Tag: Personal Experience

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Day Job dgm Jobseeking London

Never say it can’t get worse

The past few weeks have been among the least comfortable of my life: and I’m not talking about the 40C heat and 200% humidity.

For those of you who have been living on the Moon or the depths of the Pacific Ocean — you know who you are — here’s the skinny:

  • I’ve had the sudden prospect of moving lock, stock and barrel at short notice,
  • Endured the hunt for the last best house in South East London and,
  • Survived the trauma of moving the contents of a five-bedroom house from one three-bedroom house to another three-bedroom house.

So, after a traumatic eight days of being without an internet connection (hence the no blog updates) and living a life out of (randomly packed) boxes, I made my way into work on Tuesday expecting to ease into a crowded work schedule by day, and a crowded home life by night.

But that proved to be just the least of my worries. By Tuesday afternoon I’d been landed with the news that the “Troubleshooters” were at work. As a result of the current financial upheaval, drastic measures are planned to set the company back on the right road. Two people have already left, and up to a dozen more face losing their jobs in the next month.

I’m not one of them (for a change).

I’m certain this pattern is being followed in offices around the world as businesses take steps to shore themselves up against the coming storm as best they can.

To be sure, if all goes to plan, the future for my company looks bright: it has an excellent workforce and the products are as good as anyone else in the market, if not better (my bit certainly is). But after having lost my fair share of jobs in the past three years, watching others lose theirs doesn’t make me feel any better, particularly when these people have become friends.

All I can comfort myself with is that, from personal experience, each job loss has, in the event, proved to be a positive thing with the new role being more challenging — and more lucrative — than the last. That’s not to say I would ever welcome redundancy with open arms.

Anyone leaving can ask for my reference at any time, for what it’s worth. I’m sure they won’t need it anyway.

And as they say, things can only get better.

The counter to that is: things usually get worse before they get better.

In this instance — despite the title of this blog —  I really hope the worst is over.

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