The Working Hour

Oh dear. What's given with one hand is taken with the other. It's the way of the world unfortunately.

Good news at least on the well timed redundancy (plus presumably the payment).

What are your plans? Why not go abroad with the pay off, live cheaply in a beach hut somewhere exotic, or a bedsit in an exciting city, rent your own house out, and then come back to sell it and buy a nice flat outright with the equity in Scotland or another EU country you'd like to live in that offers good employment prospects.

It's a complex decision because I don't know what my employer actually wants. I suspect they don't really want me as configuration twiddler, because they can pay someone less skilled and less stroppy a lot less to do it.

I'm minded to take redundancy if I can get a decent payout. I'd get 10-20k as a straight payment, but, because I started working there before 2006, the pension scheme rules say I can also retire at 50 if I'm made redundant. My 50th birthday is in 4 months, and they have to give me 3 months' notice, so I probably will get over that line unless they act in the next six weeks.

But - being so far from normal retirement age, I'd take a big cut in pension. So much so that I wouldn't have enough to live on when I'm 67.

Then again - what usually happens in these cases is the employer sorts it out with the pension scheme so that you get extra pension, as part of the redundancy settlement.

If that was sorted I'd sell my house, move to Scotland and find sufficient work there to make up the pension deficit. Contracting is a popular way forward for IT types, that would suit me perfectly.

Fangirl Three wrote:Also I've been told that I've been turned down for income protection insurance because of my complex medical history

Actually I've now found out that it was because of the level of alcohol consumption I admitted to.

I find myself really torn this afternoon, after meeting an existing client about his account, his hoped for upcoming projects/my role in securing and building them, and his reputation which goes before him, which I've already advised to add nothing that hasn't been already - it's not horrific, it's just not toned, so he can afford to shut up more than he can risk inflaming it.

I may have said before that I take a somewhat French view of the world of desire. I'm not reticent to call myself a feminist but I have reservations about the broader #MeToo movement, and some of its aims.

Only yesterday in fact I was reading an article that almost summed up my torn state of mind. The article was about the '50 shades' defence in murder trials and the proposal for all rough s*x gone wrong to be murder without a defence and no chance of a reduction to a manslaughter charge.

That doesn't sit well with me, and I was pleased to see prominent female QC's have torn the idea to shreds on the grounds that sometimes accidents do happen, some people do enjoy things others find abhorrent, and the risk of ending up with really badly drafted knee jerk legislation is very high.

And yet, I have myself come across a few spitters (I gobbed right back in his face and made my feelings plain as I held the door open for him, while he hastily dressed), chokers, slappers, (both types stop when it's reciprocated), and an almost pneumatic jackhammer who wouldn't stop when asked more than once (fortunately I was in a position to dislocate his shoulder).

It's not ok, to me. But I can deal with it, for me. Others, particularly younger and more willing to please shouldn't have to.

Anyway, I have nuanced feelings. This man increasingly doesn't. We went round in a full circle from the top, and as we came round to approaching to end/start point even he had to say that logically, the only reasonable conclusion was mine.

We had two hours to do this. He won't have two hours with the kinds of people he wants fixed up with, and his reputation precedes him now.

Byproducts. Aim was the wrong word. It's some of the byproducts of it that don't sit well with me.

Our overboss called us and the line manager I mentioned together yesterday afternoon, and told us that 'we' were definitely not considering outsourcing. I boldly asked if 'we' included the head of department, and he said it did.

If anything though, that emphatic denial has made me more suspicious. This is one of those issues at work that keeps being laughed off as ridiculous, but somehow keeps coming back. One day we won't be so lucky.

Also our overboss referred to it as 'the issue [Fangirl] brought up on Monday' when in fact all 4 of us had complained about it. That will make the line manager see me as the ringleader.

I have secured an extension of my 2 mornings a week working at home, to 3 mornings.

This after saying that the institution had a choice between the problem of finding me somewhere quieter to work, or finding someone else to replace me.

Even as the words were coming out of my mouth I suddenly thought 'Actually it's a lot easier for them to find someone to replace me, isn't it', so I was surprised that it worked.

Due to my good name, and success in a closely related area, my colleague has been trying to land me with a client I've already refused to do any work for.

I gave my professional appraisal at a meeting with this individual, which was and remains that I had absolutely no idea why she was sitting at the table, offering excuses, saying anything at all actually, rather than out on her ar*e.

Further, that her continued involvement guaranteed failure, that if her particular outfit was in the private sector she would've driven them so far into bankruptcy there would be no doubt as to her gross incompetence.

Lo and behold, she's still there and what's worse, she's here. Well, she was earlier. I don't know how many ways I can say the same thing - I can't help her because she's so far beyond being helped she's the wrong person to continue in position.

If I had made a mess on the scale she has (and it really is that bad - so bad in fact, I'm not sure it isn't illegal) I'd be hiding in bed wondering if I really did know how to tie shoelaces.

I've emailed her to underline what I said face to face, and copied in all other parties and stakeholders. I've said...

No organisation or initiative represented by you or associated with you can be assessed as a commercially viable client or considered a worthwhile labour of love. Your record not only speaks for itself, it also speaks of those who have overlooked it to keep you in a position where the extent of your capabilities is fatally detached from the level of your responsibilities.

...etc, etc, etc. I can't put it any kinder than that - I've tried. Does it sound ok?

Her senior person called over lunch, to thank me for my feedback and ask if anything could be done, more info/meetings arranged. I said 'Thank you for taking the time to come back to me, I do appreciate it. The things that you can do were summarized a week ago, and beyond that there is nothing anyone can do. I wish you luck in your endeavours. Goodbye'. I placed the receiver down before anything further from him could be transmitted.

Honestly, some people. I thought I'd been clear enough last week that I wouldn't become professionally involved.

A client invite has been received - two days of golf/tuition, plus hotel and expenses. I've offered it to everybody. Nobody else wants it

I'd rather go to another circumcision.

Partner on phone since 5am. We are both confused about the rates and taxes situation/suspension. Particularly so as it's almost April, and everything was in order for that.

Fortunately, we do have many clients who can be supported other than face to face, so it's not as if our cash reserves are empty or at medium term risk of exhaustion.

I feel that it's completely unreasonable to ask staff to take pay cuts, so they're on full pay. I realise some employers don't have that option, in which case preserving positions by cutting pay may be the best option for now. Glad we don't have to, and if we did I'd pay them from my personal accounts for as long as I could rather than see them go without. Our youngest protégé has only recently bought a house for his long struggling mum, which is adorable.

Some credit just there from my partner over my diversification into social justice and public sector areas for the last couple of years. Far from potentially being spread too thinly, as her constant refrain has been, we now have a strongly and unusually broad range of accounts that don't rely on a narrow few industries, and who (cynically - this wasn't the reason behind our diversification) can be relied on to keep the cash flow up, because so much of that work is crisis management/advice and doesn't rely on face to face schmoozing.

We have our first daily remote videoconference today.

I can't decide how to present myself. If I dress and make myself up really smart, it might look like I spend all my time at home tarting myself up instead of working.

On the other hand if I dress down and have a shapeless hat on, it might look like I'm not taking working at home seriously.

What did you do? Just go all out - even when I'm working from home and merely typing, I am fully made up. It feels easier to then sit down and concentrate. I am pleased to see this has been inherited - for today's online school sessions, my son dragged a chair out of the living room (without permission, as we aren't talking) so he could sit with his legs draped over the side of it - and have his Stars and Stripes Converse, neon pink socks, rolled up jeans, and a few inches of tanned skin on show.

You could always do what I assume many news presenters do - tracksuit and slippers from the waist down.

cosmictanya wrote:What did you do? Just go all out - even when I'm working from home and merely typing, I am fully made up.

I cunningly increased the white balance on the camera so it looked as if I had lots of foundation on.

It was interesting to see my colleagues' front rooms, computer rooms etc behind them

I artfully arranged my camera so my interesting taste in wall-mounted photographs would be apparent to them.

That sounds fun. A bit of lighthearted creativity is what we all need. A little injection of Through The Keyhole style snooping. Did anyone have a surprising room?