Skip to main content

Notes from a Redundancy

Intro

About 7 weeks ago, I got made redundant. 29 years old and facing redundancy. I guess it could be much worse. I could be twice as old, have little savings, kids and wife and these feelings of desolation and sadness would be compounded, and I guess that's why lots of people decide that only an extreme, fanatical immersion in religion or alcohol or even suicide is the answer. I like to think I would take a very positive attitude towards it, and hopefully have a lot of helpful friends and relatives to turn to.

I decided that instead of weeping into my semi-naked lap and enhancing the ambidextrous skills of moving the mouse and typing one handed (with my left hand), not washing, alcoholism and eating instant noodles, I would do something productive enough like writing a diary. Take Anne Frank; she managed living in an attic for the most part of World War 2, I bet keeping a diary helped her deal with the pain. If someone could get through the suffering and emotional torture of the Nazis just by writing, I could easily get through a redundancy just by writing.
On the drunken evening of my redundancy I decided this - that I would write. Strangely I had my laptop with me that day too.

A warning before I begin: the start of this diary is a bit graphic, but you know, I felt it was justified to be included and attempts to put into words my anger and confusion and try to quantify my sense of loss and bewilderment.

I managed through this period reasonably well, albeit with some semi-permanent scarring (details below) and an added resentment to my already jaded contempt of corporate companies and shitty management (the technical term is "not knowing your arse from your elbow" or a phrase that another previous team lead of mine used pretty much on a daily basis "a piss up; in a brewery; couldn't organise" and a phrase one of my friends says, a lot "[they] couldn't organise a root in a brothel with a fist full of fifties".)
I'm pretty thankful to the immense support network I had, nearly everyone I spoke to had words of encouragement for me. Many did make "I bet all you've been doing is watching porn and wanking" jokes, but in between that, gave me words of advice and guidance. Actually, most people who I came into contact with regarding my redundancy were really supportive and positive.

I considered updating this blog each day I was redundant, but I decided to abandon that idea as I thought it might be too depressing.

I've created another page for it. You can read the full story here, or by clicking on the link near the top of the page.

Interview time!

Post interview time!!

"I didn't get the job. I'll gorge on junk food" time...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A new experience

It felt like I did a lot of travelling today. I'm in Moscow now. In total it was about 8.5 hours. But I had gone forward by 3 hours, and spent a few hours waiting for a delayed plane after being searched like a terrorist, and all the contents of my backpack unpacked and gone through with a fine tooth comb, and comments about sandals that I had in my backpack as being "too heavy". I have no idea what that meant, and at the time I probably didn't help the searching by Lisbon airport security by replying a sarcastic "uhhh,....yeah". I had a pencil case with me, and the guy doing the searching took every single pen and pencil out, and examined them all! I'm really not sure what he was looking for, as I could have used them as instruments of pain infliction but he allowed me to keep them all. I evetually boarded my flight to Maldova which was hugely delayed for no specific reason, so I got to Maldova and had to get on a bus from the plane, go to the transit a...

When starchy, unboiled vegetables are harder than steel.

Around a year ago I bought a knife set made by an American company called Füri. They were nice knives I thought. Notice the "were". They're no longer nice knives. Below is an email that I wrote to them a few weeks ago. An email that they as yet, haven't answered. So I thought I'd post my letter online. The email was entitled "Füri-ous at knife breaking". I hope they understood the pun of their company's name. Hi Füri, Just over a year ago (March or April 2012), I purchased a 9cm (3.5 inch) Pairing knife. It was in a set along with an 20cm Cook's Knife. I decided to buy Füri brand knives as I was looking for some good quality kitchen knives; knives that enhance my enjoyment of cooking. However, last week I was cutting through a potato (chopping it into cubes for a soup) with the 9cm Pairing Knife, when the knife just snapped! I've attached some pictures. A clean break in the knife - no twisting or bending. A clean bre...

The Dangers of Washing Up

Washing dirty dishes is a pretty tedious task, it causes arguments between couples, family disharmony about whose turn it is (to my younger sister who had an S in her name: if your name has an S in it then you only do washing up with an S in the days), friction among friends sharing a flat and one of them using 5 pans to cook bacon and egg, the point is escaping me....pretty much everyone would like to not do it. Pretty much everyone needs an excuse. This is a good excuse. A big, hairy, fuck-off spider in the corner of your kitchen. You can even see what looks like a black and white little face that looks like Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen.  "Oh my....fuck me dead...what the fffffuuu..." was my reaction. Pretty colourful lanaguage looking back on it, but I was arse-clenchingly surprised. I'm not even that scared of spiders. But for those not used to seeing massive spiders (me included) this is probably one of the biggest, hairest, fuck-off spiders I have ...