Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get me...
I was going to do my usual happy blog - music, hiking, gardening - mainly because I don't see the purpose in dumping personal worries into a public arena. Any shit I find myself in, I have to claw myself out of ultimately.
But.
In the past year, I have seen so many of my colleagues take, or have imposed upon them, redundancy. Some really good people too. I have logged in on a Monday, rung a colleague in the US, or the UK, and found they have gone. People you would never expect to go.
A couple of weeks ago, we were all asked if we would take a 5% pay cut. I said no, as did virtually everyone else (thankfully we can do that in the UK; US colleagues had this imposed upon them, plus an additional one-off 10% salary cut in April). I can't afford it anyway - we're probably in negative equity as it is right now. But also, my terms and conditions are negotiated by my union. Any individual agreement I make with the company undermines the whole principle of collective bargaining.
Now our parent firm is telling people to take the Christmas/New Year period as part of their annual leave - they haven't quite grasped we provide a 24/7/365 service to most of our clients. And soon, offers of unpaid leave will be doing the rounds. Are they kidding? Paid leave is expensive enough, what with holidays and entertaining children, and so on. I earn a more than decent salary, but even so, I have naff all left at the end of each month.
But you'd expect our senior execs to be leading by example, wouldn't you? Well, wouldn't you?
By the way, my last payrise was 2.2% (the one collectively negotiated by the union). When I moved to my current position, my responsibilities expanded from a UK to a global remit. I dropped several heavy hints that I would expect a 10% payrise to reflect this (yes, you guessed it). I have still not had an annual review or box marking for 2008. I have had no quarterly reviews this year. I have no job description, no objectives. I am not even sure what my job code is anymore. And my line manager has resigned.
One other thing. I am really fucking good at my job, apparently. And I like my job too. But sometimes you get sick of feeling sick with worry every time you wake up.
What do the employees of my (bought out) company feel about all this?
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Anyway, that is all far too miserable for words. If you endured my moaning, well done you. Here is your reward. Robert Webb dancing for Comic Relief. My legs are as good as his, you know. No, really....
I was going to do my usual happy blog - music, hiking, gardening - mainly because I don't see the purpose in dumping personal worries into a public arena. Any shit I find myself in, I have to claw myself out of ultimately.
But.
In the past year, I have seen so many of my colleagues take, or have imposed upon them, redundancy. Some really good people too. I have logged in on a Monday, rung a colleague in the US, or the UK, and found they have gone. People you would never expect to go.
A couple of weeks ago, we were all asked if we would take a 5% pay cut. I said no, as did virtually everyone else (thankfully we can do that in the UK; US colleagues had this imposed upon them, plus an additional one-off 10% salary cut in April). I can't afford it anyway - we're probably in negative equity as it is right now. But also, my terms and conditions are negotiated by my union. Any individual agreement I make with the company undermines the whole principle of collective bargaining.
Now our parent firm is telling people to take the Christmas/New Year period as part of their annual leave - they haven't quite grasped we provide a 24/7/365 service to most of our clients. And soon, offers of unpaid leave will be doing the rounds. Are they kidding? Paid leave is expensive enough, what with holidays and entertaining children, and so on. I earn a more than decent salary, but even so, I have naff all left at the end of each month.
But you'd expect our senior execs to be leading by example, wouldn't you? Well, wouldn't you?
By the way, my last payrise was 2.2% (the one collectively negotiated by the union). When I moved to my current position, my responsibilities expanded from a UK to a global remit. I dropped several heavy hints that I would expect a 10% payrise to reflect this (yes, you guessed it). I have still not had an annual review or box marking for 2008. I have had no quarterly reviews this year. I have no job description, no objectives. I am not even sure what my job code is anymore. And my line manager has resigned.
One other thing. I am really fucking good at my job, apparently. And I like my job too. But sometimes you get sick of feeling sick with worry every time you wake up.
What do the employees of my (bought out) company feel about all this?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, that is all far too miserable for words. If you endured my moaning, well done you. Here is your reward. Robert Webb dancing for Comic Relief. My legs are as good as his, you know. No, really....
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Too true!
Absolutely loved your garden pics - BTW....