Christmas Comes But Once a Year

The above might just be true, but in my life there's always something else that crops up at Christmas time too. Yup, with “P” twenty-eight weeks pregnant and everything cooking nicely, I (and along with other work colleagues) got another letter informing us that due to the state of the current economic climate, we were up for redundancy. Again.

Readers of this blog (assuming that there still are some!) may have noticed that this also happened to me last year around this time too. Now, I'm not sure whether this was a deliberate ploy by the management to crap on us from a great height as we prepared for Christmas, but I find it extremely odd that the letter should appear a mere two weeks from Christmas. It's almost as if they're trying to grind the workers down. I just hope the CEO took his children to see the latest Christmas Carol film.

Fortunately, I didn't get the chop, but other friends and colleagues did. But with the boss happily wielding the axe at every opportunity, who says it won't be happening again soon? Whilst there was a certain amount of “clearing the dead wood” going on, the company are now pretty much hacking at the bone.

Naturally, trying to be all legal and above board with the redundancy proceedings, there was a drawn out two week period where we had consultations and points given to us (without being told whether others on the “hit list” had higher or lower points than yourself). I guess the bosses really enjoy this process as it was an extremely stressful time for all and office moral, which was still suffering from last years redundancies, no pay raise or office Christmas party, ensured that the office environment was like a morgue.

However, there is a positive outcome to all of this – but not in the manner the management will probably like. Those people who left had a certain “couldn't care any more” attitude to the proceedings and those who remained, myself included, felt exactly the same. I thought it was just me, but after speaking to other people in the office it became clear that the management have shot themselves in the foot.

You see, hard times or not, 2010 will see an awful lot of my colleagues search for new jobs and start afresh. I can't take much more of the stress myself (it's why I left my previous job in the first place) and over Christmas I'll be dusting down my CV and ensuring my skills are refreshed. You can either be gloomy about such things or treat it as a wake up call and a hint to try things new. After all, I try to take my life on a "glass half full" basis.

So, like the Christmas number one single, 2010 will see myself any my esteemed colleagues Raging Against the Machine. Merry Christmas!!