Remembrance Day | Emma’s story

By Emma Buckley, Talent Attraction and Acquisition Manager

​As a military wife, Remembrance Day couldn’t be more significant to me.
Next month, my grandfather celebrates his 93rd birthday. He was an engineer in the army for over twenty years. So while paying thanks to those who have fought for our country before our lifetime is undeniably important, it never held much meaning until I met Dave, my husband.

Enlisting in 1996, Dave still serves to this day in the British Army as a Sergeant Major, having completed several tours of duty all over the world, such as Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. It’s not unusual for him to be gone for six to seven months at a time, with only two week breaks in between.

I battle with a lot of unknowns – it’s a long time, and it’s not easy.
It was especially difficult when he did an Afghanistan tour six years ago, because our twin boys were only eight months old. The worry for his safety is constant. You wouldn’t be able to reach him either – he’d have to ring home. Even then, depending on the nature of the tour, or where he is, he could be calling home every day, or once a fortnight.

If the worst has happened, you’ll only find out when you get a home visit from an army personnel.

Us military spouses are often not spoken about.
Being married to someone who works for the military means uprooting your life and moving to wherever the next posting is. But the catch? It’s every two years. And for seven years, we’ve had three different homes. As a military spouse, you can say goodbye to job stability as you’d get re-located across the country – and many employers, of course, aren’t so keen on this.

After seven years of moving, I made the decision to live closer to my family, and not move with the army.

Being on your own, you need lots of flexibility.
Because Dave is away pretty much all of the time, I’m essentially a single parent, and the sole carer of our seven-year-old twin boys. Even though I don’t have to worry about finding a new employer every other year now that we’ve stopped moving, I still need the flexibility to be able to juggle work whilst being a full-time carer for our sons.

How’ve I made my career work
Guidant Global was happy for me to work in an agile manner from the moment I joined – they understood that the nature of the work I would do didn’t mean I’d have to be in the office. This was a huge moment for me as that meant I could always continue in my job wherever the army sent my family to. In addition, this also meant I had lots of flexibility to care for my sons.

This year, Guidant Global signed the Armed Forces Covenant with a pledge to support more ex-military persons and their spouses into civilian employment. With about 1 in 5 military spouses finding it difficult to get employed due to their circumstance as a military spouse, it’s a real shame because there are so many others like me out that are fully capable of making a real difference to employers – all they need is that extra flexibility and understanding.

Remembrance Day is not just about WWI and WWII.
In all, I always believe that it’s of paramount importance we also remember and thank not only those that have served and gone before us, but to those who are still serving in the armed forces today, as they are all some one’s brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, wife or loved one that’s being terribly missed.

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We’re strengthening our commitment to support ex-veterans and their spouses into finding work that’s right for them – all we look for are those with the right work ethic – take a look at our latest vacancies >