New job ends festive season misery

Glenn Watson | 3rd March 2010

You just have to get out and look for a job. You never know what you might find.Sharyn JacksonFor Sharyn Jackson, losing her machinist's job at Kooky Fashions last Christmas was just about the last straw.

The Wanganui fashion manufacturers were forced to lay off Mrs Jackson and seven workmates in a bid to stay competitive in tough times. Its  fashion label's casual wear will now be made in China.

Mrs Jackson, 55, understood the reasons for the cutbacks, but was angry her life was knocked sideways on the cusp of the festive season.

"It was a miserable Christmas," said Mrs Jackson, who moved back to Wanganui from Auckland with her panelbeater husband five years ago.

Since moving home, where she has bought a lifestyle block on Mosston Rd, all her adult children and grandchildren have taken up residence in the city as well.

Mrs Jackson worked for Kooky for two years,  following  the closure of Wanganui's Norsewear factory, where she was also a machinist.

"After being laid off at Kooky, I started to wonder when it was all going to end," she said yesterday.

That's when a friend spotted an advertisement for a manager's job at The Bed Barn, run by a Palmerston North company which was opening a shop on Wanganui's Victoria Ave.

Not one to take setbacks lying down, Mrs Jackson promptly applied for the job and got it.

Mrs Jackson now puts her machinist's skills to good use, making the underlay, as well as selling the beds.

Life's good again, no more sleepless nights worrying about the mortgage.

 If  unemployment has taught her anything it's never give up hope, regardless of your age.

"You just have to get out and look for a job. You never know what you might find," she said.

Mrs Jackson said a couple of other workmates laid off
by Kooky had found work
in the city and a few others
were studying for other ventures.