transitions in the south waikato labour market: an ethnographic study

Um well it was hard ‘cause I had to like come home, get enough sleep toget up with the kids in the morning, if I could and then, but I had a lot oftime during the day, after I had sleep and all that, I had time during the dayto spend with them. That wasn’t too bad. My son spent most of his time atmy mothers house and my baby was with her dad while I was at work.She had been doing this for just over a year when interviewed. Recently she and herhusband had separated, though, as is apparent in the quote, he still had someinvolvement with the children.In contrast, the second woman engaged in paid work and some education and trainingafter leaving school. However, this training was a scheme for those who wereunemployed as she had been laid off from the factory where she worked. After leavingschool at the end of the fifth form she had spent a few months as a shop assistant. Thishad been intended as a fill in over the holidays but lasted a little longer until she foundthe factory job. She would work there for less than a year and then be unemployed forjust over six months. It was during this time that she did, firstly, a horticulture andthen a decorating course. Following the end of the second course, she found out shewas pregnant and as she was quite ill, she no longer sought work. She went to livewith her partner around this time, though he too was out of work and they had tomanage on the UEB. Recognising the difficult nature of their financial situation, shelooked for work after the child was born.I had [my son] and [my husband] wasn’t working at the time and I waswanting to have a stable income because we were on the benefit.However, she didn’t manage to get a job. Over the ensuing 5½ years, she had twomore children and remained out of paid work to care for them. She became quiteheavily involved in the local kindergarten. Just prior to being interviewed, she and herhusband separated and she was now receiving the DPB.The only male had been brought up on a farm and left school with plans very muchcentred on the rural sector. For six months after leaving school, he helped his fathershare milking before leaving to complete a one year farming diploma at university.Interestingly, after completing this, he decided to have a break from farming anddrove heavy machinery at a mine for a year or so. It was always his intention to settleat farming but he felt he needed some time away first.I had [had] a guts full of farming and so I thought that I would dosomething different than what I was.As he was also intending to travel once he was married, when he did return to farming,he took on a fill-in position as a labourer. Once he returned from overseas he took asimilar position to re-establish himself. However, this proved a difficult environmentand, unusually for a farm worker, he left mid-season and got another job as a farmlabourer. This grew into an assistant manager’s position. Though offering some futureprospects, this wasn’t what he really wanted to do.We were managing a property or a sort of a farm worker of an assistantmanager and we had the option of either staying on with the position ofwhere we were with a slight increase but getting even more of aresponsibility but at the end of the day I would have still been working fora chap as a labourer and I wanted the experience of contract milking.18