Posted by Bel. The time is 3:00pm here in Wellington, NZ.
Obviously, I think this is a shithouse idea, but I'm not going to 'submit feedback on the proposal', as we've been asked to do, since the CEO is new to the company and clearly has been hired to do a hatchet job. This recession has everyone running for cover and some financial decisions are being made that don't necessarily make a lot of sense in other way.
I'm not exactly an unbiased commentator on the situation however. There'd been no rumours of restructuring or cutbacks that I was aware of, so it came as a shock to know that I was being pushed overboard. As the meeting wound up, I said, "um, I think I might go home now" and bunked off for the afternoon. I have very little desire to sit behind my desk and continue working on something that I'm not going to be part of. It's like that feeling you get when you hand in your notice, of all the responsibility and motivation sliding off your shoulders - except with a nasty aftertaste of humiliation and, well, redundancy.
Over the last 24 hours I';ve experienced a mixture of feelings (and some mixed drinks). At times I have actually felt quite thrilled,'liberated from The Man', on May Day even - how appropriate. To have my hand forced like this gives me the momentum I haven't had in the job hunting I've done lately. Because, let's face, the job wasn't all it's cracked up to be - and rather than continue to suffer through and only enjoy the days when everyone's out of the office, I can seize the opportunity.
Other times, I've felt really despairing. There has not been a worst time to be job-hunting in our lifetimes. We've all watched the 'Vacancies' section of Wednesday's Dom Post dwindle down to barely a double page broadsheet. It's a ruthless market out there and employers are in the power position. I feel like I've always lucked it with my jobs in the past and right now it seems like a time when that isn't enough to cut it.
But fact of the matter is, I'm one of thousands, if not millions, facing this right now. People are being laid-off around the world and throughout New Zealand and many of them are in far worse situations than me. That doesn't mean I'm not having a total pity party right now, but somehow I'm taking comfort in knowing that this is part of what seems to be a great inevitable wave.
This is me, waving, not drowning - I'll keep you posted.
Um, the photo is not that relevant but I wrote that goofy title and when I googled 'crocodile being attacked' that image came up and, come on, i had to use it.
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