warhead1954

Today's thing that pisses me off is ..

.. the expression 'going forward.'

Every daft bugger who writes a strategy or plan these days talks about how it'll work 'going forward.'  I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same about this, but unfortunately I work for a Government Office (abbreviated to 'GO' of course) and what have our leaders decided to call our current strategy for reorganising the office?  GO-ing Forward.

Update 16 Jan 09

I’m still here. 

I still don’t have a job of my own. 

The office restack work was completed by the end of October, so I was declared surplus (again) at the beginning of November.  Since then my boss has been giving me ‘meaningful tasks’ to do while the office reorganisation is under way and it’s surprisingly easy to keep occupied.  One task I have been assigned is managing the vacancies in my division, drawing up job descriptions for new posts and arranging interviews for candidates.  The irony of this is not lost on me. 

As part of our job cutting exercise we’ve had another early retirement/severance scheme and I did consider applying for that, but in the current economic climate I have no illusions about how difficult it might be for me to find another job, and I would need another one even though I could have been on a full pension if I’d been successful.  Sixty one staff from a complement of about 350 applied to go and 40 have had offers, but not all of those will actually go.  Even so, there will be more job opportunities once the jumpers have jumped. 

The other encouraging factor is that another government agency is moving here from London, and as not all their staff want to come up here there will be quite a lot of new jobs available with them. 

In the short term I’ve just been offered a temporary job for a couple of months to fill in for a manager who’s leaving in a few weeks.  His job will go into the vacancy pot, so having the opportunity to test drive it will give me an idea about whether I’d like to do it permanently, and the divisional boss a chance to see if I’m suitable from their point of view.  I’m just waiting for a start date, but I’ll probably get a month’s hand over with the outgoing guy, which is unusually good.

Update 2008 July 15

I'm into my second week of leave, following a week of tidying up loose ends in the job from which I was ousted.

 

HR are looking for another post for me, but until something turns up I am working on the office restack project, which is basically to release three of our nine floors because they are under occupied and move the remaining staff into the six floors we'll continue to occupy until we move out completely at the end of 2010.

 

I already produced a list of tasks needed to clear up all the IT infrastructure on the floors we'll release (cable removal, comms cabinet decommissioning and removal, broadband links moved to our main server room, disconnect the security doors from our system, etc.)

 

But I've been enjoying my two weeks leave; not having to worry about how things are going in my absence, or what pile of crap will be waiting for me on my return is quite a liberating experience and I'm still surprisingly calm about being 'declared surplus.' 

 

Maybe I'm in denial.

Tale of the unexpected

Interestingly, I scored half a point less at my interview than the other candidate.  I still exceeded all the requirements for the job and was expecting the other candidate to turn it down as she said she didn't want to have to travel 30+ miles from Liverpool to Manchester every day.  But in the event, she decided to take it, so from 1 July I shall be deemed 'surplus.'

 

I have mixed feelings about this.  First of all, they're not just going to make me redundant.  They're obliged to help me find another suitable job at my grade and as I'm surplus, I'll be guaranteed an interview for any job for which I'm elgible and for which I apply.  Having said that, there are not a lot of jobs around, as we're still reducing headcount across the whole UK civil service.  Ot they may put me on 'project' work indefinitely.  I have an interview with our HR manager on Tuesday to discuss my options.

QotD: Today's To-Do List

What's on your "To-Do" list today? What are you most looking forward to and what are you most dreading?

1. Take cat to vet for results of blood tests and check infected eye.

 

2. Go to work, prepare for interview taking place tomorrow.

 

3. Pick up wife from work to take to doctor.

 

4. Paint remaining fence panels this evening if weather is OK and I can be bothered.

 

Looking forward to:  Can't think of anything right now.

 

Dreading: Being successful at interview and getting the job, which I don't really want, but have to take as my current job will cease to exist on 1 July.

QotD: Life is Short

If you had to write your autobiography in 6 words, what would you write?
Submitted by mitzie.

I'd write my autobiography in six words, of course.

 

Stupid question.

QotD: A World with Less Violence

What could we do to create a world with less violence?

Toast.

 

That's what we need.

 

Get people to sit down together and eat toast, along with a beverage of their choice.

 

Let's face it, no government has succeeded in reducing violence (and quite a number of them are the main protagonists) but it's hard to get argumentative with someone with whom you share a few minutes to consume hot buttered toast.

 

God knew exactly what he/she was doing when he/she created toast.

QotD: The Meanest Teacher

Who was the meanest teacher you had in school?

Mr D.  When I was 7 or 8 I got promoted a class and Mr D was the teacher.  He had it in for me right from the start, or so I thought, but in the end I think he had it in for a lot of kids.  He had wild tempers if you didn't understand something he was tryingto 'teach' you.  I had a lot of problems with mathematics and all he did was make me try to do it when the rest of the class was doing gym.  He didn't try to help me, just made me sit and stare at the book and try to work out what I was supposed to be doing by osmosis.

 

I got to be so scared of him that I refused to go to school.  My mum had to see the head teacher about it, and he was very understanding and said I should go to see him whenever I was worried about what was going on.  I saw him a few times and at the end of term Mr D left without explanation.  I suspect he was asked to leave by the Head because there were so many complaints about him./

QotD: When I Was a Kid

What did you do for fun when you were a kid? How is it different from what you see kids doing now?
Submitted by jaklumen.

We used to explore.  We'd ride our bikes around town, and down to the River Mersey and just mess around in the fields and woods.  We weren't worried that there were paedophiles around every corner and we didn't have mobile phones so our mums couldn't keep in contact with us all the time (there wasn't even a land line in my house up to when I left at 18).  We'd go out in the early morning and not go home until we were hungry;  or if we'd made sandwiches to take with us, and a drink, we'd be out all day.  In those days there was no day time TV, it only came on around 4pm, so there was plenty of incentive to get out of the house.  There were no console or computer games, and PCs hadn't even been thought of.

 

We climbed a lot of trees and got chased out of the parks by the keepers because that wasn't allowed.  We'd borrow some rope and make swings in the trees. We also got chased for riding our bikes in the parks as that wasn't allowed either.

 

We used to make model military planes, then make airfields for them in our gardens.  Then we'd shoot them up with air guns.

 

We'd play football (that's soccer, not American football) in the park with any kids who were there, so sometimes the teams would have 20 or more players and in the summer we'd play cricket.

 

We'd go train spotting, which was a lot more fun in the days of steam, as the engines were much more interesting than the diesel and electric ones today.  We'd visit the train sheds and goods yards and see if we could get into the cabs of any engines.  Quite often the drivers would let us on board to have a look. 

 

And we used to race toy cars to see whose would go furthest along our road.  There were a lot less cars in those days and we lived on a side road anyway, so there was no through traffic.

THIS is music

This is the sort of music I was grooving to in my teens.  And I'm glad to see Mr W is back to playing in that style again, like Traffic at its very best, but now with Eric Clapton thrown in for good measure.  Listen to the long version at http://www.stevewinwood.com/