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In a nutshell: The life of an agency carer

Flexibility or consistency? This is the main question that will often be asked of a person who is in a professional crossroad. Obviously, the question presented is quite broad and does not really tackle a multitude of scenarios an average person would encounter in his or her everyday lives. And in all fairness, sometimes this question is not easy to answer at all.

Like anything else, it all depends on one’s circumstances. Are you a family person? Are you single? Do you have kids? Is there anything you do weekly? These are but a few of the question that will have to be answered before any sensible decision could be reached.

You will have to look at the financial implications as well. Generally, the care staff that are employed permanently in care homes are paid considerably less than our friends doing agency work. This is because agency workers generally deal with a bit more uncertainty.

Do you remember your first day at work? Do you remember how unsure it is? It’s like you’re just trying to gauge the situation, trying to see how you should act. As a carer, you don’t know the service users. You don’t know their needs, their diet and their mobility. As such you try to be careful, and you just go with the proverbial flow. Now imagine doing this almost every day, as an agency carer you go to several places and more often than not it will usually feel like your first day of work every time you go to a different care home. I suppose, as veteran agency worker, one just gets used to that kind of feeling. After all, if you prefer that home after one shift, you could always go back to it.

Not to mention the distance you have to sometimes drive to, the length of that drive and all the other things one would have to deal with when doing agency work. But for what it’s worth, you are able to control your life in ways you couldn’t normally do when employed in a Care Home. First of all, you get to choose when you want to work and when you want to have a day off. Now we all have that little routine that we subscribe to, and that may come in the form of a three day/night working week or a four day/night working week or whatever set of shifts suits you.

Or perhaps you are permanently employed somewhere, and you just want that bit of extra dosh to buy something or save up for something. With Agency work you get that extra.

And that’s Agency work in a nutshell, could be quite challenging and uncertain, but it will give you control of things that you wouldn’t normally have with other jobs plus you get that extra compensation. This way of life is not normally for everyone, but once it does work for you, you will find that it is quite rewarding.