| Posted by Lou | The time is 4.40pm here in London UK |

It turns out I am actually very good at being unemployed. In fact, it turns out I'm a little bit too good at being unemployed.

For example, it is 4.41pm and I have not had a single moment of being bored today, yet this is all I have done:

• slept in
• checked email, twitter, facebook
• checked job ads
• sighed over lack of appealing jobs
• gone to the supermarket
• made lunch
• sorted out some crap for an upcoming holiday
• sent my bank another angry message
• emailed a recruitment agent
• blogged a pet peeve

Amazing how it can all be spread out to fill in a whole day.

But yes, underneath it all I am bored bored bored.



It turns out all those times I was moaning about my job and questioning whether I was doing the right kind of thing and dreaming about all the things I would do if I had the money and time, I hadn't considered the key facts:

1. Everybody needs to earn money in order to live.
2. Earning more than average is a great way to afford awesome holidays and save up for the future.
3. There are very few (if any) fulfilling jobs out there for the taking.
4. Going to work every weekday provides a lovely little structure to one's life so that they can better appreciate their spare time.
5. Working somewhere social has excellent benefits in terms of drinking buddies.

Not to get me wrong - my old workplace was specifically very badly treating me and I had many legitimate reasons to be deeply dissatisfied. However, the job itself is something I would happily have back again right now if those problems were resolved.

Fancy that, huh? Years of thinking I'm a sell-out blah blah blah, and it turns out I really was doing the best thing I could be doing.

(In case you're wondering, my old boss has specifically told me he would talk to me about coming to work with him in his new workplace, but he shares an Assistant with his CEO and 2 others so there isn't a job to talk to me about.)

Perhaps this is benefitted by the cathartic moment I have had that goes along the lines of (to quote from an email I sent Bel after arriving back in London):
I WANT TO MOVE BACK TO NEW ZEALAND.



Okay so I feel like that every time I visit New Zealand. But this time it's different. Maybe? (I do have to consider that I have come back to job hunting, and there was that earthquake that emotionally fucked-up each and every New Zealander throughout the world.)

It is also benefited by 2.5 weeks of job-hunting that have made me realise how slim the pickings are out there at the moment. (Meanwhile several awesome jobs in film are available in Wellington right now that I'm pretty sure I'd have a decent chance of getting.)

So pretty much right now I'm hoping a job will come up that will combine the right industry with the right pay so that I can get through the next 18 months (I want to experience the Olympics (even though I think they'll cause a horrendous transport meltdown)) or 36 months (if I decide I do want that UK passport).

And realistically, "right industry" and "right pay" pretty much mean "working as an Executive Assistant". And I swear I'm not going to complain about it when it happens. (Maybe?)

| Posted by Lou | The time is 9.30pm here in London UK |

1. Where previously 6 hours of sleep was perfectly sufficient, you will now need 10 hours at least. And probably want to have a nap as well.

2. You will develop a sudden and strange interest in antique and property television programmes. A format combining both will feel like a work of genius and become your new favourite show.

3. Activities which would take one minute to do in the middle of a busy work day - such as calling the power company - will now require a whole afternoon to be planned around them.

4. A trip to Tesco to buy a few groceries counts as a busy afternoon.

5. You will look back and wonder how you managed to work at your former company for so long and think that being made redundant was the best thing that could have happened.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 1.15pm here in London UK |

FYI: This post is coming at you from my living-room sofa where I am sitting in my jim-jams wrapped in a sleeping-bag.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 8.45pm here in London UK |

Back in the early days Bel became a crocodile redundee, so I've decided I get to be a redundasaurus.

This is actually a creature called a redondasaurus, apparently.

I am not sure whether or not it was gainfully employed in the Jurassic Economy.

I'm not a Victim of the Recession, but rather someone who has been made redundant after getting caught in the political cross-fire of the UK media.

I secretly find this quite flattering - I got a compromise agreement and a real proper Solicitor and was able to negotiate (a tiny bit) and in general it was like Making It in the corporate world to be more than just a Cost Cut.

And as I like to look at it, I'm being paid to leave a job I didn't particularly like and certainly wasn't happy in.

So I'm going to have lots of time on my hands. I'll be able to do my upcoming 12 Days of Christmas feature properly with researched and thought-out activities and posts; I'll be able to finally learn to play that effing ukulele; I'll be able to finish that short-film script; I'll be able to see those films I've missed.

And - most importantly - I'll be able to fuck off to the Southern Hemisphere for several weeks :D

So, really, overall, I'm quite happy about it all, if not a little miffed at the way my boss and I have been treated. But thems the breaks and I knew it could happen.

| 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 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.