department

From then to now … gets a bit boring !

/ Tony / Leave a comment

When I say ‘… a bit boring …’, I mean that nothing really eventful happened. YawnA few new residents zones installed, new staff, new equipment but nothing startling for about six years. The team and me just plodded along. So as I say, when I look back, it was just a bit boring. Still enjoyed the job and most of the staff were easy to work with and I had built up a bit of a reputation, but that was about it.

Then, towards then end of 2012 rumours started appearing about job/staff changes. We had two members of staff leave and they were not replaced and this started to worry a few people. We were told that they would be replaced in the new year, but that we would have to manage until then. Which of course we did.

Around about this time, the Council were beginning to look at reducing staff to cut costs. Central Poundsfunding was being cut and departmental budgets were being squeezed. The Council was promoting what the called ‘Early Leavers Initiative’ or ELI. Essentially what this was voluntary redundancy. Staff would leave, get the standard redundancy payment and gain access to their works pension. I thought about this a lot and K*** and me decided that it might be a good move. Leave the Council and get another job somewhere else with a nice lump sum of money in the bank. So in January 2013, I applied for this ‘ELI’. After a few weeks, I received a reply, explaining that I could not be considered as I was ‘too valuable to the service’.

Later in 2013 me and a colleague (one who I had a bit of an issue with) received an email, quite out of the blue which explained that service was being reviewed and that we were part of that review. I Astoundedqueried this ‘review’ with the Assistant Manager who dismissed it as ‘… just something the Head of Service had to do and that it would not affect us …’ His face was a picture when both me and my colleague, G*** forwarded him the email we had received. He still claimed that it would not be an issue and that he would get someone to explain it all to us.

A couple of weeks later someone from HR did come and explain. What was happening was that some Worriedof the posts throughout the department were being looked at, to try and centralise some of the functions. the example they gave was that G***, who was our Training Officer would probably serve the department better if she worked within the Training team, where there would be vacancies in the future. The same applied to me, and I would be of more use in the departments IT service area. We were assured that we would still have a job, but it was still a very worrying time and made a mockery of the reason I was rejected for ELI. Not so valuable now, I thought.

At the risk of sounding ……

/ Tony / Leave a comment

I hate Christmas!

     Now I suppose, I should justify that statement. I hate to use that tired old cliché, but I hate what Christmas has become. When I was a child, Christmas was at the end of December, and it lasted, at the most three days – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. That was it! Santa had his Grotto in the main department stores, but not before the 1st of December and most people did not put up their decorations until around the 20th December. Some of the local shops did their decorations a bit earlier, but I don’t really remember them doing much.

     Of course, there was not the mass media hype that we have now. Television did not have the power it now has, so Christmas advertising was mainly driven by what we would call small, posters. Now we have Christmas from around the beginning of October, with all the pressures that it brings. It is a similar thing with bonfire night. It used to be Mischief Night on the 4th of November, when we would go around knocking on peoples doors or pinching wood from other bonfires. Sometime, the older ones would let off ‘bangers’ and then run away. Then there was bonfire night itself. The only night when fireworks could be legally set off. Now it starts at the end of October and mixes with Halloween (I refuse to call is ‘Trick or Treat’), then goes of until the weekend after bonfire night. It’s turned into ‘bonfire weekend’.

     But I digress. This rant is a Christmas rant. this is also the time of year, when charities feel obliged to try and wring more money out of us, by mentioning ‘Christmas Spirit’. I don’t have a problem with giving to charity and regularly do so. My problem is that you get inundated with them, and you cannot give to them all. That does not include the professional charity collectors. Chuggers, they are called. They are the ones that stop you in the high street, carrying their obligatory clipboard, to sign you up to give only £2.00 a week. With their usual mantra of ‘….it can do so much….’ they attempt to make you feel as guilty as possible so as to convince you that £5.00 will do so much more!

     Now, we are in the midst of the worst austerity measures in  British history, with Local Authorities being forced to strip millions from their budgets. Yet they are still expected to spend many thousands of pounds on Christmas Illuminations and the ‘C’ lest celebrities to switch them on.

     To cap it all, when it’s all over, it will be only four months to Easter!

Snow !!! Working from home

/ Tony / Leave a comment

     The weather was a bit bad first thing this morning. I got up at about 5:15 as I was taking S**** to work at 6:45. At that time, there was very little snow about. Just some sleet that wasn’t really doing much. But by the time we left home, it was settling fast. R*** had woke up early too, and was very unsettled for some reason, so I dropped S**** off and came back home. Didn’t want to leave K*** alone with him too long. It had been my intention, to work at a different office today. One that is nearer than my usual base. By the time R*** should have been getting up, we had a good 3 inches of snow on the ground, and there seemed to be no stopping it. So a decision had to be made. Do we send him off to college (we decided to call it college as opposed to anything else) or do we let him stop at home. He stopped at home. I had also decided to do as I knew certain others would do, and work from home.

     Work from home!!! Now this was a new idea for me. My boss has always said, that if I needed to I could work from home. It had been sanctioned from above, and it appears that for certain staff, this is the future for the council. I had already set up my works laptop when I got back, but for some reason, it is always very slow to get logged in. Connecting to the network is fine, but being able to start work always takes a long time. I eventually got started at around 7:40, some thirty minutes after setting up. Everything worked very well, all considering. The network performed as well if not better than I could have expected, and I was not too distracted when K*** put the TV on. Even R***, bouncing around his room singing did not seem to be too much of a problem.

     So now I have another option for work. I already had decided to work one day a week in a different office, and I’m also making plans to work in my old office, one day a week. That is just until I can get the supervisor fully trained up, which should not take much longer, and now I know I can work from home.

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     We also learned, this week, that our team, along with some of the other system support teams are under review again. There are not many details been issued yet, but the rumour mill is in full swing. It seems that we are to become part of a new divisional IT department. That is all I know, except that there could be another worrying few months ahead. I will keep you posted.

What, when and why blog ?

/ Tony / Leave a comment

     And I think you can add “How” to that list too. I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now, well to be exact, I have had a blog for a couple of years. Over the past few weeks/months, I have been thinking about what it means to me. So I have decided to put down in writing “What, when and why I write a blog. Hopefully it might be generate some interest. I can but try.

What

     Well, I suppose what I write about is me. My opinions. My perspective on life, if you please. I sometimes write on topical subjects, but it is mainly about my life at home and work and family. A lot of the stuff I write is things that anger me. And there are a lot of things that anger me! It is a kind of release, when I can put down in words the frustration I sometimes feel. But then again, I often write, just about things that have happened. Everyday mundane things, and often when I read them back, I think ‘does anyone really read this rubbish’. I’ve often wondered if I would be better picking a subject, and writing about that. That is one of the main thoughts that passes through my head, when I sit down to write a blog post.

When

     I don’t have a fixed schedule for blogging. I just do it when  ever I fell like it. Or if there is something I want to get off my chest. When I first started, I wrote every day. Not large volumes, just a paragraph or two. I soon found that trying to keep that up was difficult. Quite often I write when something has happened that is out of the ordinary. I suppose most of the time, I write late at night, whilst waiting for the youngest to get off to sleep. Mrs H goes off to bed, then for then next half hour or so, we try and get R*** to settle. That 30 or 40 minutes is when I like to write. Very occasionally, I will write something at work, and email it to myself, to write up in the blog later.

Why

     Now that is the big question! Why? Why do I write a blog? In the beginning, I think it was because it appeared to be the thing to do. After all, everyone was blogging weren’t they ? Well I very soon realised that not everyone was doing it. In fact, out of a department of around 70 people, I was the only one blogging. As I was writing something every day, it became like a kind of diary. But that was not what I wanted. I did not want to bore anyone who read my stuff, with mundane day to day trivialities. Now, one of the reasons I blog, to keep up my interest in writing. I want to write more creatively, and have been advised, that I should ‘just write and write often’.

     I was asked recently, if I get lots of comments or hits on my blog. I of over egged and said yes. In reality, I don’t get many hits and I get very few comments, but it does not stop me. So I suppose, that one of the main reasons for writing a blog is to be read. To have something to say that might be of interest to someone else.

How

     My main blogging client, is Windows Live Writer. I have used Blogdesk, which was very good, but does not work with Windows 7. I also tried a strange program (or should I be very trendy and call it an ‘app’) called Raven, or Zoundry Raven. I did not have much luck with that one. I recently had a trial at using Word 2010. It was okay, there was a lot it could do, but as a fellow blogger said “….it was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut…..” and I think that just about sums it up. For the time being, Live Writer ticks all the boxes.

 

Improving times

/ Tony / Leave a comment

It’s just over three weeks since the operation, and it’s been a bit of a rough time for Mrs H. The main wound seems to have been okay, apart from leakage the first week, and a slight infection at the bottom end. That is right on the  crux of her elbow, so any movement would have delayed any healing there. No, the main problem has been her underarm. As part of the procedure, the surgeon performed, what I understand to be called a ‘Nodal Survey’. This, I believe is to check whether the Melanoma had spread to her ‘nodes’, which is not a very good thing to happen. Well, this has been where the main problem has been. Last Thursday, she could feel that there was more tenderness in her underarm that there had been the week before. Also there seemed to be a ‘bit of a lump’. By Saturday, this had turned into a very painful swelling, and did not seem to be getting any better. A very very disturbed night followed, and on Sunday morning she rang the ‘out of hours’ doctor. She was told to go straight to the emergency department at the hospital, as it sounded like a cyst. The only problem with that, was that R***’s support worker could not take him out that day, so he would have to come with us. So with a fully medicated son in tow we sped off. We were only in the place for about an hour, before we were on our way home with a packet of antibiotics. Job done. R*** had coped extremely well, and I think they may have pushed her up the queue a little, because of him. The infection is starting to improve a lot now, but the ‘Jubilee Holiday’ has been a bit of a damp squib, and not just because of the weather.

Work has been brilliant !!! Firstly, letting have the time off the week Mrs H had the operation, and now they have allowed me to take leave this week. Mrs H really could not have coped on her own, with R***. He can be difficult with all of, when there are no other problems. So a big thanks to them. Seems different, having a management team, that are willing to put themselves out for an individual. It’s not really happened with the last ‘team’. I’ll be glad to get back and start to become a real part of the team.