| Posted by Lou | The time is 3.10pm here in London UK |

If someone had told me I'd start my 30s by being right, proper fucked I wouldn't have been so against the idea - unfortunately though this one wasn't of the carnal kind.

Before I even had a chance to put my best intentions and proactive self-pep-talks into action I found out that in my absence last week wider workplace situations came to a head and my boss "quit"*.

I did not find this out through him giving me the courtesy of telling me, but rather from innocently coming across an email from the HR Director drafting the announcement.

After more than 2 years of going above and beyond the call of duty, and of displaying super-human loyalty towards him, I've been totally and utterly fucked.

In this situation all I can do is try my best to turn the situation into a positive, so watch this space.

xkcd

(First of all though I'm going to watch depressing movies and cry, then try and get more than a jet-lagged 4 hours sleep in a night.)

*in our company's speak "quit" does not refer to a necessarily voluntary act

| Posted by Bel | The time is 4.02pm here in Wellington NZ |

A friend who is doing an awe-inspiring job of raising a one year old and running her own business just sent me through a link to one of these pics. Great stuff.

Italy's Licia Ronzulli in the European Parliament, with her daughter, voting on proposals to improve women's employment rights.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 12:40pm here in London UK |

Work, my career (or lack of), and the workplace are all things I've talked about before in-depth (particularly on my old blog).

This one is in the category of Things I Have Learned and takes the form of the golden rule that you all must learn and live by (if you don't already (which I hope you already do)).

Are you listening? Here it is:

You must stand up for yourself.

Even if you have the bestest boss in the world, even if you're buddies with your co-workers, even if you think your workplace is great: ultimately you are the only one who actually cares.

This goes for salary, job titles, promotions, or even just your everyday working conditions.

Me, standing up for myself at work

(okay it's Joan)

Such a simple thing but a lot of people (including myself) have a lot of trouble getting past the barrier of feeling like it's pushy/ demanding/ selfish/ arrogant/ etc. It's not, and you probably think that because you're probably a woman and you've probably spent the past [insert age here] years being taught to be "nice".

The reason this one is my first post is that it is top of my mind at the moment having yesterday practised what I preach and laid down the law to my boss demanding recognition and salary for What I Actually Do. The outcome is a commitment from him to see that it happens. (Watch this space!)

My advice is to know your rights in the situation, have evidence to support what you are saying, have a clear end result in mind, get to the point, and speak with confidence. Oh, and don't take no for an answer.

Posted by Lou. The time is 11.19am here in London UK.

A habit that you wish you didn’t have

I am always late for work. Always. Even when I try really, really hard to be on time, I will be late. In fact, I'll probably be later than usual.

The only times I have gotten to work early I have still been late as I was there later than the earlier time I was aiming for.

I can think of one single instance of being genuinely early, but it was my first day back after a trip to New Zealand so the sole reason for it was jet-lag.

I'm generally on time for everything else, it is just work - though I think this is to do with my wisdom in rarely committing to anything early on weekends/ days off.

I believe the fundamental reason for this is that I sleep badly - ie I will never, ever wake up in the morning refreshed by a solid night's sleep - but really it's just now habit.

Due to the fact that I am not someone who leaps up and leaves the second the clock approaches hometime, it is not something that garners negative comment by The Boss.

So I guess it's fine, right?

Hmm perhaps I'll try and be on time every day next week...

Posted by Lou. The time is 4:56pm here in London, UK.

I haven't posted anything for a while so thought I would share with you a new dresscode myself and a couple of colleagues have come up with to jazz up our lives:

Make an effort Monday
Take time to think about it Tuesday
Come as you are Wednesday
Switch it up a gear Thursday
Lower the tone Friday

Let's hope it produces some interesting results!

(Oh god, I'm so boring........ tried to match the font effect to the title to jazz this pitiful piece of work up... and made it even more pitiful!)

Posted by Bel. The time is 7:30pm here in Wellington, NZ.

I spent all of this afternoon asleep in the sun on my couch. And if you're thinking, 'Jeepers! You sound like a lay-about bum!', well, that's because as of 5pm yesterday, I officially am.

On Monday, I was given a letter which made clear my "options". Apparently there was the choice of "redeployment", which sounds quite exciting - however in one concise paragraph it was elaborated that due to the small size of the organisation and the specialised nature of my role, there wasn't actually any other roles for me to fulfill. So scratch that. Redundant it is.

I went to work on Wednesday (yesterday) feeling apprehensive about the as-yet-unconfirmed meeting that was supposed to happen, to discuss the terms of the redundancy. But I got some great advice from my manager (who is also being given the chop) and preemptively emailed through my terms: three month's pay, all leave and days-in-lieu owing, the bonus I have coming up and for them to pay for sessions with a counsellor as well.

Nerve-wracking as it was going into the meeting, it all went well. The CEO agreed to everything, and offered to write me a reference too. At that point I said I would finish on Friday, but after having a sunny lunch in Civic Square with a friend, I came back and said "how about I finish at 5pm today?". And did just that - though it was about 6pm by the time I was done having an impromptu glass of wine with some of my workmates.

I'd cleared my desk out on Monday, already pulled all my photos off the wall by my desk, had clocked out mentally. On one hand, it seems strange to have wrapped it all up so quickly, but on the other, WHOO!!

Posted by Bel. The time is 9:15pm here in Wellington, NZ.

It has been an awkward week at the office. Literally one person has spoken to me directly about the fact that I've been told my department is being laid off. There has been lots of breezy "Good morning!!"s as people hurried past on seemingly urgent tasks, making not a lot of eye contact.

I don't blame them really, I mean, unemployment's like swine flu: the new plague. Unpleasant to dwell on and infectious by association. We've all heard about people being made redundant - maybe there's even someone in your family, you know, without a job - but who really wants to hang out in the corner of the office that has had the X metaphorically slashed across it?

Posted by Bel. The time is 3:00pm here in Wellington, NZ.

I got made redundant yesterday. In fact, the whole marketing department at work is being 'disestablished'. Due to the Current Economic Climate (c) TM (R), it's been decided that it will be more economically feasible to outsource all the marketing and comms services to an agency rather than keep me and my manager on board.

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.