Job? What job?
Been interesting times of late and I'm very overdue on a blog update.
As a starting point my left hand is taking longer to heal than I like. It is palpably on the mend but it seems to be a slooooow process at the moment. Realised two or three weeks ago that I wasn't really going to be ready for diving in Mull on the 3rd and 4th of October which sent me into something of a funk. It was at this point I finally decided to book a holiday. This was something I'd been loathe to do in the current work atmosphere as I've had the feeling that the game was up at Sony Ericsson for some time now, but the prospect of my arm not recovering really depressed me so, combined with Helen being washed out after the festivals, I went for it. Alas, the fact that XL had just gone titsup didn't help matters when it came to finding cheap flights so in the end went for a deal to Malaga.
We were due to fly on Thursday the 26th of September. On the Tuesday night Helen realised her passport had expired some three weeks earlier. On getting in touch with the passport office it transpired that all the one day passport renewal appointments for the next day were booked which meant I had to rebook the flights to leave on the Sunday. On the work front, on the Friday afternoon emails were circulated calling two "all hands" meetings for the following Monday, one for permies, one for contractors. This immediately set alarm bells ringing, which then went off like an explosion in a bell tower when my managers manager, Fay, said that I really should try and make it in the meeting. I spoke to Dave, my line manager, before I went on the Friday, asking him to contact me only if we were being shut down straight away and if I wouldn't be needed in the office on the understanding that I'd probably spend another couple of weeks in Spain, possibly Morocco, before setting off overland for home.
In the end I got a call from Dave on the Monday afternoon whilst sitting at an outdoor cafe in Granada supping a beer. The news was not brilliant with the entire Manchester site to be shut down from the 31st of March next year and some OK-ish redundancy terms were on offer. Dave had rung me because he didn't want me to find out from the media although I suspect the banking crisis kind of blew away the news about SE anyway.
So, yes. Come March the 31st I'm out of a job. Luckily there is a retention bonus on offer, so IF I can get the house sorted and rented out then it looks like cycling to India is on the cards. Other factor is, of course, Helen. If this plan is a go then she'll be staying behind to earn the money to go travelling whilst I do the journey to India on my own which could be complex as in if we have to rent the house out for this period where will she live? Will she actually join me in my travels at all? Ah well, just have to see what transpires.
As a starting point my left hand is taking longer to heal than I like. It is palpably on the mend but it seems to be a slooooow process at the moment. Realised two or three weeks ago that I wasn't really going to be ready for diving in Mull on the 3rd and 4th of October which sent me into something of a funk. It was at this point I finally decided to book a holiday. This was something I'd been loathe to do in the current work atmosphere as I've had the feeling that the game was up at Sony Ericsson for some time now, but the prospect of my arm not recovering really depressed me so, combined with Helen being washed out after the festivals, I went for it. Alas, the fact that XL had just gone titsup didn't help matters when it came to finding cheap flights so in the end went for a deal to Malaga.
We were due to fly on Thursday the 26th of September. On the Tuesday night Helen realised her passport had expired some three weeks earlier. On getting in touch with the passport office it transpired that all the one day passport renewal appointments for the next day were booked which meant I had to rebook the flights to leave on the Sunday. On the work front, on the Friday afternoon emails were circulated calling two "all hands" meetings for the following Monday, one for permies, one for contractors. This immediately set alarm bells ringing, which then went off like an explosion in a bell tower when my managers manager, Fay, said that I really should try and make it in the meeting. I spoke to Dave, my line manager, before I went on the Friday, asking him to contact me only if we were being shut down straight away and if I wouldn't be needed in the office on the understanding that I'd probably spend another couple of weeks in Spain, possibly Morocco, before setting off overland for home.
In the end I got a call from Dave on the Monday afternoon whilst sitting at an outdoor cafe in Granada supping a beer. The news was not brilliant with the entire Manchester site to be shut down from the 31st of March next year and some OK-ish redundancy terms were on offer. Dave had rung me because he didn't want me to find out from the media although I suspect the banking crisis kind of blew away the news about SE anyway.
So, yes. Come March the 31st I'm out of a job. Luckily there is a retention bonus on offer, so IF I can get the house sorted and rented out then it looks like cycling to India is on the cards. Other factor is, of course, Helen. If this plan is a go then she'll be staying behind to earn the money to go travelling whilst I do the journey to India on my own which could be complex as in if we have to rent the house out for this period where will she live? Will she actually join me in my travels at all? Ah well, just have to see what transpires.
Labels: redundancy, Sony Ericsson
posted by Bill at 4:49 pm
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