When life sends you a curve ball...

Last week we had a team meeting to let us know that there would be 100 redundancies at work.

Yesterday, management told us why.....

In three weeks we find out who is being affected, who is staying and who is going.

It was a rather scary experience to see the slides showing the financial position and to see the projection going below zero.

Looking around the room there were so many stunned faces, trying to grapple with the news we were hearing and the ramifications.

It occurred to me as I looked around the room, in three weeks, when those who will be leaving will be told, so many in this room will be gone and I may not see them again.  All based on decisions taken 18mths ago.

These things can make or break people, couples and families.  Some the stress is too much and they will take years, if ever, to recover.  Mortgaged to the hilt, bills coming in, and winter not far off I just pray that it does not send some people over the edge.

With some trepidation, I accept the likelihood that I am going to be one of the 100, it would only be the terribly cocky to not think it could be any of us and that I am safe but you would not be.  So I start to look at my resume and make sure its up-to-date and Linkedin is sorted ready for looking for a new job.

It has also occurred to me, it may be better to be one of the 100 rather than one of those left.  Confidence in management is at an all time low and will we even be around in another 5 years?

Awww come on.....

Have you ever had that person that picks a totally inappropriate time to have a rather heated discussion with you, doesn't get that your trying to back out of the door and just keeps going?

Oh boy did that happen to me today.

Here I am walking to the work kitchen to clean my lunch plate and make a nice hot cup of tea and there is one of the managers fixing her lunch.

I know what you're thinking, this is the time for that light banter.

How was the footie?
Why are you wearing such cool gumboots?
How was your Easter break?

But no, it's the time to have a conversation, directed to manipulate, control and make the other person so uncomfortable that they are back out the kitchen doorway and running quickly back to their desk.

I never know what people are thinking when the do something like this in such a public place.  

All I know is that I have revised my view of the manager involved and will be checking very carefully, from now on, who is in the kitchen before walking in.
 

Oh crap!

The words that went through my head as I started to hyperventilate tonight.  

Oh crap!

It had been a shocking day, one of those days that just degenerate.  

How to stop the rising panic?

I knew I had let things get to me but as I gasped for breathI realisedI had to calm myself down.

I can't tell you how pathetic it sounds to hear yourself gasping for hair knowing you had brought it on yourself

I kept going with my exercise but I fell the exhaustion now.

I pray that tomorrow is better.  Honestly, could it possibly be worse?

Oh, it's just a lunchbox!

Today, before work, I had a task, a rather simple task, buy a lunch box.  I know your saying that’s easy but have you seen the array of lunch boxes on offer these days.  We are not talking plastic box with removable drink bottle, which doubles as a cooler.  These you beaut lunch boxes come with three separate compartments as well as two egg shaped cylinders that you can put fruit and yogurt, with its screw top lid.

To my shame it took me 20 minutes to pick a lunch box and as I was walking to the office with the worst case of cognitive dissidence over the purchase of a lunchbox, it puts me to shame.

I know what you are thinking, “Which lunchbox did she choose?”

So I have provided a picture of my purchase, the simply amazing lunchbox!

 

Though I did refrain from buying the little case it could have nestled in, to keep the food cool and fresh, heaven forbid.

I look at it sitting on my desk and wonder how many children lose pieces of this lunchbox in the first week of school.

Come on guys! This is bus etiquette

I don’t know about where you live but here there is what is called ‘bus etiquette’ the rules that govern the usage of buses.

Yes I know what you’re thinking, this is rather officious but it’s true.

So yesterday when someone breaks the rules of bus etiquette, well it was just not right!

Let me tell you the situation and you can make your own judgement.

Crowded bus, I have a seat next to the isle and many people are standing up, though I am not sure I would exactly call the bus packed.  The person sitting next to me indicated he wanted to get off but as there were people standing I couldn’t just swing my legs around so he could squish past, I needed to stand up so he could get out.

Now the rules go, when you stand up so that someone can get out, you are then the first person to get the window seat, if you so wish.  Now having the window seat can be a coup because if you have ever had to sit next to an overweight person, tall man with long legs that he has to spread wide (don’t ask me why but they just seem too.) or a girl that feels her bag needs its own, very special space on the seat, a little like Elle’s dog Bruiser in Legally Blonde, you will know what I mean.  You get less than your half of the seat and you are kind of ‘hanging off’ the seat, delicately positioned so that with any lurch or turn of the corner you will not fall off the seat into the isle.

Ok back to the faux pas, so I have stood up to give the gentleman enough room to get out and get to the door of the bus to alight.  As he mauver’s past me this guy in hmm mid 20’s takes my seat the one that was supposed to be mine next to the window.  I know what the heck! And did I happen to mention the 4 women all standing up.  I am all for equal opportunities, but don’t take my seat buster!  Oh yeah the old, open legs coz I have this huge backpack and so I’m hanging off the seat.  He did, at least have the manners to look remotely ashamed, not ashamed enough to give me back my window seat or offer his seat to one of the ladies standing up.

So to quote a story I saw in the paper this week,
‘Come on guys, where are your manners!’

Sad farewells

Today I said goodbye to my best friend at work.

What hadn't occurred to me before was that I had been the person leaving so many times myself, I was not the person staying.  

I had watched her progress to this day for the last 4 years.  Read her assignments, encouraged and made her laugh when she felt the load was to much to bear.  

Today was her time to stand in the spotlight, as much as she hates that spot, she shone brightly and I was proud to call her friend.

So now I have have this bone weary sadness that makes me sigh.

Change is the only constant in life. Things will change tomorrow and we can never sure if it is for the better or worse, only that things tomorrow never be quite the same again. 

I will go and ride my bike and hope to leech some of this sadness from my soul.

Tomorrow is a new day, new and full of promise! 

Damn I was THAT type of person

When does being a good friend and helping a friend turn into being a pest that someone can't get rid of?

I believe this is a slippery slope, both for the helper and the one receiving the help.  The person in need talks about their problem incessantly, they can't help it, it is a consuming problem and they are worried or anxious about it and its solution.  The helper wants to be there for the person, show support, listen and show that someone cares.

I have been trying to be the helper, but today, to my horror, I realised that I was being a pest.  On reviewing the conversation I could see the person was hardly responding, it was all me talking and they made an excuse when they couldn't get rid of me to leave.

Shame washes over me now, if I was a true friend I would give them the space they needed and be there when they wanted someone to talk to.  I wonder too if by going too far I have totally ruined the friendship and they will never want to talk about things that are troubling them again.

Now I will do the hardest thing, I will wait, not initiating contact at all but wait for them to seek me out. 

Let's hope I learn from this experience and next time I have a friend in need I don't become a pest but I be a friend they need not a friend that inflicts themselves on poor unsuspecting souls.