Friday, May 29, 2009
Secret blog
This is probably me being paranoid, but I don't know if anyone at work has done or will read my blog. I know people have in the past and I want to make sure that no-one who can mess up my plans will read it until things are sorted. I don't want anyone from my current company seeing that I might go to another job and decide to not make me redundant. Or try and get out of paying me redundancy money. As soon as I leave I will remove this 'lock', but I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.
An exhausting three weeks
Has it been three weeks since I last posted? It’s been a pretty full on few weeks as well, with a potentially huge life change coming up. In summary I am definitely being made redundant although the company are refusing to make any confirmation until the 30-day consultation period is complete. They asked for any proposals to be kept on at the company, which I submitted, and they then declined my consultation sugestion. As time has gone on though I just don’t want to be in the office anymore. I think once someone says they don’t want you, and then confirms they don’t want you by rejecting a proposal to keep you on, your motivation to stay dissipates. My team are being great, and the weird atmosphere in the office has subsided a bit, but it’s not a great place to work anymore. And as the June 10th deadline for the consultation period to end looms it is getting harder and harder to leap out of bed in the morning and launch into a work day enthusiastically. As an aside to all this the consultation meetings seem to be dragging on and that is adding a bit of stress to everything. I am going on holiday on June 10th and I want all of this resolved before I go. I definitely don’t want to come back in the office after I get back from holiday. I have confronted HR about sorting this out and just get fobbed off with ‘things have to take their course’ bullshit.
I have been approached by another company to go and work for them. I have spoken to the senior staff there and hopefully they are going to take me on. It would involve us all leaving London and moving to the South coast of England to Portsmouth. The job sounds interesting although it will be a challenge to begin with. We have lots of family who live in and around Portsmouth so the move would be ideal for us in many ways. We have talked about moving down to the coast for a while, but then put off the move until the economic situation improved – we figured it would be better to keep a stable job until things get better (how wrong was that call!). We are thinking about trying for a second child so it would really help us to have family close. And the atmosphere is much more chilled than London so it all kind of fits. Just need to get the job now!!
The logistics of moving down there will be a bit complex though and we have tried to prepare as much as possible already. The best solution we have come up with is to rent down there for a few months while we sell our place in London and buy a place in Portsmouth. Ideally we don’t want to have to move all our stuff from London to one house, and then move everything to another house afterwards. Moving is stressful, things get broken and it’s crap, so I want to do it the fewest number of times possible. We have played around with several ideas including me working down there during the week and then coming back to London for the week-ends, but I really didn’t like that either. A house move will take a least 3 months and I can’t be away from my girls for that long. So renting somewhere is the best option. Renting somewhere furnished so we can leave our stuff in London while we sell the house is the next decision. We thought about renting in the area we would like to buy, but there are very few furnished places. Then we hit on the idea of renting somewhere by the sea for a few months. It’s the Summer, we could go to the beach every day, and Portsmouth is small so it wouldn’t matter much to be a couple of kms from where we plan to buy. Suddenly the plan seems to be coming together. And I quite fancy living by the beach for a few weeks! Of course it all hinges on the decision about the job, and everything that can be crossed is about that one!!
Without wishing to tempt fate it’s funny how life works out sometimes. Without the redundancy I probably wouldn’t have been approached about this job. Without the redundancy we wouldn’t even have considered a move for a while. Meg doesn’t start school proper for another year so the timing for her is ideal, as we can settle into the new area and not have to change her schooling after it has started. As much as we love being in London it’s starting to get tiring now, and living near the coast is like a dream. Most people I spoke to said that redundancy was a great thing when they looked back on it. If this all works out then I will second that!
I have been approached by another company to go and work for them. I have spoken to the senior staff there and hopefully they are going to take me on. It would involve us all leaving London and moving to the South coast of England to Portsmouth. The job sounds interesting although it will be a challenge to begin with. We have lots of family who live in and around Portsmouth so the move would be ideal for us in many ways. We have talked about moving down to the coast for a while, but then put off the move until the economic situation improved – we figured it would be better to keep a stable job until things get better (how wrong was that call!). We are thinking about trying for a second child so it would really help us to have family close. And the atmosphere is much more chilled than London so it all kind of fits. Just need to get the job now!!
The logistics of moving down there will be a bit complex though and we have tried to prepare as much as possible already. The best solution we have come up with is to rent down there for a few months while we sell our place in London and buy a place in Portsmouth. Ideally we don’t want to have to move all our stuff from London to one house, and then move everything to another house afterwards. Moving is stressful, things get broken and it’s crap, so I want to do it the fewest number of times possible. We have played around with several ideas including me working down there during the week and then coming back to London for the week-ends, but I really didn’t like that either. A house move will take a least 3 months and I can’t be away from my girls for that long. So renting somewhere is the best option. Renting somewhere furnished so we can leave our stuff in London while we sell the house is the next decision. We thought about renting in the area we would like to buy, but there are very few furnished places. Then we hit on the idea of renting somewhere by the sea for a few months. It’s the Summer, we could go to the beach every day, and Portsmouth is small so it wouldn’t matter much to be a couple of kms from where we plan to buy. Suddenly the plan seems to be coming together. And I quite fancy living by the beach for a few weeks! Of course it all hinges on the decision about the job, and everything that can be crossed is about that one!!
Without wishing to tempt fate it’s funny how life works out sometimes. Without the redundancy I probably wouldn’t have been approached about this job. Without the redundancy we wouldn’t even have considered a move for a while. Meg doesn’t start school proper for another year so the timing for her is ideal, as we can settle into the new area and not have to change her schooling after it has started. As much as we love being in London it’s starting to get tiring now, and living near the coast is like a dream. Most people I spoke to said that redundancy was a great thing when they looked back on it. If this all works out then I will second that!
Friday, May 08, 2009
VE Day
It was 64 years ago that the first step to the end of World War 2 took place. Peace was declared in Europe today as Nazi Germany was defeated and surrendered to the combined Allied forces - VE Day. I think those of us who were born long after those times have no real conception of what it was like. And reading books or watching films doesn’t really convey the horror for those who fought (on both sides). I think the only programme that has really come close is a TV series called Band of Brothers which I can highly recommend, but even this glosses over some of the details.
Nowadays we are used to seeing war ‘live’ on TV. The technology makes it look like a video game to the casual observer. And the scale of the carnage is significantly lower than it used to be. In World War 2 over 55 million people lost their lives – incomprehensible today, even when compared to things like the South East Asia tsunami of a few years ago.
So I say thank you to those who fought and died for our freedom all those years ago. I hope they are happy with how things have generally turned out and they don’t feel we have wasted the opportunity so many of them paid the ultimate price to give us.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Redundancy
I was told on Friday that I might be made redundant soon. It came as quite a shock as the company seemed to be riding out current economic problems quite well. And I am having a good year budget wise due to some negotiating and smarter thinking on the print buying I do. So I really thought that if any redundancies would happen I would not be top of the list. But apparently I was wrong. The MD summoned me into her office and just told me I was going to be made redundant. At 4.30 on a Friday afternoon before the Bank holiday! No emotion. No 'I'm afraid to say..'. Just 'you're going'. Amusingly she then asked me if I had any questions, and then said that she couldn’t answer me to every one that I asked! (Which kind of begs the question – why ask me if I have any questions if you’re going to refuse to answer them?)
Due to the number of people being put forward (is that the right phrase?) there has to be a consultancy period where we apparently get an opportunity to put forward a case for us not being made redundant. I’ve been looking at all of the information online about this and the company has to justify us being got rid of, and has to make every effort to keep us on. I have read up on what is supposed to happen, but it need to be initiated by the company. So far we have just been told that we have to elect a representative for the 9 of us in my division and then the process will start. We then have a minimum of 30 days consultation before the decision will be made if we are to be laid off or kept on.
My family and I have gone through a whole range of emotions over the past few days, but I think it’s mainly been confusion and anger. The stupid part of all this is that I want to work, I enjoy my job and I think I am actually doing a good job as well. I’m finding I have two heads on with this situation as well. My 5am head where I worry about how we will cope and what will happen – how will I keep a roof over our heads and food on our plates. Then I suppress those thoughts with my logical head where I tell myself that we are not extravagant so our lifestyle won’t have to change dramatically. There are systems in place for redundancy, especially in the current climate and we will get help with the mortgage and money from the government – hey, I’ve been paying my taxes for 10 years so I have no guilt about claiming jobseekers allowance money for a short time if that’s what it comes to.
What is proving the hardest to deal with is the not knowing. Nothing is going to start for nearly a week as it is. For example we were out for a walk yesterday and we thought it’d be nice to stop for a coffee. But then we thought no as that is being extravagant and we must tighten our belts. I think if they’d just turned round and said ‘go’ then we’d move on and get on with our lives. I think I’d still be angry, but not so unsettled.
There are lots of questions flying around my head, but one of the big ones is what do I do job wise? The ideal for me is that I stay where I am, even though my personal relationship with the company will be damaged, probably beyond repair – but if I am going to leave I would rather it was on my own terms. Or do I wait until this process is well under way and try and gauge if I will be staying or going before I start trying to sort myself out. Or do I start looking around for a new job now as there are still jobs out there if you’re prepared to look. The latter is emotionally preferable as I will feel like I am doing something and have more control over the situation. But any new job will probably not be doing what I currently am so there is a certain fear of the unknown. And the money may (probably) will not be as good. And if I find a new role do I go for it and hand in my notice to my current company. I do want to get as much money from my current company as I can so that I can feel some personal satisfaction.
Coming into the office this morning there was a strange atmosphere as everyone was still reeling from the announcement last week. Everyone seemed shocked and quite depressed as I think many realised they could be next. It took a bit of time, but various conversations started springing up and certainly the ‘shop floor’ staff seem more resolute now that first thing. There is still an air of mistrust of the company which I think may take time to heal, if it ever does. I’m finding that people are slightly nervous around the 9 of us as no-one seems to know what is going on or what is going to happen, or even what to say. It’s not great and I sort of feel like no one is going to come out of this a winner.
I’m sure there will be many more humorous/crap things that will happen in the next few weeks, but today’s incident is: The 9 of us are based in different offices so we thought we would meet up before the Thursday afternoon deadline to have a chat and decide among ourselves who our representative would be. We decided to go to the other office to meet up as it seemed easiest. We decided to meet up on the suggestion of one of the Directors of my division. We weren’t trying to hide anything, but HR called me (not sure why me as I wasn’t instigating this – good omen/bad omen?) and told me it would be inadvisable for the 5 of us in our office to leave during office hours as we would not be able to justify the time travelling to and from the meeting, and we should do a conference call instead. When I asked how they had found out about the meeting (not that I was bothered about them knowing until they called me) they wouldn’t say. And when I asked what would happen if we went ahead anyway they just said that is would not prejudice our case. But you know when someone says something like that in a particular tone of voice you get the feeling that they’re lying? So I don’t know if they’re trying play with our heads a bit, divide us up or what they’re up to. But I just feel like I’m getting kicked from all sides at the moment.
Due to the number of people being put forward (is that the right phrase?) there has to be a consultancy period where we apparently get an opportunity to put forward a case for us not being made redundant. I’ve been looking at all of the information online about this and the company has to justify us being got rid of, and has to make every effort to keep us on. I have read up on what is supposed to happen, but it need to be initiated by the company. So far we have just been told that we have to elect a representative for the 9 of us in my division and then the process will start. We then have a minimum of 30 days consultation before the decision will be made if we are to be laid off or kept on.
My family and I have gone through a whole range of emotions over the past few days, but I think it’s mainly been confusion and anger. The stupid part of all this is that I want to work, I enjoy my job and I think I am actually doing a good job as well. I’m finding I have two heads on with this situation as well. My 5am head where I worry about how we will cope and what will happen – how will I keep a roof over our heads and food on our plates. Then I suppress those thoughts with my logical head where I tell myself that we are not extravagant so our lifestyle won’t have to change dramatically. There are systems in place for redundancy, especially in the current climate and we will get help with the mortgage and money from the government – hey, I’ve been paying my taxes for 10 years so I have no guilt about claiming jobseekers allowance money for a short time if that’s what it comes to.
What is proving the hardest to deal with is the not knowing. Nothing is going to start for nearly a week as it is. For example we were out for a walk yesterday and we thought it’d be nice to stop for a coffee. But then we thought no as that is being extravagant and we must tighten our belts. I think if they’d just turned round and said ‘go’ then we’d move on and get on with our lives. I think I’d still be angry, but not so unsettled.
There are lots of questions flying around my head, but one of the big ones is what do I do job wise? The ideal for me is that I stay where I am, even though my personal relationship with the company will be damaged, probably beyond repair – but if I am going to leave I would rather it was on my own terms. Or do I wait until this process is well under way and try and gauge if I will be staying or going before I start trying to sort myself out. Or do I start looking around for a new job now as there are still jobs out there if you’re prepared to look. The latter is emotionally preferable as I will feel like I am doing something and have more control over the situation. But any new job will probably not be doing what I currently am so there is a certain fear of the unknown. And the money may (probably) will not be as good. And if I find a new role do I go for it and hand in my notice to my current company. I do want to get as much money from my current company as I can so that I can feel some personal satisfaction.
Coming into the office this morning there was a strange atmosphere as everyone was still reeling from the announcement last week. Everyone seemed shocked and quite depressed as I think many realised they could be next. It took a bit of time, but various conversations started springing up and certainly the ‘shop floor’ staff seem more resolute now that first thing. There is still an air of mistrust of the company which I think may take time to heal, if it ever does. I’m finding that people are slightly nervous around the 9 of us as no-one seems to know what is going on or what is going to happen, or even what to say. It’s not great and I sort of feel like no one is going to come out of this a winner.
I’m sure there will be many more humorous/crap things that will happen in the next few weeks, but today’s incident is: The 9 of us are based in different offices so we thought we would meet up before the Thursday afternoon deadline to have a chat and decide among ourselves who our representative would be. We decided to go to the other office to meet up as it seemed easiest. We decided to meet up on the suggestion of one of the Directors of my division. We weren’t trying to hide anything, but HR called me (not sure why me as I wasn’t instigating this – good omen/bad omen?) and told me it would be inadvisable for the 5 of us in our office to leave during office hours as we would not be able to justify the time travelling to and from the meeting, and we should do a conference call instead. When I asked how they had found out about the meeting (not that I was bothered about them knowing until they called me) they wouldn’t say. And when I asked what would happen if we went ahead anyway they just said that is would not prejudice our case. But you know when someone says something like that in a particular tone of voice you get the feeling that they’re lying? So I don’t know if they’re trying play with our heads a bit, divide us up or what they’re up to. But I just feel like I’m getting kicked from all sides at the moment.
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