notice of risk of redundancy

have had a slightly surreal weekend. on friday afternoon there was a staff meeting at work so that we could be updated on the ongoing structural changes in our work. we have been aware of these for a while now and with a new bishop and following a staffing review, a new staff structure was being created. we have also been told that there would be loss of jobs and as i work in one of the affected departments was aware that this would personally affect me.

however i was surprised by the method chosen and the number of job cuts that are being made. there are eleven of us on notice of risk of redundancy, 5 officers and 6 admin staff, and whilst there are 7 new posts being created, it doesn't take much effort to 'do the math'. i think the timing has also been a bit pants as we were told on friday afternoon with a series of interviews, for those affected, set up for today and wednesday, but then we were told to go home for the weekend and forget about it. as if...

unfortunately today i am only half fit for work and have a meeting this evening, so have not been in the office today, so am missing out on the general thoughts of my colleagues. i think more is being made clear through the individual interviews, but until then there are a lot of question marks and not even the chance to look at the summary job descriptions for the available posts. hopefully i will find out more when i am in tomorrow.

i suppose there is no easy way to deal with this kind of job loss, and in some ways treating everyone the same is fair. but some work has already been done in this re-organisation and those posts were treated slightly differently with posts being advertised and people invited to apply. i had assumed and from my recollection of previous meetings been told that this was the way that this process was being organised. therefore it was a shock to be told that i was at risk of redundancy in the way that i was. matthew and i have been doing some talking over the weekend and obviously there are a couple of the new jobs that i shall apply for, though i have to also say on a personal level that the timing is also pants as i really do not want to be thinking about application forms and interviews at this particular point, i would rather be concentrating on getting fully fit.

talking of which, i had an inr this morning, which has climbed to the heady heights of 5.6, so have to reduce warfarin and go back again next week. still building points towards my frequent visitor status...

oven cleaning update

i thought i would let you know that yesterday i finally got around to cleaning the oven. it only took two weeks to build up the motivation, with a little help from matthew who left the can of oven cleaner in a prominent place!

it was not the worst oven i have ever had to clean, that honour belongs to the oven that came with my house in essex - though technically it was the grill pan that was the worst. on first inspection it looked as if there was a thick layer of grease on top of a layer of tin foil. closer inspection revealed that there were actually at least three layers of tin foil, each with a layer of fat and grease inbetween. delightful! actually that house was one of the messiest ones that i have inherited, it makes me wonder why i spend so much time cleaning up my house when i move.

today is one of my 'fit days' as opposed to 'sick days', so i am well enough to work... after the weekend i will be working monday evening and tuesday and wednesday before having two days holiday to go to the isles of scilly for the gig rowing. funnily enough i am looking forward to a few days away.

fit note v sick note

this fit note thing is a bit weird, having worked out a phased return to work it now appears that one day i am considered fit for work, the next i'm not. so what should i do on days when i am not working? retreat to the sofa and day time tv?

one of my biggest faults is probably that i take too long to recognise that i'm not well and should take some time off to recover, combined with the fact that i often go back to work too early, when actually taking a further day or two might have been better in the long run.

take for example the time i had an operation on my head. the operation was on a monday morning, i went to my aunt and uncle's to convalesce and was back home on the thursday of the following week. the next day i went to my gp to get a sick note for my time off and to ask him to sign me back to work as i had to take some young people away for the weekend that evening. he promptly signed me off work for another two weeks and told me what i did in my spare time was up to me!

today i feel at a bit of a loose end. i went to work on monday for five hours and was quite tired by the end of it. yesterday i had a meeting in the afternoon and came home quite tired. today i am not to work, and i am twiddling my thumbs - there is plenty to do housework wise, but that doesn't inspire me! i know that i have a long to do list waiting for me, but officially i can't touch it. and tomorrow i am not working either...

i don't feel that i can gad around town, do a little shopping, lunch with friends etc whilst i'm not well, but i am not wanting to sit around the house all day either.

so any suggestions gratefully received...

what i have done so far today is - set up my wormery (purchased the other week, but you had to send off for the worms and they arrived in the post this morning) and walk to the chemists to pick up a prescription. the walk was a lot easier than when i attempted it last week, which is progress. i can also report progress on the landscaping at the new gp surgery, more plants have been put in and there was a man working on it when i walked past. it really does not look like the picture on the previous post, but i can't find a more up to date one. i also had a facebook conversation with one of my cousins and admired some of his course work via the medium of youtube. isn't modern technology wonderful!

fit note = back to work

it had to happen one day, but now i am back at work...

last week the doctor gave me one of these new 'fit notes' (as opposed to sick notes) and we decided that i would attempt a return to work this week. fortunately work are happy with the suggestion that i have a 'planned re-entry' and i sat down with my line-manager and my diary and we worked through the next four weeks, looking at what days i would work and those that i wouldn't. it was a matter of prioritising meetings and so if i don't come to yours - sorry it's not a priority!

in many ways i was grateful to see my desk again, though even just writing that might imply that i am obviously not well, but it was a bit quiet as my colleague was working in north cornwall today. though maybe that was for the good as i was able to put my head down and work through the emails and the post and come up with an a4 page of 'to do's', but bear in mind this is also on top of the 'to do's' that i had prior to being ill.

anyway this week i worked today 11-4, have a meeting tomorrow afternoon and then another one on friday afternoon (very important one). i did also have a training day on saturday but at lunch time an email came through cancelling it, which in some ways i am disappointed by, but as i now feel very tired after a few hours work is possibly a good thing.

it was also a good day to be back as i had missed some cake whilst i was away (birthday/ leaving do's) and today was claire's birthday and she had brought some cakes - so i enjoyed a jelly tot cupcake with my afternoon tea.

lady of leisure - it's exhausting!

you would have thought that having time on your hands would be fun, but let me tell you it can be exhausting!

yesterday my mother-in-law took me to charlies (a coffee shop in charlestown (a fishing village just south of st austell)) for coffee. terry (my father-in-law) had arranged a meeting at their house at 11.30, so marcia very kindly thought to take me out. just about every time i go to charlies i meet someone i know and yesterday was no exception and what started out as coffee at 11, soon merged into lunch at 12.15. just as marcia and i were finishing our lunch, terry finished his meeting and decided to come down and join us. and just as he was finishing his lunch in walked another lady from the church who had decided, on the spur of the moment to come down to charlestown to have a coffee and a walk on the beach whilst enjoying the sunshine. so we stayed and caught up with each others news whilst maureen had her coffee.

so we didn't leave charlies until around 2pm!

then we had a little wander down to the gift shop before marcia brought me home. i was surprisingly tired, it is amazing how exhausting sitting, eating, drinking and talking can make you.

as one of matthew's friends says 'i am looking forward to going back to work for a rest!'

House visitors

it is amazing just how many people come to your house in a day. matthew normally leaves for work first and when i leave i lock the door, get in my car and drive to truro. then i don't really think about my house until i return sometime in the evening.

being at home, you suddenly realise how many people visit or even telephone your house. i have fielded a few calls from talktalk - for some reason they want us to change to a new package, which costs more and offers less than the one we are currently on (?) - and other sales people during the last ten days or so. fortunately they all seem to want matthew so i'm suitably vague as to when he might be around.

yesterday though we had an unprecedented number of people wanting to deliver things. i had to go to the doctors first thing and i returned before the postman had been. a few minutes later there was a noise at the front door. i went to investigate - it was a leaflet from the libdems wanting our vote. then a while later another noise - this time it was the postman, one letter, two leaflets. a while later whilst on the phone i was aware that something else was being pushed through the letter box - the kleeneze catalogue. then a while later some leaflets from lidl with their offers of the week. by now i was ready to go shopping (not at lidl).

when i came back there was a gardener mowing next doors lawn, once i had parked he came over to me with a parcel that had been delivered in my absence.

it would appear that our house is being targeted by leafleters - there must be some money in delivering them, but the reality is that apart from the letter and the parcel, everything else went in the recycling. it appears that the recycling gets more post than matthew and i!

the cupboard under the sink

it's not that i'm bored but...

i decided it was time to clean the oven...

below is an inventory of the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen:

persil washing powder (7.5kg box)

fabric conditioner (5l)

flash floor cleaner

dishwasher tablets (3boxes - 153)

window cleaner (x2)

baby bio

pledge

oxywhite powder

bleach

dylon whitener

cream cleaner (x2)

fairy liquid (x2)

astonish

finish rinse aid

neutradol carpet cleaner

silver polish

clothes stain remover (x3)

silk and delicate wash liquid

sticky stuff remover

water filter cartridges (x2)

compost crock filter (x2)

nik wax waterproofing

chamois leather

all purpose cleaner

1001 carpet cleaner

antibac spray

disinfectant

bleach spray

kitchen cleaner (x3)

shoe protector spray

dishwasher powder

2x sponge scourer

stain removal block

barkeepers friend

butane gas

super glue

lint roller and spare roll

dusters (x3)

microfibre cloth (x3)

multipurpose cloths (x24)

pan scourer (x2)

dishclothes (x2)

lots of stuff, but no oven cleaner.

i blame this excess of cleaning products on the amalgamation of two households last may, just before we got married. we did manage to sort and sell unwanted furniture, and clothes, though i still have boxes of books and ornaments in the garage. we have now eaten the duplicate food stocks (though for some reason we seemed to have had completely separate tastes in herbs and spices - lots of jars!!).

the mega amounts of washing powder/ conditioner and dishwasher tablets were due to 'deals' at matthew's work. though i did work out that we now have enough dishwasher tablets to last us almost a year - assuming a wash every other day and allowing for holidays...

i hasten to add that we do clean - it's just i prefer not to use too many chemicals. however i have now gone and bought some mega oven cleaner - now waiting to be re-motivated to use it!

otherwise have been feeling a bit weary today - probably because i didn't sleep too well last night.