Oh dear.
It seems The Company has just broken the wrong sort of record again for the second time in 5 years by posting the single biggest ever Corporate loss for a British firm. Our CEO however seems to be saying (internally at least) that the picture is rosy and we're on target to meet our goals. It does have to be said that the press and the media are overblowing the story, when in fact most of the loss is caused by mandatory capital asset write downs and not on the operating performance of The Company.
However it doesn't cover up the fact that according to our CEO and his bunch of ....ahem.....Leaders "bad is the new good" .
We appear to be cutting around 400 jobs on this announcement alongside the recently announced outsourcing deal for huge chunks of out IT department. No doubt the Network department will be next as Ericsson continue their efforts to take over The Company's network operations. This "network outsourcing" would affect me and so I watch this situation with interest. It hasn't happened and may not even happen but The Company does seem to heading down the road to the trendy and frequently discredited outsourcing model.
Although I'm unhappy in my job I do my work willingly in order to support the lifestyle we have chosen, including several holidays per year to The Money Pit, my membership of the golf club, the full package of cable TV, piano, singing and dancing lessons for the girls etc etc. The list goes on and its only when the prospect of losing the income source that funds all of that looms in the dim and distant future that you realise just how lucky you are. I'm hoping that something will come my way in The Company which will re-invigorate me and I made this desire known in a fairly candid (and friendly for once) chat with The Schoolteacher last week.
Of course after over 12 years of service I'm likely to get a reasonable pay off if previous incentives are anything to go by (eg: a month for every year worked, professional CV written, career option training share options cashed in etc) but knowing my luck this would be changed into something crap like one week per year which is a far less tempting sum of money. A years salary would be more than enough to kick off my own business for example, although I've no idea what I would do.....although I do have a hankering for doing something with a visual, tangible product at the end of it. Trades (carpentry, building, electricians etc) are very attractive because apparently youngsters these days all want to work in IT, or the media and no-one is going into these areas. But how do you do this and keep the wolves of the building society and credit card companies at bay? Balance all of this against the fact that my pensions are being consolidated into The Company final salary scheme and that would put me close to 10 years from early retirement and you see the dilemna. I have qualifications and experience but get the feeling my age (44) is seriously against me know. But maybe it would be time to change my life direction again. Who knows? I'll worry if and when it happens. In the meantime, make hay while the sun shines will be my motto.
Later, SunnierJack
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