Life really is too short for this shit

Despite the fact I’m working my notice, I still have stuff I’m supposed to do, but I just can’t be bothered with any of it.

Instead, I’ve spent most of my working day walking round the building to break the news to my colleagues in other departments (and therefore may not know) that I’m leaving the company soon.

Some of them I’ve barely said two words to since I started working here, but I’m still going to great lengths to make sure that they know I’m going, where I’m going and when I’ll be gone.

It’s been a great time wasting activity and, if nothing else, should (fingers crossed) help drum up an extra couple of quid for my leaving collection.  

While “doing the rounds”, almost all of my colleagues have been really supportive about the fact I’m moving on, with a fair few vowing to be the next deserter to follow me out the door.

But, one girl (who’s been at my company for the best part of a decade) has stopped speaking to me since my boss announced last week (to the people that work on our floor) that I was leaving at the end of the month.

To be fair, this girl and I, are not exactly close or anything – mainly because our day-to-day duties very rarely crossed professionally and we sit at opposite ends of the office. That aside, there are still instances during the working day where I have to speak to her – for instance when a call comes through for her or when I leave at the end of the day and say goodnight on my way out – and now she just blanks me.

Other people have noticed it too, like on Monday morning when she made a point of saying hello to everyone individually in the office except me when she arrived in the office.  There’s been some equally pointed omissions made where I’m concerned, too.

My Mum thinks the girl in question might be miffed about the fact that when I leave she’ll have to pick up some of my responsibilities, but that won’t be the case at all because she’s not a journalist; she works in advertising.

She’s also, rather tediously, started spreading rumours that I’ve not invited her to my leaving “do”, which is bollocks because I’ve not “personally” invited everyone.

On our floor we’ve (and by that I mean everyone) been openly discussing plans for it (including date, time and venue) and everyone else on our floor knows what’s going on and is looking forward to it.

I’ve spoken to a couple of colleagues about it and asked whether or not I should – to try and dispel the funny atmosphere that’s developing – send out an email to everyone (including her) telling them to keep next Friday free for my leaving do for her benefit, so that she doesn’t feel excluded in anyway. But, the unanimous verdict from them has been that I shouldn’t be bother because she’s just being petty and that I shouldn’t pander to it.

I suppose that’s true enough, and I know I shouldn’t care because I’ll be out the door soon, but I don’t want to leave any bad feeling behind once I go. But this girl seems intent on creating some.

Working my notice

I handed my notice in last Tuesday and my boss took the news relatively well. There’s was no tears, no tantrums and that was that.

The only bit that got slightly heated was when my boss went on the defensive once I had outlined why I wanted to leave and why I thought now was the best time for me to go.

The main reason, I explained, was that in my current role at the company there was absolutely no hope of promotion or any chance that I would ever be considered for a more senior role at the company.

Part of the reason for this is that there are lots of people at the company I work for who have been there for years – many of them for at least two decades – and none of them look likely to want to move on anytime soon. That means people like me, at the very bottom of the career ladder at the company, are pretty much always going to remain in that position as there’s no way we can move up while they’re still at the top.

This, he agreed, was true but only in the sense of “moving up” within the company. If, however, I wanted to take on a wider range of duties (and by that he meant taking care of articles of a similar nature to the ones I write now for some of our other publications), there was plenty of potential for career growth.

I argued that that’s not really the kind of career progression I was after – as I’d still essentially being doing the same job and covering the same stuff year in, year out. The only difference is it would be reaching a few thousand more readers.

Also, writing the types of articles I do now (which are predominantly lifestyle driven features) was not what I wanted to write about anymore, I told him. Instead, I wanted to be tackling more gritty, newsy stuff that would challenge me a bit more.

These are the kind of things I’ll be getting to cover as part of my new job, that’s why I accepted it and also why I was handing in my notice, I added. In response, he shrugged and told me it was “my loss” and then the meeting was adjourned.

Like I said, there wasn’t any tears or tantrums, but I think we can safely say he didn’t take it tremendously well.

A new start

I’ve been applying for new jobs (off and on) for about a year and half with varying degrees of success.

The majority of these applications went unanswered, and out of the (approximate) ten billion resumes I sent out, only nine of them managed to convince the owner of the inbox they ended up in to invite me for an interview.

But, last week, my persistence finally paid off when (after a grueling set of interviews, complete with both a writing and personality test) I was finally offered a job on a business-to-business magazine for people who work in the IT industry.

It’s a great opportunity, with lots of potential for career development, and I can’t wait to get stuck in to something completely new, in terms of subject matter, readership and day-to-day duties.

Before all that, though, I’ve got to work my four weeks’ notice at my current firm – the duration of which I intend to spend twiddling my thumbs with my feet on the desk.

How I wish you could be with me. I would show you off like a trophy

I’ve not been terribly good company this week, and I’m pretty sure that everyone who has been unfortunate enough to come into contact with me would be inclined to agree.

Part of the problem is how busy I’ve been and how anxious it’s been making me – a clear indicator of which has been the reemergence of the eczema on the bank of my hands – as I’ve been forced to take on a lot of out of hours stuff at work and have had a job interview to prepare for, too.

As consequence, I’ve spent most of this week trying to dislodge a horrible knot of tension that’s been growing in my stomach in line with how much longer my to do list seems to be getting by the day.

At times, I’ve had so much vying for my attention in the confines of my tiny mind that I can’t concentrate on what people are telling me, which is bad when it comes to the boss; a blessing in disguise when it comes to discussing my Inappropriate Colleague’s constipation problem.

On top of this, my boyfriend’s been on a jaunt to the north east of England all week to see his folks; a pilgrimage he makes around about this time every year so that he can celebrate his birthday (it was last Saturday) with his old mates from back home.

I’ve missed him a lot and was hoping that with so much work on this week his time away would fly by and he’d be back with me in no time, but it hasn’t and it seems like ages since I last saw him.

We Need Answers

I finally heard back from my job interview (the one I wrote about in my last post) this week – a mere month and a half after the event.

According to the person who interviewed me I was sent a letter telling me that I hadn’t been successful “some weeks ago”, which should have “answered all my questions”.

This was followed by a slightly insincere, “Wishing you the best of luck in your future career,” and that – on the behalf of my interviewer – was that.

Unfortunately, the issues wasn’t quite as clean cut for me as  I never received this letter or any of the feedback it contained.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit miffed. I was no closer to knowing where I went wrong and not only had the interviewer blithely assumed I’d received the letter, he obviously thought I was too thick to understand all the information contained within it, too

If I didn’t have another interview lined up for later in the week, I probably would have given up there. But, any information they could give me could be the difference between me finally bagging a new job or spending at least another month working in a job I’m slowly growing to despise. Therefore, I had to know.

So, I replied by politely pointing out that I, sadly, never received a letter and that’s why – a month and a half after the event – I was still badgering them for some feedback. Maybe it was lost in the post, I ventured, or was the victim of some Royal Mail letter clog caused by the recent spate of postal strikes. Either way, I never received it and would really appreciate some feedback.

The following day I got my answer. Apparently, I’d performed very “strongly” in the interview but they decided to go with someone who had more experience reporting on the sector that the magazine covers, which is basically the job seeking equivalent of being told “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Just lose it

The job situation aside, I have had cause for some celebration this week after a trip to the doctors revealed that I’ve lost 12lbs in weight since my last appointment in March.

In that time I have been making more of an effort to eat sensibly and, in addition to the swimming I’ve been doing, I’ve also been attempting to run five miles every Saturday and Sunday morning.

“Attempting” really is the right word here because, if I’m honest, it’s more of a long jog interspersed with periods of speed walking and lots of heavy breathing.  And, I’ll only go on the Sunday as well if I’ve not completely knackered myself out the day before.

Still, it’s an approach that’s definitely having the required effect, despite the odd blowout (food-wise) every now and then, and that’s good enough for me.

The trick is to keep breathing…

Two weeks ago I went for a job interview for a position that I really wanted and, as far as I am concerned, it went really well.

This was, of course, a massive relief as I spent all my free time (hence the lack of recent posts) swotting up on the subject matter. The more I found out about the sector the magazine covers, the more I wanted the job, and by the time the interview date arrived I felt really confident in the fact that I “knew my stuff.”

So much so that once the interview was over I even felt a bit buzzy and hyper on account of the fact it seemed to go so well.

Sadly, that was two weeks ago and – despite the people interviewing me saying they would let me know (either way) by the middle of last week – I’ve not heard a dicky bird.

The optimistic part of my brain knows that recruiting staff takes a long time, so it’s completely plausible that they haven’t got back to me yet because they have underestimated how long the decision making process would take.

However, the fatalist (or realistic) part of my brain can’t help but think that I’m never going to hear back from them because I haven’t got it and they can’t be arsed to let me know.

If that was the case it wouldn’t be the first time and I am certainly not the first person who has ever gone for an interview and not been notified that they haven’t been successful.

It’s a shitty thing to do (especially when you’ve gone to the trouble of meeting with them, taking time of work and stressing your head off), but it’s quite a common practice in the publishing industry. That doesn’t mean it’s right, though.

In addition to this, it also makes it awkward with respect to gaining feedback on why you were not successful – although when this has happened to me in the past I’ve made a point of contacting the person who has interviewed me and demanded to know.

I know there is a chance I could be stressing about nothing here and I’ll get a phone call/email later this week asking me for a second interview or thanking me for my time, but I’ve got a feeling that this ship has sailed.

Too much information?

One of the best bits of my job is getting to do “a sweep” of the national newspapers each morning to look for stories that could be spun into longer features.

It usually takes about half an hour, with the more interesting bits of the newspapers (such as G2 and Times2) squirreled away in my desk drawer for perusal later when my boss is at lunch and the office relaxes for a communal hour long skive.

On a Monday morning, it’s a great way to ease your self into the day – but this morning I spotted a story in The Sun that made the whole thing a little less pleasurable and left me mulling over a few things for the rest of the day.

The story in question was, basically, announcing that the identities of the mother and stepfather in the Baby P case were to be revealed tomorrow in The Sun as a court order preventing their identities being known comes to an end at midnight tonight.

The story then goes on to say that The Sun will be revealing their names and faces for the “first time” and, that once the court order ends, new details of Baby Peter’s injuries will also be made public for the first time.

It wasn’t the fact that their identities were being revealed that stopped me in my tracks, because I was invited (and declined to join) numerous groups last November on Facebook that “named and shamed” the guilty parties. Therefore I already know who they are and what they look like.

No, what troubled me was the fact that The Sun seemed to be using the suffering of this poor child as some kind of press release to generate some build up to what could possibly be a rather unpleasant edition of the paper tomorrow – especially if it decides to publish the extra details regarding this poor little boy’s injuries.

Personally, I think what’s been published already about the suffering he underwent is quite enough, and I can’t see what merit there is in publishing further details of the pain he went through.

The details that are already in the public domain (which I really don’t want to go over again here) give us all a good idea of how bad the abuse was he went through, and allow us to draw conclusions about the people who were supposedly in charge of caring for him.

We know they’re evil people to have inflicted all this on a poor defenceless child, so what use would it be to know any more about the pain he went through?

I’m going to reserve my full judgement on the matter until I see the paper tomorrow, but I really hope The Sun does the decent thing and doesn’t resort to titilation and reports on this responsibly. Stranger things have happened…

Give me one good reason, one good reason, one good reason

My reasons for wanting a new job don’t all revolve around the fact that I hate my job. A big part of it is wanting a bit more money because I don’t really have any savings (or a pension) and at 25 that’s something that’s seriously starting to worry me.

So, if I get a better paid job (and by that I mean one with an extra couple of grand a year on top of what I get now) I’d be in a better position to save, get a flat and leave my parents to live out the rest of their retirement without some pesky kid around cramping their style.

But, this magical job is proving awfully elusive and so I’ve been toying with the idea of doing extra work on the side as a freelancer. Strictly speaking, I’m not supposed to do this (according to contract I have with my current employer) – but I don’t think they’re really allowed to dictate what I do with my spare time.

Also, the kind of freelancing I was thinking off isn’t quite the same as what I do now in my day job, in that I would be offering my services in a more promotional sense to local businesses  I’ve already had dealings with through my day job. For instance, by writing press releases, customer newsletters and that kind of thing

To be honest, it’s an idea that’s still pretty half baked at this stage because I’m quite protective of my free time and this would seriously eat into it. But, I have been approached in the past by a couple of companies that I’ve done advertorials and things for in the past to do work for them privately, so there’s definitely demand. It’s just working out the best way to capitalise on this.

Here we go again

A couple of weeks ago, following on from a particularly depressing company meeting detailing the impact that the recession is having on the company I work for, I decided it was probably not a bad idea to jump start my (seemingly) never ending quest for a better job. So, I suppose it’s probably time for some kind of update, although there’s not a great deal to report.

According to the sent items in my Hotmail account, I’ve sent out a total of 12 job applications in the last few weeks. Several of these emails were for jobs advertised on Reed.

For each one I received an automated-style email back within about 20 minutes of applying (regardless of the time of day) saying that the closing date had been brought forward because of the high level of response and, therefore, my CV was being submitted too late for consideration.

What’s particularly irksome about this is that all three jobs are still listed on Reed at the moment and there’s no mention that they’re not accepting any more applications. So why are they still being listed as active?

And, if that wasn’t frustrating enough, I was sent a job lead by a friend/contact of mine who said there was a job going at a firm he used to work for that I should “check out” because it sounds like something I’d be interested in.

I had a read through the company’s website, drafted up a cover letter, copied and pasted its contents into an email, attached my CV and sent it hurtling through cyberspace for the editor of the publication’s perusal.

The next day, I furtively checked my personal email account at work and was delighted to see that I had a response from the editor already, and it wasn’t good news.

In a perfectly polite email he stated the magazine was recruiting people and looking for reporters, but that was over six months ago. In the meantime, a decision had been made by the top brass there  that all vacancies were now to be filled internally because of a redundancy induced reshuffle.

Like I said, it was a perfectly nice email and I appreciated the guy taking the time to get back to me, because it would have been really easy to ignore. Just like the job tips from that friend/contact of mine from now on.

As you can probably gather it’s been a rather frustrating couple of weeks, especially all my other applications seem to have been met with a collective silence from recruiters across London and the South East of England.