosen profession.