An interesting encounter

[anotherbanana]

Walking along the beach yesterday when our dogs were greeting by a delightful spaniel wanting to play. The owner came up to see if all was well, and we got chatting.

A senior cadre in an electronics company, he had been been made redundant at 58, replaced by a computer. Usually this spells disaster and unemployment until pension age, often enough with loss of self esteem and depression, but this was an exception.

His hobby as it happened is music so he became a music tutor for kids (more clients than he can cope with) and plays in a quartet, plus late night jazz.

Apparently he had a lot of very constructive help from the unemployment agency, and set himself up as an autoentrepreneur. 

A very happy guy.

[DaveLister]

Nice to hear someone falling on their feet like that. I assume he was French?

[anotherbanana]

Yes, Dave; I only have contact with French speaking folk most of the time.

[DaveLister]

I hoped you would say that. In my experience most French people can't conceive of changing career no matter how much they might hate their job. When it is forced upon them most appear to be able to do nothing more than wait for something similar to turn up. The ' c'est mon métier ' still looms large.

My car mechanic is a notable exception. He used to be a nuclear engineer at Flamanville on the French coast which he found mind numbingly boring. So he spent his free time training as a mechanic and, once qualified, resigned and set up his own garage. He once told me it was three years before they finally stopped calling him to ask him to come back. Not because he was particularly indispensable but because they couldn't conceive that anyone could make a success on their own.