Some Good News!

[glenwilson]

Mrs Llama is being made redundant from her job! Usually that wouldn't be the top of the wish list but in this case I'm glad it has happened. Financially we will still be fine but holidays may be more local!

Over the last 18 months or so her job has become more stressful due to a change in manager at her shop (a travel agent). The new "manager" is so narcissistic that working there has become very stressful for Isobel. The manager makes changes but never does anything to contribute and takes credit for anything that gets done.

The last few months the pressure has increased because they have also been remotely working for a London office but the systems they have been using have never really worked properly. She is too conscientious for her own good. She got offered the chance to work from home (thought I might get a man shed in the garden but no ) but has declined as she doesn't like the work she has been doing - mainly corporate travel.

I think it will be great for her health and will give her a chance to spend time doing some things she wants to do and it will give us a chance to go for days out to places we've not really had the time to do. If she does want to go back to something after the garden leave that will be up to her.

At least when we get weather like this we can just stay in and no scary drives to the station.

 

[lakaelo]

first its always looking as a bad news but as you can handle it in the financially all is fine and you can spent more time together. that is always fine if you are in a good relationsship. at least isobel have now also time to join NRU and play with us LOOL ...i will start a vote for trialmembership

 

[glenwilson]

first its always looking as a bad news but as you can handle it in the financially all is fine and you can spent more time together. that is always fine if you are in a good relationsship. at least isobel have now also time to join NRU and play with us LOOL ...i will start a vote for trialmembership

lol I'll see if MrsLlama is available! She thinks BF is stupid but the plays Final Fantasy on the Playstations! I tried them and was baffled - more stress than work! I think she has about four of them still to play and with another coming out soon that should keep her busy.

Financially the house and car are paid for so it is just running costs (beer and food) plus usual bills so we are fine. Looking forward to not getting up at 05:45 every morning.

 

[Lady_Musketeer_GER]

Being made redundant can knock you sideways, as it often makes you feel like you’ve lost control of your life.
It’s essential to be aware of the emotional impact that it can have and to adequately deal with feelings of inadequacy or even failure.
That’s why I hope that Isobel doesn’t define herself by what she does but by who she is.

True, it can be quite difficult to cope but she will be successful in structuring her days anew, especially with you by her side giving her all support that she needs.

Come to think of it, she will now have plenty of time to ‘devour’ one book after the other.

I sincerely wish her all the best!

 

[glenwilson]

Being made redundant can knock you sideways, as it often makes you feel like you’ve lost control of your life.
It’s essential to be aware of the emotional impact that it can have and to adequately deal with feelings of inadequacy or even failure.
That’s why I hope that Isobel doesn’t define herself by what she does but by who she is.

True, it can be quite difficult to cope but she will be successful in structuring her days anew, especially with you by her side giving her all support that she needs.

Come to think of it, she will now have plenty of time to ‘devour’ one book after the other.

I sincerely wish her all the best!

Thank you for your kind and sensible words.

At my last place of work I was a union representative and our department went through four restructures in four years! Each time we lost about 100 people. Even though I was "at risk" each time I had to support the staff through process but I also got training on how to provide that support. I've found it helpful at other times too. You learn when to say something and when to just listen. Overall I would say that listening is the most valuable skill I have learnt as you can then think before saying anything.

The shop closure has been a possibility for some time with more people booking holidays themselves on the internet and corporate clients wanting to pay less fees. Because of that, plus the other tensions within the office it is more of a relief for Isobel than surprise that it is closing. Luckily we are at my Mum's for a week soon and the place closing about 12 Dec means there isn't too much time to dwell on it.

The hardest part is once she has left and trying to get her to slow down a bit, do some of things she wants to do but also to have some relaxation as she has earned that.

For some reason she feesl reading during the day is wrong! I may need to do some training on that!

 

[FortunaMagica]

Theres always something good in what happens in our life mate, you just need to be able to see it happy to see you two see the good in it Do enjoy eachother now

 

[lakaelo]

Do enjoy eachother now

and we don´t need any pics in that case

 

[glenwilson]

Isobel is now going through the talking about it stage. Which is fine as I'm listening but I have to admit it is hard not to say come and sit here and I will listen while playing BF.

Most of her annoyance is with a few of the people she works with who seem to have gone it to "fuck it" mode and stopped doing anything. As Iz is so conscientious she is ending up doing a lot more. It annoys me that the others are like it too. Still, only about 4 weeks to go.

I am looking forward to having more time together and promise no pics except when we add to the family! Hoping to get a couple of rescue cats when we are back from holiday. It has been four years since Scully died and feels about right to now.

 

[Lady_Musketeer_GER]

I am sorry to hear that, as I know from experience that it is really hard to stand up against such selfish people.
It’s a real pity that some of your wife’s colleagues don’t have the decency to do their job properly.

I found out the hard way that being assiduous and committed isn’t always beneficial for your health.
Yet, a strong sense of duty is influenced by deeply rooted character traits so there is little chance to change the situation.

That’s why I wish Isobel all the strength that she needs to get through these difficult times!

 

[glenwilson]

I know it is hard to stand up to people but I wish she was a little bit stronger sometimes. Online bullies are easier to deal with as rarely do you have to face them in person. At work though, the situation often gets to breaking point before someone acts and the results can be dramatic for all involved. The perpetrators are often in denial about their behaviour. Where Isobel works, her manager is a classic narcissist who thinks they do no wrong, the world revolves around them and has no regard for anyone else. Everyone in the workplace also thinks the same so it isn't just Isobel's view.

However, we are away at my Mum's at the end of the week and then it will be about 10 days to get through.

 

[glenwilson]

This happened just before we went away for last week.

A card company wanted to have the premises where Isobel's shop is and was 99.9% certain of signing the lease so they could use it for the Christmas card season. Guess what? Yep, they didn't sign.

Looks like the shop will still be closing but now it could be in January, or February, or March.... Apparently they were a bit quick to start the closing process.

We were actually looking forward to having an extended Christmas break together with more time to make sausage rolls and other bits that are time consuming and that laka will not be able to try!

 

[lakaelo]

that laka will not be able to try!

grumble....you bulliing me

 

[glenwilson]

Just a quick update on what is happening.

So after the initial excitement that Isobel was being made redundant they then said the shop would not be closing until into the new year (2017). While this was going on Isobel was meant to be helping out another branch (remotely) by doing corporate travel whilst still dealing with retail customers in Edinburgh. This was proving hard as the two were overlapping and causing a lot of stress and anxiety (which her boss was ignoring). There were also a lot of sleepless nights and migraines too. Even over Christmas Iz was ill with the stress.

A couple of weeks ago they were told that the branch wouldn't be closing and it would be business as usual. In less than a week they were then told they were over-staffed and were looking for smaller premises for the foreign exchange, two people would work from home and one in the office which meant one would be surplus. Iz would be doing corporate full time from a rented office somewhere! There was no discussion about this at all. We just don't have enough room at home for a proper home office unless we got an extra room built outside. As her boss was not listening at all about how it was affecting her Iz went up a couple of levels and explained how she was feeling, how she had never had a chance to discuss what she was going to be doing and all the anxiety and health stuff.

So she is now back to doing only Edinburgh retail work (which there is very little as the internet has taken over for that). Hopefully that means she is surplus to requirements and at some point in the future she will be made redundant. There has been no respect for staff at all during this process. Other staff members had been told by the manager what was going on but she didn't have the nads to speak to Isobel.

At the last company I worked for, we went through 4 redundancy processes in 4 years going from 500 staff to 100. Despite that staff were still treated with respect and involved with the process but Isobel's company is a joke. I can't see the company itself being around too much longer.

I would be happy for her to leave but she would lose the redundancy money. It may be boiled rice and water for a while ( ) and relying on existing beer stocks but that would be better for her. It would also mean that I wouldn't have to act as her shrink either.

So that is things up to date but things seem to change on a daily basis.

 

[lakaelo]

sometimes you can only shake your head how some companys and/or the executives from companys handling there stuff. guess its a bit better here in germany because of some laws and the labor union / works cauncil but just smaller companys seeing there stuff as a kind of serfs.

 

[glenwilson]

We (at the moment) have the same EU employment laws as you. I used to be a union rep and had to deal with redundancies (including mine) but there was respect for the employees. But his lot through incompetence are appalling! Hopefully the light is at the end of the tunnel.

The German factories I visited were impressive. Beer in vending machines and on the breakfast menu too. When it was tea break the production line just stopped. That was about 10 years ago so it may be different now!

 

[lakaelo]

The German factories I visited were impressive. Beer in vending machines and on the breakfast menu too. When it was tea break the production line just stopped. That was about 10 years ago so it may be different now!

partwise. a lot of companys trying to changed/canceling a lot of there non obligatory employee supplies to make a better profit. only if they had a capable works council, they have still a equal level. but they trying to going down with that with temporary workers so they can split the stuff into 2 parts.

 

[glenwilson]

Most of our jobs got offshored to India. But then we had as many Indian staff onsite which made little sense except they were probably cheaper. How you get a visa for that when people were made redundant I don't know. Just stupid economics I guess.

The factory I went to was in Poing.

 

[glenwilson]

Update:

So after nearly a year Isobel is actually being made redundant!!

Why is that good? The need for a physical travel shop has diminished over the last few years and has accelerated as more people got access to the decent internet speeds. Holiday companies and airlines have reduced to commission to travel agents to an absolute minimum or even zero making it hard to make a profit as a travel agent without charging a fee. Companies that have staff that travel will often contract travel agents to do the arrangements for a set fee but you need a decent throughput to make that viable.

The company that Iz works for seems to be in deep doodoo as they chose a location for the branch on Princes Street in Edinburgh and even though it is quite small the rent and other charges are stupidly high making it necessary to have a high turnover of walk-in customers in addition to the business travel that they do. They do have other branches around the UK but they don't seem to be adapting to the changes within the travel business and seem to not have a strategy to cope either. Wouldn't surprise me if the whole business was a money laundering exercise! They have regular customers that spend £20k on holidays a few times a year and others that are older that like a personal service rather than book it themselves. That isn't enough to cover the costs though.

Anyway, it seems that they are now closing the branch in 2 weeks and then there will be 2 weeks to empty the place. Why is all this good news? Well Iz hates working there. Not the people she works with but the crap they have to deal with and having a manager that would give Trump's Narcistic Personality Disorder a run for his money!! She gets a lot of stress from the place and it really will do her good to get away from the place. Her salary isn't huge and all the routine bills are covered with out that anyway. The savings in travel costs will make a huge difference too. Only thing affected is holidays.

She is planning on taking time off before looking to either for a new job or volunteering for a local charity. Hopefully this will help reduce the stress she has been under.

Hope it doesn't mean she will want to use the PC though!

 

[General_Misery]

Hoping for the best and that you and Isobel can get more time together and ”peace and quiet” after the workplace mess.

Perhaps we will get a BF player by the name LlamaLady?

 

[lakaelo]

Perhaps we will get a BF player by the name LlamaLady?

i just nearly peed myself because i imagine both are using the SUAV and killing each other lol