#11

Well, well, well. Upon returning to work today (Wednesday) after two days off, I was greeted by the news that 25 percent of the work force had been made redundant....and, that fortunately I was not one of them.

Apparently there was a big meeting on Monday where everyone (except me and anyone else who happened to be on holiday) was informed that there were big staff cuts. When the meeting was ending they were told to collect an envelope from reception with their name on it. In that envelope would be a letter which it would say whether they still had a job or not. So that was the way it happened for most of the employees... quite traumatic even for those keeping their job.

This produced very mixed feelings for me and probably for the other survivors, i.e: glad you have a job, but guilty that you have a job when some no longer do. These feelings of guilt were greatly increased when I was later that day, without any prompting from me, given a pay rise. That's a heck of a lot of good and bad in the same day.

It seems that the savings from those who were made redundant did not just fund my unsolicited pay rise, but also for the first time the company provided a variety of cakes for the subsequent general staff meeting ... normally we only get doughnuts for these meetings, but this time there were muffins and some other sort of cake too. Humm.