Off the hook

‘When it’s time to party, we will always party hard’ Andrew WK – Party Hard

You know what? I made the decision. It wasn’t a hard one & I told Sarah about it yesterday, about 10 minutes after I finished the entry. I told her I didn’t want to be considered for the job & I would rather just take the redundancy. It seems to be the best decision. I don’t want to work for Trinity Mirror anymore. Too much has changed this year, with Elaine being all but forced out by Pete, and Andy being sacked on gross misconduct charges. This wasn’t the company I joined. Consequently I will recieve a nice fat cheque sometime after December 27th and will return to the office on Monday, to hopefully be granted garden leave. Sarah has no problem with this now, so the only reason for me not to be allowed to stay at home would be evil Pete. I don’t think even he can be that bad.

It also turns out that all three managers (Pete, Sarah & Yvonne) were made redundant. Apparently there are new roles they can apply for, but I don’t think Sarah will bother. Rumours abound as to the location of the new team. It would appear that a lot of the work (if not all) will be moved up to Newcastle, leaving bare minimum in Middlesbrough. Three months ago I would have loved this idea, but the offices are in Gateshead and a quick check yesterday revealed that to get to them using public transport would take an hour, which seems ridiculous.

So that’s it. I feel relieved. The ulcers are disappearing rapidly – proving that I was clearly more stressed than I thought. We went out last night for quiz night at our favourite pub in Jesmond. We were supposed to go last thursday, but I felt like crap, so we went last night for the first time. We now have a regular team of 7. We started badly, improved in the middle and ended on a downer. I felt strangely guilty, as I got a lot of the answers straight off & just wrote them down instead of asking anyone else. I think we came 8th out of 18. We also got to meet Neo’s new girlfriend, who was very nice, although I think she thought I was slightly mad to be celebrating the fact that I have been made redundant. I guess it would appear weird to someone who didn’t know me & the history.

I have today off, a chance to relax, catch up on my writing and enjoy my (hopefully) final few days at home. Assuming all goes well on Monday with Pete & Sarah, I will be joining temp agencies on Tuesday to bring some extra money in. I’ve seen the perfect Xmas present for Duncan (thanks to Helen pointing me in the direction) and now need to get the money for it. And finally, can you believe it is snowing already? I’m used to snow in December & January, but when we woke this morning, there was a thin dusting of snow on the rooftops and ground. It looks quite pretty and festive really.

Until there is a next time…

xx