I win
Here we are then - I've got an hour left at work. August I'm going to basically be on holiday, September and October much the same but with some vague attempt to start writing, and after I've had a rest I'll start trying to put The Plan into action in earnest. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that in the next few weeks as I start to adjust.
But in the meantime, I'm about to leave the job I've been in for 11 years. I've cleared my desk, and the "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" avatar I've used on this post, I've made the wallpaper on this computer to give someone a laugh next week when they use it. Short of missing a couple of people, I'm not feeling particularly emotional about leaving. The other day as I was walking in to work, as I turned the corner and saw the office I had a flashback to starting work here, with 11 years ahead of me, and had a sudden realisation of just how long a period of time that is. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't know at the time what a long haul I was in for. I don't know that I'd change things if I could, I mean I am where I am now and anything else is just funky alternate universes where I turn right instead of left and the Earth is conquered by aliens as a result.
Fearless Leader has never, at any point, even mentioned in passing to me the fact that I'm leaving, and with 50 minutes to go as I type this hasn't made any effort to get in touch to even say goodbye, so there's a sign if you needed one about what a spectacular cunt the man is.¹ And frankly, I think him avoiding the subject comes down to embarrassment. Headless Chicken at least was civil and said goodbye.
But between them I think they have more than enough reason to be embarrassed. Because they never actually intended to make me redundant. After all, redundancy pay depends on how long you've worked there, and 11 years makes for a decent-sized payout they probably didn't really fancy making (if they'd really wanted a redundancy they'd have targetted someone who'd only been here a couple of years and wouldn't have cost them as big a lump sum.) They wanted me to take a "new" job they'd come up with that would involve me coming in at 5am every day, working downstairs for a few hours, then coming back up here to (presumably) do the same work I now do in 8 hours, but in 4. But first they told me my job was in danger to make the shitty alternative look attractive. I know this is what they did because they've done it to others before me. Except I said I'd take the redundancy, which from their reaction was obviously never something they expected to happen.
I've always said that since FL took over the management style has been not to bother getting to know the people here or the work we do, but to presume to tell us how to do it anyway. Well in this case it's come back to bite them, because this whole thing started with them trying to play games with my head, and they didn't know me well enough to see how it might not go the way they wanted. They didn't need to know I had a background in theatre that I've been getting more and more interested in recently, and which I might want to revisit. They didn't even need to know that I've been increasingly unhappy here for the last couple of years. All they really needed to know (and everyone else in the company knew this and would occasionally ask about it) was that my dad died a couple of years ago leaving my sister and I two flats which last year we finally managed to sell. If they'd known that much they might have realised I may have alternatives open to me if I left here, and that using it as a threat against me might not work. But I guess they didn't know that, so here we are.
I don't know if The Plan will work, if I'll be able to make a living writing and/or in theatre or will have to take some other shitty office job sooner or later. But that doesn't really come into today, because today's my last day in this job (by the time I've typed all this, there's now half an hour to go) after 11 years, and the end of the particular batch of office politics I've been describing on this blog since it started. The office politics culminated in this little game the management decided to play with me, and whatever happens next this particular game is one that I win.
¹in fact Fearless Leader is also leaving the company today, and to my knowledge has not spoken to any of his soon-to-be-former employees
But in the meantime, I'm about to leave the job I've been in for 11 years. I've cleared my desk, and the "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" avatar I've used on this post, I've made the wallpaper on this computer to give someone a laugh next week when they use it. Short of missing a couple of people, I'm not feeling particularly emotional about leaving. The other day as I was walking in to work, as I turned the corner and saw the office I had a flashback to starting work here, with 11 years ahead of me, and had a sudden realisation of just how long a period of time that is. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't know at the time what a long haul I was in for. I don't know that I'd change things if I could, I mean I am where I am now and anything else is just funky alternate universes where I turn right instead of left and the Earth is conquered by aliens as a result.
Fearless Leader has never, at any point, even mentioned in passing to me the fact that I'm leaving, and with 50 minutes to go as I type this hasn't made any effort to get in touch to even say goodbye, so there's a sign if you needed one about what a spectacular cunt the man is.¹ And frankly, I think him avoiding the subject comes down to embarrassment. Headless Chicken at least was civil and said goodbye.
But between them I think they have more than enough reason to be embarrassed. Because they never actually intended to make me redundant. After all, redundancy pay depends on how long you've worked there, and 11 years makes for a decent-sized payout they probably didn't really fancy making (if they'd really wanted a redundancy they'd have targetted someone who'd only been here a couple of years and wouldn't have cost them as big a lump sum.) They wanted me to take a "new" job they'd come up with that would involve me coming in at 5am every day, working downstairs for a few hours, then coming back up here to (presumably) do the same work I now do in 8 hours, but in 4. But first they told me my job was in danger to make the shitty alternative look attractive. I know this is what they did because they've done it to others before me. Except I said I'd take the redundancy, which from their reaction was obviously never something they expected to happen.
I've always said that since FL took over the management style has been not to bother getting to know the people here or the work we do, but to presume to tell us how to do it anyway. Well in this case it's come back to bite them, because this whole thing started with them trying to play games with my head, and they didn't know me well enough to see how it might not go the way they wanted. They didn't need to know I had a background in theatre that I've been getting more and more interested in recently, and which I might want to revisit. They didn't even need to know that I've been increasingly unhappy here for the last couple of years. All they really needed to know (and everyone else in the company knew this and would occasionally ask about it) was that my dad died a couple of years ago leaving my sister and I two flats which last year we finally managed to sell. If they'd known that much they might have realised I may have alternatives open to me if I left here, and that using it as a threat against me might not work. But I guess they didn't know that, so here we are.
I don't know if The Plan will work, if I'll be able to make a living writing and/or in theatre or will have to take some other shitty office job sooner or later. But that doesn't really come into today, because today's my last day in this job (by the time I've typed all this, there's now half an hour to go) after 11 years, and the end of the particular batch of office politics I've been describing on this blog since it started. The office politics culminated in this little game the management decided to play with me, and whatever happens next this particular game is one that I win.
¹in fact Fearless Leader is also leaving the company today, and to my knowledge has not spoken to any of his soon-to-be-former employees