2 weeks notice

Friday – an email comes through from the head of ops. Everyone has to attend a meeting at 1.30pm, no exceptions, no excuses. The tone of the email is negative, but that’s the problem with email, how do you determine what the intended tone was exactly.
The mood on the floor wasn’t great to begin with; now I and the other team leaders are forlorn and paranoid.

1pm – my mate Tony texts me, asking is there any jobs going in my place. He does the same role as me for another company. Joking, I text him back, telling him I’m off to a big meeting and I’ll probably be looking for work after it too.

2.10pm – shocked and dismayed, I text Tony, confirming that I am indeed looking for new work….

So what the fuck happened?

We go into the meeting, the head of ops is there, and HR are there, all the team leaders and senior team leaders, and the managing director of the company. We are shown a presentation of how the company is going to move forward. A company that nearly folded 6 months ago and is currently afloat in no small part to the team leaders and senior team leaders currently sitting in the room.

We are told that our current positions of Team Leader and Senior Team Leader are no longer relevant, instead to be replaced by positions of Team Manager and Operations Manager. In line with the new titles, there will be a new salary band for each role, significantly higher than the current one. Surprisingly, no one in the room smiles at this news. To justify the new salary, the presentation continues, there are increased roles and responsibilities yadda yadda yadda – coincidentally, pretty much the very same roles & responsibilities we all have now.

Here’s the shit kicker.

We are told, that in order to prove we can do this role (the very same role, albeit with a different title, that we are doing now) we have to apply for it. We are also told that the new positions will start in two weeks. Finally we are told, in order to allow the business to move forward, we are all on two week’s notice.

How do you like them apples?

So for the second time within 11 months, I find myself in the same company having to reapply for my own job.

This is nothing new. I work for outsourcers, contracts come and go and redundancy is a part of life in this business. Except in this instance, there are no contracts going. The business is doing well in fact.

So in affect, the entire management team has been told to leave because the hierarchy does not believe we can do the roles.

This is pretty hard to take.

People were visibly upset when they left the meeting. Many were angry. I just felt nauseous. I still do.

So I tried to put a brave face on. I had to address my team. The rumour mill in that place is faster than a speeding bullet. Somehow I think I pulled it off, standing there in front of them all, explaining that my job was under threat but I still had to ensure that they were achieving targets… ensuring that they were not worried about their own jobs.

Ha for a second I thought emotion would get the better of me, but in one of those rare glorious moments in life, I became a professional.

Of course, for the rest of the day, any work was well… as you can expect, it went something along the lines of ‘fuck that’.

We went out for a drink afterwards, but this was a mistake. Alcohol is a depressant and everyone was morose. Plus there were no decent birds there so I left, went the off license, went round to my mates, got slaughtered and tried not to think about it.

As I write this, I am nursing a cunt of a hangover…
So now, as this part of my story ends, a new chapter needs to be written. I have two weeks to prove what I already know, I can do any job they give me standing on my head (although doing it and proving you can do it are two completely separate things) – or find a new job.

I guess this is the part where I ask you to wish me luck….