Bill P. Godfrey et al


Thursday, February 10, 2005

Fear and loathing...

 ...or the daily work routine, by any other name, would still be ... work related.

Welcome to my stress-filled work environment. I work at a University and recently our VC [vice chancellor, not to be confused with "Victor Charlie" (Viet Cong)...] left and we've had a replacement who is causing turmoil around the University. Basically, everything changes - and right now everyone's worrying about redundancies [there's an estimate of about 10 people from my department] it is worrying. See. I'm wearing my "worry-hat". I'm particularly worried because, while I'm probably not going to seek voluntary redundancy - it may find me. My role is not particularly defined. I have largely worked on "Innovational" projects that may or may not end up being implemented. A lot of time is spent on researching things and demonstrating how they might be used. The rest is spent covering other people and providing back-up.

As you might expect, I'm more than a little worried right now.

Also, my degree is going nowhere. [I'm in the final year of my Masters degree] I'm still waiting for my project to be approved - I need to chase people up about that... again... (I've been waiting since November! Although, they did lose my original submission.... grumble grumble grumble. )

And I'm covering people today doing something that having spoke to them, they have no idea why it's going wrong, and it needs to be ready by tomorrow morning. I am not in tomorrow at all [and it isn't something I can cancel] so I have 3 hours and 15 minutes to get everything working.

Excuse me while I scream!

On the plus side, the other thing I was worried would have to be finished for today, I have another week to work on...

[16:35] additional note: the thing I was covering and working on seems to be working... Phew! Also, redundancy panic - have been given a letter outlining the voluntary redundacy package which may not be available if they have to do compulsory redundancies...

[15:13, 14/02/05] additional note. For some reason while making a couple of edits I decided to try the built-in spell-checker. This decided that when I typed "redundancy" I probably intended to write "rodents"... Completely bonkers.

[13:12 16/02/05] Additional, additional note: having had the meeting this morning, it has been revealled that the redundancies aren't as bad as first thought. There are about 90 people within the department, and a 10% loss needs to take place. However, we already have lost 4-5 posts so this leaves us with about 5 or 6 redundancies to take place. As this is throughout the entire department [not just my section] it makes us potentially a little more secure. But don't quote me on that...

2 Comments:

  • Neil,

    While the threat of lay-offs (our term for redundancy in the states) can knock the wind out of you, you can't assume that your position will be eliminated because it's not well defined. Your unique position may be your saving grace. Who is a more appropriate candidate to remain in a workplace in transition than he who regularly offers innovative opportunities and solutions?

    You are intelligent and creative. Whether you stay or go, you will land on your feet.

    By Blogger Thia, At 5:31 AM, February 11, 2005  

  • Thank you for your encouraging words Thia - I appreciate them. I think when I made my blog entry a bit of everything was really getting to me. This week there is a meeting scheduled for the department in light of the news brought to us. Our line manager is really good and hopefully he can give some good news. ( I may speak to him outside of the meeting and explain my fears. ) However, the big picture is much darker. It isn't just our dept. that's facing down scaling - the whole university is - throughout all schools and departments [in fact, we're possibly going down to 4 schools from 6 (although, was 8 when I first started!) ] and a lot of courses are being dropped, staff from all over the uni. are being made redundant or redeployed. It's all a big scary time.

    Anyway, whatever happens, happens. The big worry is just the uncertainty of it all. But, things happen for a reason - if I am layed off (We also use the term) then it's probably a blessing in disguise. Clouds and silver linings and all that.

    By Blogger M., At 1:43 AM, February 14, 2005  

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