Lunchtime….”what” time?!

So I’ve now been an education recruitment consultant for 5 months and am pretty much getting into the swing of the role. You might be surprised about what I found was the hardest part to adjust to. The alarm at 5:50am? The frantic mornings with hundreds of teachers needing to be placed in schools? Answering the phones? No! Believe it or not, the hardest part was lunchtime!

Lunchtime you ask? But that’s the easy part. What I didn’t realise was that in my previous job as a Deputy Head teacher, I’d become institutionalised into eating lunch like this…

I was usually eating among calls of, “Tommy can’t find his lunch,” “John’s crying on the yard,” “Who is supposed to be watching the senior area?” “Where are the resources for next session?”

I drank my tea far too hot and tipped most of it down the sink. I ate things that didn’t need heating up because the queue to the only microwave was too long. And now suddenly, I have time!

Here at anzuk, for a while I told my manager every time I was about to leave for lunch. “Is it ok if I leave at 12:05? I’ll be back by 12:35” I’d say. Until one day he told me I didn’t need to notify him each time I went out! (I was actually a little upset; no one had ever NOT been looking for me before over lunchtime.)

But I started to embrace it. A quick trip to the shop and a stop at the bank. Then a swift run round the G. Then a longer run, maybe a trip to the gym. And 5 months later I’m sold! I actually refresh at lunch, get some air, chat to colleagues and eat at a ‘normal person’ speed.

And I’m loving #recruitment life!