BY LUTGARDA LEE PENDLETON – On June 16th this year I will be 58 years old .
Twenty eight years ago I got married at St. John The Baptist Catholic Church in Woy Woy, NSW Central Coast on June 18th 1988. I was married to David Francis Pendleton aged 32 years old then and myself 30 years old.
David and I met in the Philippines in 1987 and a year later we decided to get married and start a family. Married life was not at all a bed of roses and being in cross-cultural marriage we have a lot of fair share of challenges to overcome. We were blessed with two lovely daughters now age 25 & 27 years old.
No matter how long you maybe with someone it is always a work in progress. As the Aussies say, “you make your bed then lie on it.”
I started my working life in 1995 after I had my two daughters. Both of them started school and that was the time I need to be more financially independent. That was nearly years 28 years ago.
I was working as a laundry assistant in a huge nursing home down South , and then as cleaner up until I have finished my Certificate 111 in aged care. I then worked as assistant in nursing for almost 10 years until I studied at TAFE with my Diploma of Nursing to become an Endorsed Enrolled Nurse (EEN).
Everyone has challenges and rejections at some stage in their lives either in their personal and working life. Our lives as migrants is not at all that smooth sailing. We might have professional qualifications in our homeland and yet when we arrived, all seemed to have gone down the drain. We had to start all over again.
I always worked in Dementia and Palliative Care. I never realised that this caring profession has so much bickering and the so-called cliché “nurses eat nurses” life. It was unavoidable for a newbie and even if you are already longer in the game.
I had experienced a lot of put downs, “drilling holes” and personality conflicts among my fellow workers . It was something that a person had to stick up for themselves otherwise one will be run over by others.
Generally speaking, majority of workers still had also that mobbing culture, cliques and backstabbing. Gossips were all part of the stresses one has to overcome to earn their mighty dollars.
Filipinos and other ethnicities may also have experienced some form of prejudice or discrimination. However, in a lot of ways code of conduct in any workplace has to be adhered although it doesn’t mean that it is not going to happen to you.
Us nurses will always encounter people har to get along with who would undermine our capabilities instead of being supportive and working as a team.
Many workers who has superior position can be overwhelming with so much expectations. I have had many jobs in the past and in any workplace anyone can be challenged by their employers, co workers and many more that goes along with our jobs.
They say that beggars cannot be choosers. We still have to work up until our retirement age and pay our taxes. But in the end we really just have fun and enjoy life.
Really speaking everyone will leave this life and as they say our frustrations and struggles would be nothing and wou last forever. Cheers and Mabuhay from Bundaberg, Queensland my hometown for the last 10 years.