The kids had both left home and got their own places so I’d decided to return to the work place after many years of being the dutiful wife and mum. I trawled the newspapers but work for a 45 year old woman was scarce so I signed on with an agency to get back into the market doing a few temporary assignments. I’d had a couple of jobs working as a receptionist in a variety of different offices but nothing particularly exciting. I then received an offer to do some maternity cover at a motorcycle parts company, delivering spare parts throughout Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. As we were just into Spring I thought the opportunity to work outside doing some driving in the Spring and Summer months would be pretty good so I accepted.
I reported to work on the Monday morning and was given a day’s training on product and admin and basically that was all I needed. On the Tuesday I loaded my van and off I went. It was mostly the same customers every week, usually special parts deliveries that were required for urgent repairs. The clientele was mostly male and the premises were usually hotbeds of testosterone but once used to the banter and leg pulling I gradually started to be able to give as good as I got. For a 45 year old housewife, used to being called boring and dowdy, I started to really enjoy myself and secretly felt a few twinges of excitement at some of the compliments and flirting that used to take place. I also rediscovered some of my self esteem and actually began making a conscious effort as to how I looked when I went to work. My husband made a few sarcastic comments about my appearance but I informed him that my job role actually entailed business meetings with the dealerships hence my smarter appearance. Most days were enjoyable and the flirting was very good for my ego. I started to get a few wolf whistles as I entered some of the workshops and some of the comments actually made me quite wet.