Been trying to find a job for a while now; signed on at the job centre, they were very nice (Before you ask, I don't qualify for dole payments, didn't ask for it, didn't expect it, but I had to sign a form to say that I had been 'refused payments' anyway). I asked for help with my (french) cv and 'lettre de motivation' (basically, covering letter, french style) so they very kindly sent me off to 're-travailler' a type of agency place to help people who are looking for work. They signed me up for three months. Well, it doesn't take three months to wirte a cv or a covering letter, so have spent the rest of the time been hassled by the woman in charge about my job applications (or lack of). Basically, she wants me to go around the local towns, knocking on doors, begging for work (call me 'Yozzer'). She says applying for jobs advertised on the internet is basically a waste of time.
Not that any of them really suit me anyway. Can't work five days a week on a permanant basis as we work all weekend from June through to September and that's knackering enough. (Plus, need time during the week at the moment to do all the jobs that need doing here). Can't work weekends for same reason. So I am a bit limited in my available time. Have seen a few jobs in shops (like till work, shelf stacking) but unemployment is so high around here, employers can demand a lot and all want previous experience. (How hard can it be to learn to stack a shelf or pass an item in front of a scanning machine?). I've seen a few very suitable jobs helping out in schools but they are all 'CUI/CAE' which has something to so with the wages being mostly government funded and you can only do them if you fit certain criteria - over 55, single parent , long-term unemployed etc etc, which needless to say I do not qualify for.
Anyway, as I mentioned in the last post, I've been volunteering at these English classes for French children, and I thought, 'I could do this' (Surprisingly, I do have some experience in this area). Discussed it with some other folk and they thought it was a good idea. So today, I started making enquiries. Turns out that I am not allowed to do it. Not because I am not a teacher (that's not a problem apparently), but because our existing business is currently in my name and I am not allowed, by law, to have two businesses in my sole name. How bloody stupid is that? There are two possible options:
Firstly, to change the name of the existing business into hubby's name. There is no chance of doing this. The problems we have had, and continue to have, since arriving, with the RSI (who we pay our social charges to) have been so horrific, that to tell them we are changing things just doesn't bear thinking about.
Secondly, I can take (yet another) trip to Nantes to ask the powers that be if I can have a kind-of 'associated business' alongside the current one. By all accounts this is highly unlikely to be allowed because teaching English is so completely different from running gites. I could, for instance have a
B&B alongside the gites, or something else with some relevancy, but English classes would not normally qualify.
So there you go. No wonder so many French folk work on the black.
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