After quitting her merchandising position last summer, Sarah Klymkiw took a temporary fashion job before eventually finding a role at a model agency .Why hang around?  My good friend Kim has nicknamed me ‘Walkout Sarah’ which, since living in London for the past year, has never rung more true. I’m a firm believer in being happy so, in my defence, why hang about doing something that makes you miserable - there are other jobs out there, take a risk, jump in the deep end, what’s the worst that could happen?!
Before you all go off and hand your notices in, don’t forget that the grass is not always greener. At the model agency I was almost having fond memories of my first job I took in London at the big high street store’s head office. Concerned that I may have lost the plot I handed my notice in, again. Yes, that’s right, I quit. There was no need for me to yearn back to past days of being miserable and missing them - the people at the head office I missed yes, but not that unsatisfying feeling of doing administration. Not so unsatisfying, or rather depressing, as finding flaws in people for a living, though. There is a big difference between being critical of what someone wears and being critical to the point of damn right rude about someone’s physical appearance. What else did I expect of the model industry? Perhaps I took the job because it would be an experience, at least I now know that the industry is not for me and that I gave it a shot. To know two weeks into a job that the industry is not right for you, why hang around to be proven right? An assisted exitThe model agency, somewhat taken aback that I could contemplate leaving such fabulousness, were unexpectedly abrupt and cold, flaky some may say to my perhaps abrupt decision to leave and indeed to me. I grinned and beared it for too long, ok six weeks, but six weeks is enough time to realise that something is not right for you. In an attempt to be diplomatic and mature, I told them that I could be flexible in my notice if they wished, if they’d like me to be there whilst they train someone new to take over from me. They told me that it wasn’t necessary for me to work the month’s notice I had given. Fine by me. They said I should work up until the end of the month, so in fact only two weeks. Fine by me. The following Monday morning, a week after I’d handed in my notice, I rolled up to work to be greeted with my P45, pay cheque and that my working the last week of my notice wasn’t necessary. The sun was a shining and, if I’m honest, I wasn’t looking forward to my last week so it was good all round. I’d been told by others that perhaps the reason for the abrupt end to my notice was an attempt to minimise sabotage or my going through their database and stealing all their contacts. Unfortunately, they could not have been more wrong about me, which makes me a little sad that my leaving had made the small boutique agency feel exposed to what I can only imagine they were feeling which was not by any means intended on my part - betrayed. I had not wanted to make my leaving a personal attack, just that I had taken the job with no preconceived attitude but to embrace the experience, work hard and learn. What I learnt made me sad and gave me an outlook on the industry that made me not wish to be associated with it in any way, how can I criticise someone when I’m far from perfect? Unfortunately my leaving showed me a side to my employers that wasn’t pleasant and simply made it easier to leave with no regrets of a missed opportunity. A life to liveTalking to my housemate, who’s just recovered from a virus that meant she couldn’t work for well over a month, she too has had revelations about work. Her family are inspirational - entrepreneurs some may say - with a shop, a new hotel opening in India, festival work, amongst other things. Her going home and recovering made her see the trappings of the 9 to 5 and when you’re in it how difficult it seems that there is any way out. She had accepted a job at a large magazine publishing company before she fell ill and although she has decided to give it a go, she is reluctant to jump straight in because she now fully appreciates what her parent’s have built up and the life they live. Why do we feel so inclined to follow the norm route of school, university, job, marriage, and then children? I don’t want the yearly two-week holiday and ultimately retirement to be the only thing I have to look forward to. I do want to travel, perhaps even live in another country for a while. I want to learn another language, go back and study pattern-cutting again. I want to one day be able to sustain a simple yet fulfilling life from a little country cottage where mortgage repayments can be made by working for myself from home, with an allotment so I don’t need to buy expensive organic, and perhaps I’d throw in a cat. I want to live a varied life and be involved in different projects and to ultimately better myself and consistently challenge my opinions. They don’t tell you at school when talking to the career adviser how to achieve this. Maybe that’s because I didn’t know then what I know now. The wonders of growing up! FreedomOnwards and upwards… Spring was in the air and I’d developed a spring in my step from having the burden of my miserable job removed from my shoulder. I met a friend for lunch that same day. I was free! Whilst walking to the restaurant in Soho, I was stopped by two girls. They were from New Woman magazine doing a style stalker column. After jokingly asking them if they were going to stalk me, I ascertained that they wanted to take a picture of me because they thought I had ‘style’. (I’m going up in the world readers, really I am!!) My friends, always there to bring me straight back down to earth, joked that perhaps they would hold me up as an example of what not to wear!!! Enjoying my new life of living each day as it came, seeing friends, catching up with reading, and generally feeling a new inspiration for life I arranged to meet up for coffee with my boss from my job prior to the model agency. This was the job I enjoyed but who couldn’t afford to keep me on whilst her ‘business partner’/employee was still there. As we sat down for coffee at Starbucks by Camden Lock she was quick to offer me my job back. I gladly accepted. Now I just need a balance between work and doing what I want to do with my life. Read Sarah's earlier blogs: |
