Voces del Prado

Six attempts to get the job

María Teresa González Escolar, General Services Assistant, 1990-2013

I’m María Teresa González Escolar and I started working ... How long did I work for?... I think was 19 years. I started working in 1990 and I took partial retirement at 60 and fully retired at 64.
I took the first entry exam at the same time as my husband Jesús. The idea was that we’d both work here. It paid very little in those days and it was very few hours work but we’d have free time for our own things. I sat the exam pregnant and it was impossible, I was too heavily pregnant to be accepted. He passed but I didn’t get through.
So 11 years went by, from 1979 to 1990. I tried again various times, I think it was six times before I got in. I was offered various opportunities but they were for summer contracts. And with small children I felt that starting work was a problem. So we waited and when they were older I got in.
I started working in the mornings then when I was able to I changed to the afternoon shift as I preferred it to the morning one. I happily cared for the children in the mornings - breakfast and lunch - then I went to the Museum. And I left early enough to look after them in the afternoons. And I liked the afternoon shift more.