Case Study: Modiegi Bonya had a secure job and what she thought was a happy home life. Her husband Senokwane then suddenly divorced her for one of his interns and moved to Ramatlabama, leaving Modiegi with a young child and a house in Unit 6 suburbs with a large mortgage. When Senokwane left me with a child and the house to pay for, my first thought was to give up work . How could I cope with childcare and all the household expenses by myself? I had a relatively secure job, and some good prospects, but the salary wasnt that great. I even thought of opening a small business as I normally bake cakes for funerals and parties in my neighbourhood during my spare time, but this did not always go well many times as people will take long to make payments. This venture was getting me into even more debt as I had purchased some equipment for the baking business.I love baking and I am good at it hence I thought I would make extra money from this special gift. My friends at work told me to hang in there. They felt that because I was good at my work, I should stay put and apply for whatever help I could in the way of benefits. I took my f
riends advice, but I began to feel stressed both at home and at work and the financial pressure was getting serious. A chance for promotion then came up, so I applied for it. Everyone said I should get it, but because of the stress I was under and the constant headaches I was having and sleepless nights thinking about what to do, I didnt prepare properly and I also didnt pay enough attention to the questions at the interview. So, of course, I failed. Failure of this sort doesnt do your self-esteem any good. Still, I had to get on with life. My friends were a great help, and so was my manager. She told me that thered be other chances for promotion and Id get there in the end.
Then another problem arose in the form of Redundancy. The redundancy was a rumour, but the company was going through a rough patch, and job losses were all that people could talk about. This upset me, because despite the promotion knock-back, I was coming to terms with my life. The redundancy talk turned out to be just that talk but I could have done without the rumours that we are going to lose our jobs to machines because of the 4th IR.