The misery of March
Posted in Family, General, Studies, Work on 03/30/2009 02:54 am by VictoriaI haven’t updated my blog for several weeks now; this is because I’ve been busy dealing with all the nasty things which have happened in my life recently. This month has been one of the worst months for ages. I feel even worse than I did in December 2008. The main reason for this is that on Thursday 12th March I was told that I had lost my job in the departmental restructure.
It came as a massive shock to me; I thought that I would be safe. Alas, there just weren’t enough jobs to go round. I’m expecting to be told my leaving date on Monday, although I know it won’t be for at least 8 weeks, so at least I’ll have a chance to look for another job, either internally or with another company. However, there’s a possibility that they might want me to stay until the end of the year, to finish outstanding tasks. That would be the best case scenario, as hopefully there will be more new jobs available by then.
Just as a bit of background, I blogged about the restructure when it began last month. The original plan was that 25 people from the department of 163 people would lose their jobs. However, for various reasons the actual number of job losses is quite a bit higher than that. In my immediate area (Projects & Development), about half of the people have lost their jobs, and in the department as a whole I’d estimate that about a third of the staff will be leaving, although I’m not sure of the exact figures yet. One thing’s for certain – the department will be a lot smaller than it is currently.
As for Thursday 12th of March itself, we all had to attend the office as normal, and we each had a one-to-one meeting where we were told by our respective managers whether our jobs were safe or not.
My meeting was at 12.30pm. As I made my way to the meeting room to be told my fate, I was pretty nervous, but deep down I thought I’d be told that my job was safe and that I was worrying over nothing. I arrived a few minutes early, and I peered through the window of the meeting room to see that the senior manager for my area was sitting at the table alone. She saw me and she beckoned me to enter the room.
Just as I was sitting down at the table, I could see the senior manager’s face looked very serious and she didn’t really smile. That was when I began to expect the worst. She then said, “Let’s get this over and done with as quickly as possible. I’m afraid you haven’t been successful in securing a role within Measurement & Insight [that's the new name for the re-structured department].” I could tell that it pained her to have to give this news to people. She then gave me a letter confirming what she had just said in writing. At this point, I was stunned, upset and shocked, so the senior manager offered to leave the room for a couple of minutes so I could compose myself and also to give me time to think of any questions I might want to ask.
I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been offered a role anywhere at all within the department. I’d always assumed that even if I wouldn’t be successful in getting the Automation Lead Adviser role (which was my first choice), I would be offered a job as a Measurement Lead Adviser (as I have experience of working in that team in the past). When the senior manager came back into the room I asked why this was, and she replied that there just weren’t enough jobs to go round and the bar had been raised very high. She couldn’t say much more at that point, but she said she would arrange another meeting with me the following week to explain the reasons in more detail. She said that she was really sorry that this had happened to me, and that she would try to support me in finding another job within the company. I could tell that she was supportive of me and my work, but unfortunately the decision wasn’t just in her hands. The decisions were made by the head of the department and a panel of about 5 senior managers.
My line manager was waiting outside the meeting room, and we went into a separate room to discuss what had happened. Even he seemed surprised that there was no job for me in the new structure, as he had always been pleased with my work and he always thought I was making good progress. He said he didn’t expect anyone in his team to be put at risk of redundancy.
My existing team (the Process Improvement Taskforce) won’t exist in the new departmental structure. The taskforce consists of me, and 2 other people. One of them has been put at risk of redundancy just like me, but the other was offered a job in the Automation Team. The Automation Team will pick up some of the work that our taskforce used to do, but they will do other things as well, such as creating online versions of reports. I was disappointed that I wasn’t offered a job in the Automation Team, but they only had room for 7 people in the new structure.
I always realised that the Process Improvement Taskforce would end one day; after all, our job is to improve existing reports, and once they’ve all been improved, there won’t be much left for us to do anyway. I always assumed I’d simply be able to move back to my previous role (creating new reports) but because that team was also undergoing severe cuts of its own on 12th March, I guess there wasn’t enough room for me.
I was shocked when I found out the names of some of the people throughout the whole department who are being made redundant; many of them are (in my opinion) amongst the most skilled and well-respected people in the department.
As for what I plan to do in the future, I’d like to train to become a Microsoft certified web developer. I’ve always been interested in web development, so maybe now would be a good opportunity to begin a career in that domain. I’ve bought some books on ASP (Active Server Pages), C# programming and SQL Server 2005. I’ve also downloaded and installed the free Express versions of Visual Studio so I can try out what I’ve learnt. Several of my co-workers are taking Microsoft exams, so I’ve been finding out from them what it entails.
In the meantime, I’ve applied for a role in the HR department as a Reporting Support Lead Adviser. It’s similar to the sort of work I did when I was a Reporting Analyst in 2007. The only downside is that it’s a 12-month secondment and not a permanent job. However, if I did get it, I would be able to look for a permanent job in the meantime, as well as work on my studies. I submitted my application form on Tuesday and the closing date was Friday, so hopefully this week I will hear whether I have an interview. I’m also looking out for other jobs that I might want to apply for.
As for the other bad things which have happened this month, well, there’s been a few arguments in the family. None of them involve me directly, but I hate it when that sort of thing happens. Another thing is that the whole family has caught a cold, including me. Luckily it doesn’t seem quite as severe as the one we had in December, but it still means I haven’t been able to sleep properly. My eyes are stinging right now as I type this. I hope I’ll be OK in the morning as it will be Monday (ie back to work). Additionally, my Mum went to the doctor’s this week and her blood pressure has gone up, presumably due to all the extra stress we’ve been through this month. She has had high blood pressure for quite a while now and she’s been on tablets, but it’s increased since her last check-up.
I just can’t wait until this month is over – it’s almost feels as if March 2009 is jinxed! :-S
