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Travel agency employee with four jobs in one year: fighting the short-time working blues

2021-04-03T05:58:27.796Z


The travel agent Tobias Staab has been on short-time work for over a year. To acidify at home is out of the question for him. With mini jobs, he not only earns a little extra, but also faces new challenges - that even replaces one or the other holiday adventure.


The travel agent Tobias Staab has been on short-time work for over a year.

To acidify at home is out of the question for him.

With mini jobs, he not only earns a little extra, but also faces new challenges - that even replaces one or the other holiday adventure.

Unterumbach

- The sun is only just

rising

when Tobias Staab is already kneeling on the sugar beet field.

With the hoe he fights against the meter-high weeds.

For a full eight hours, the 44-year-old crawled along the dusty furrows on all fours - until the midday heat made it impossible for him.

In retrospect, Staab describes this work as a harvest helper as brutal.

Last year he helped out on a farm in Wenigmünchen (Fürstenfeldbruck district) together with some cooks, hairdressers and event technicians.

Shortly before, the lockdown had forced them all into short-time work.

“Since the 18 unskilled workers were not allowed to enter Romania, the farmer was also happy to have 22 unskilled helpers,” says Staab.

Tobias Staab: "Just sitting at home doing nothing would be the worst for me"

Because they all rarely dig in the earth with their hands.

With just one click, Staab can book its customers dream trips in a small travel agency in Planegg (Munich district).

In the pandemic, his boss can only employ the trained travel agent for four hours a week.

That is why Staab has been working from job to job for a year to improve his finances.

“Just sitting at home doing nothing would be the worst for me,” he says.

Whether it's field work or filling supermarket shelves, the 44-year-old thinks he's fit enough for hard work and believes you can learn anything.

“I live by the motto: What I can't do, I just haven't learned yet,” he says.

When the sugar beet farmer no longer needed any help in June, Staab asked around again.

The building yard is looking for a temporary replacement for an injured employee, said his neighbor.

“Then I was the girl for everything in town,” says Staab.

Cleaning gullies, maintaining sewage treatment plants, fencing off playgrounds.

His activities in Pfaffenhofen an der Glonn (Dachau district) were varied.

“I already had practice in weeding,” he jokes.

Because this time he had to free traffic islands from the unloved green on all fours.

At 40 degrees in the shade, the building yard job pushed him to his physical limits for the first time: "Hats off to everyone who does it all their lives - and also to the harvest workers," says Staab, impressed.

But apparently he also made an impression on the building yard.

He could start a job in two years, as one of the employees would then retire.

For the time being, Staab had to look for a new job again in November.

Travel agent is looking for a third transitional job

The small carpenter's workshop in Etterschlag (Starnberg district) is looking for an employee, his brother-in-law soon said.

“The journeyman went to the master school,” says Staab.

Therefore, his new boss is grateful for any help.

Laying floors, manufacturing windows, doors and furniture - Staab also has to tackle his third transitional job.

“It's a lot of fun and it's in my blood,” he reports.

After all, his grandfather was a carpenter and bequeathed him a love of woodturning.

He sees something positive about short-time work and mini-jobs: he has a lot more time for his hobby in the home workshop in Unterumbach.

He now even sells homemade candle holders, pens and boards on his own website.

And although green space maintenance and parquet laying have little to do with the exoticism of distant countries such as Dubai, Egypt or Thailand, Staab enjoys the professional excursions and finds them by no means exceptional: "I like to try new things and want to experience a lot." he has to adapt to new situations again and again.

“But I just love the job I've been doing for 22 years,” he says.

So he hopes his boss at the travel agency will need him full-time again soon.

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Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-04-03

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