Alice’s new career was so different from her last job . . .
BY BECCA ROBIN
A LICE glanced at the calendar in the middle of making breakfast and realised it was a year to the day since she had been made redundant.
For a few moments, she stared out of the kitchen window, although she wasn’t really taking in the view of the garden.
How remarkably different her life was now.
In a lot of ways, she preferred it.
Yet from time to time she still wondered if this new job was really for her?
Was she the right kind of person to have taken on something like this?
The kettle boiled, rousing her from her reverie. She poured water on to the coffee in the cafetière and rested the plunger on top.
Ready to take the plunge, much like Alice herself.
Carrying her breakfast tray to the conservatory, she placed it on the coffee table and curled up in her comfy chair.
Even though it was her day off, it felt extravagant to be still in her pyjamas at half past nine, tucking into a tasty pain au chocolat.
What would the old Alice have said?
The old Alice had been career-driven – what job advertisements called a “motivated self-starter”.
She’d left school with few qualifications but a huge amount of determination.
She’d gone to work behind the till of a large fashion store but had risen through the ranks, ending up as a buyer for the company and earning a very good salary.
Her job had involved long meetings, presentations and lots of travel.
She’d had boyfriends, but work had always come first and she’d never married.
Yes, it was easy to imagine what the old Alice would have thought about her lazy morning. And even easier to imagine what she would have said about this new job.
The company had undergone a takeover. It had come as an enormous blow to find out she was being made redundant.
After all she had done for the firm! All the sacrifices she’d made.
At least she received a decent severance payout, which she’d been living off ever since.
When it came to deciding what to do next, Alice realised she didn’t want another high-powered position, dressing up in sharp suits and even sharper heels.
She didn’t miss the workload, or the stress. She was done with all that.
Her successes had bought her a lovely house and car, but in other ways how fleeting they seemed.
The new Alice craved a role which would bring more lasting satisfaction.
Her mobile phone rang. What a surprise, on this of all days, to hear the voice of her old colleague Jacqui.
“I wanted to give you the heads up,” Jacqui said conspiratorially. “Pauline’s leaving. There’ll be an opening.
“Not the senior position you held before and it’ll be more office-based,
