It has been a truly hectic, epic, up and down couple of weeks, but it looks like things are finally settling down for the best.
Firstly, I got
suspended from work. The gist of that was I made amendments on the system which I was not supposed to do, using my login name. Well, who's login name was I going to use, except my own? And as I didn't know I wasn't meant to make these changes, I repeated the same thing, on three occasions. It first happened nearly a year and a half ago, and the last time I did it was January this year. Took them long enough to find out that I had broken the rules, didn't it...Either way, it was a breach of the code of conduct I'd signed, and I felt it was more than likely that the hearing would result in me being fired - which would have meant a bad mark on my reference and a very stressful formal hearing at work. I've attended things like it before as a representative for friends, and they are not enjoyable experiences. I really don't think I could have gone through it myself.
I gave the situation A LOT of thought. Talked it through with my man, and my closest friends. It seemed like an obvious answer, to hand in my notice and walk away from the job I'd been doing for 3 years, especially when my interest was waning fast and I'd already been considering alternative jobs. It was hard though. Stability from a regular paying job is not something you want to give up easily, combined with the number of people still working at that office whom I am good friends with. Having said all that, it wasn't a good enough reason to fight for a job I didn't really want and stood a good chance of being fired from anyway - and being escorted out of the building on the day they suspended me was bad enough but going through that all again, with people being aware that it was going on? No thanks.
So I decided to
hand in my 4 weeks notice. I enrolled with temping agencies and updated my CV. Within a week of having left the office, I was actually feeling quite positive about the whole situation. There were
minor dips to deal with, but things were definately starting to
look up. Rather than pretending I was ok and actually crying myself to sleep once or twice, playing hours of sims and sleeping in til 3pm once, I was awake, showered and ready to go by the start of a normal working day. My darling Jordon asked me for updates every day and so did Phil - their support was invaluable as I really have a tendency to be lazy! It was good, and I'm actually quite proud of myself for not slipping too far, given the circumstances. I think my therapist would be proud of me :)
A friend of mine works for a company I liked the sound of so I sent my CV to her and she forwarded it to the HR department. They called and I had the
first stage of the interview process on the phone - I did well, so I then had to do a French compentency telephone test and got an invite in for an assessment day on 29th October.
It all seemed to be going well! But wait! I handed in my notice on Monday 26th October and lo, they called to say that they were going to make it as hard as possible for me. Well, not in so many words, but that was the gist of it. I had two options:
1 - They accept my letter of resignation but press on with the hearing, which would not only be very difficult to go through, but could also result in me being fired - which would make for a damaging reference. If not, and I was allowed to stay on the payroll for the last 4 weeks, my resulting reference would include the fact that I had been subject to a disciplinary.2 - They accept my letter of resignation with immediate effect and all pay etc cease immediately. My reference will show that I resigned pending a disciplinary hearing.Neither of those was particularly appealing to be honest. And I was faced with making this decision the day before my interview/assessment day!
The long and the short of it is that I attended said day for assessment yesterday and they offered me the job. Work called, and I chose option 2. Ok so this new job is going to be subject to references, but RBS isn't the only place I've worked, and it won't be the worst reference ever either.
And that's it - I have a potential new job, for a good company, with new people, closer to home and with a marginally better salary. I'm pretty damn chuffed about it, actually :)
Not much left for me to report now, other than the fact that it is FREEZING in my room, in the whole house, and in Brighton in general - and it's HALLOWE'EN TOMORROW! We are planning an EPIC party, I frankly cannot wait! Going to do a lot of celebratory drinking - probably a good time to guzzle down the
Waragi I received in the post from
Marion in Rwanda as a thank you for the translations I did for her and her
website! Thanks hun! Tried some last night and it gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me :) I'm also impressed with the fact that it comes from the term "War Gin" - oh, this makes so so happy!
Finally: how good is E4's
Dead Set? Pure genius and I am LOVING it. I did have very odd dreams featuring drug-taking zombies last night, but hey, it's a small price to pay :)
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
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