Despite being laid off only a month or so into her work as a traffic controller for Evolution Traffic Management, 19-year-old Sasha is confident she can move on.
Sasha is one of about 100 employees across three Evolution sites in Auckland, Hamilton and Taupō who were informed on Friday last week that the business was going into liquidation.
A few hours after that first email, another followed ,saying the company would not be continuing to trade, said Sasha.
Financial pressures, government inaction and the changing nature of work had proved insurmountable for the company, said FIRST Union in a release about the closure on Tuesday this week, while Sasha said the email she and her 15 or so fellow employees received mentioned Covid shutdowns but she wasn't aware of the whole story.
The Evolution website is currently offline.
Sasha was enjoying her duties setting up sites and performing traffic control duties at road works.
"Such a lovely fun team to work with. I just enjoyed going early in the morning, meeting in the yard and having a yarn and all that with all the workers, everyone was just so lovely, and I couldn't be any happier," she said.
She was now looking to book her tracks, rollers and wheels licence so she could move into machine operating, she said.
She hoped her former workmates could also find something quickly.
"I just have much love for them and hope they can find their career."
In the meantime, she remained optimistic and hoped not to have to dip into her savings too much.
"I'll just keep my head up high and hope something happens… A bit of a bummer, but things happen."
