Creativity suffers under the warm caress of contentment. One only has to look at how the best songs are those written from the pain of angst and suffering....or drugs I suppose.
So, sometimes the creative juices don't always flow as freely. But a seething and bubbling mood of discontent is never far from the surface as the constant barrage of bad news continues to smash into us on a daily basis. It is now becoming more and more obvious that that contentment in my life goes as far as family. Kid is now happily studying at college and in tow with a seeming sensible boyfriend on the verge of joining the Marines, and Pie having just completed her first GCSE at the tender age of 13. Hellsbells and I battle on with the daily grind like all good parents do. On the boyfriend front, my adaptability amazes me. For Mini-Me I was able to act the gruff misery who could be friendly when it suited him, but if this kid is joining the Marines then expect me to pull out the doddery, friendly old Dad act. No point in riling him is there?
But everyday I now find my job becoming more and more meaningless. Don't get me wrong I love the team, really enjoy leading them and seeing each and every one of them flourish. But I now seem to be almost irrelevant in its success and maybe its time to think about moving on. Maybe I've found my Kevin Keegan moment and realised I've taken them as far as I can. My new boss, who replaced The Tub Thumper (TTT), has been asked to restructure his department, now called Service Management and we have tentatively discussed anew role within that structure which may pique my interest again. My new boss, lets call him Squadron Leader as he is ex-RAF, is as far removed from the fluffy faux people friendly world of TTT as possible, who despite her wacky fundamental Christian beliefs, over sincere caring attitude and crap jokes I must admit to liking. Squadron Leader doesn't do fluffy and doesn't do communicating much. He's very much like Captain Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek Next Generation fame. He seems determined to surround himself with strong personalities who'll deal with the crew of the good ship Service Management, the customers and the rest of the business whilst he does the strategic stuff with The Federation.
Thats fine by me and I've shown a degree of enthusiasm for his plans, but deep inside I can't help wondering whether its what I want. I'm a person who thrives in smaller departments, a bigger fish in a smaller pond if you like, When I first moved into The Customer Facing Operations Bit of High Tech Pipes, Tubes and Strings it was about 150 people strong, now its 500 people strong and the intimacy and friendliness has evaporated. It's full of over-promoted engineers managing people by box ticking and numbers. The fun has gone, summed up by the cancellation of the Christmas Party in favour of smaller more localised team based events. Heaven forbid that people might want to mix outside of their local team circle huh?
And hence its time to start making plans. Plans to take a grip on my life and try something different for the inevitable day when the big push arrives. Believe me its going to happen, another round of job losses to follow the bollocks of earlier this year. A recession is all that major corporations need in order to to decide that they are 'overweight' and need to be become 'lean and agile' - despite their own recruitment policies being the very cause of this during the apparent good times. The Company will be no different, despite my desire for the CEO to stand up to the greedy City idiots who've caused this recession and tell them to keep their noses out of how he runs The Company and to assure the staff that they will still be in place for when the economic upturn hapens. I foresee some 10,000 jobs going similar to the number BT have decided to lay off. I've never been unemployed since the day I left school way back in 1978 and have never been through redundancy. So, if it does happen this time it will be a new experience for me, and no doubt one which will fuel the creative flames.
Unless , of course I'm still coated in redundancy teflon and slip nhrough the net again.
Later, GJ.
Thats fine by me and I've shown a degree of enthusiasm for his plans, but deep inside I can't help wondering whether its what I want. I'm a person who thrives in smaller departments, a bigger fish in a smaller pond if you like, When I first moved into The Customer Facing Operations Bit of High Tech Pipes, Tubes and Strings it was about 150 people strong, now its 500 people strong and the intimacy and friendliness has evaporated. It's full of over-promoted engineers managing people by box ticking and numbers. The fun has gone, summed up by the cancellation of the Christmas Party in favour of smaller more localised team based events. Heaven forbid that people might want to mix outside of their local team circle huh?
And hence its time to start making plans. Plans to take a grip on my life and try something different for the inevitable day when the big push arrives. Believe me its going to happen, another round of job losses to follow the bollocks of earlier this year. A recession is all that major corporations need in order to to decide that they are 'overweight' and need to be become 'lean and agile' - despite their own recruitment policies being the very cause of this during the apparent good times. The Company will be no different, despite my desire for the CEO to stand up to the greedy City idiots who've caused this recession and tell them to keep their noses out of how he runs The Company and to assure the staff that they will still be in place for when the economic upturn hapens. I foresee some 10,000 jobs going similar to the number BT have decided to lay off. I've never been unemployed since the day I left school way back in 1978 and have never been through redundancy. So, if it does happen this time it will be a new experience for me, and no doubt one which will fuel the creative flames.
Unless , of course I'm still coated in redundancy teflon and slip nhrough the net again.
Later, GJ.
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