Anél Lewis, who was retrenched from a real estate company during lockdown, has quickly shifted gears to now find an alternative income stream.
Anél Lewis has recalled the uncertainty she went through after being retrenched during the coronavirus lockdown. Picture: Supplied
CAPE TOWN – With the expanded unemployment rate at around 42%, many South Africans are pondering their next move.
The COVID-19 lockdown has seen thousands of people lose their jobs.
EWN spoke to a public relations officer who lost her job as a result of the pandemic to find out about her plans for the future.
Anél Lewis, who was retrenched from a real estate company, has quickly shifted gears to now find an alternative income stream.
Lewis worked as a public relations officer at a Cape Town-based real estate company.
One month into the lockdown and working from home, Anél said that she anticipated that her career path would soon change.
“So they told us that we weren’t really essential to the business at that time… that, for me, was the hardest part of the whole process. I could see the writing was on the wall once we all realised that lockdown wasn’t going to be a few weeks but months, it became evident that there would be job losses.”
The wife and mother of two said that besides having to deal with the threat of COVID-19, she now had to focus on getting another job.
“Not only was it the lockdown and COVID, it was also the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen in the future.”
She has since taken on freelance writing work to generate an income.
“I started reaching out and chatting to other people in similar situations, looking online and just started doing what I knew I could do, which is write, and doing what I could do in terms of skills… getting my skills out there.”
