Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

It is, thanks @in_need_of_direction. I've been much less stressed since I had the meeting a few weeks ago and it was actually agreed.

Today I suppose it wouldn't hurt to press on looking for another job with contracted hours!

It's DH's birthday but he has to work as he has so few holiday hours left available. That's due to a mess at his workplace: they moved from measuring holiday against the calendar year to counting it in the financial year to bring it in line with other departments, but in doing so some people - including DH - seem to have thought they had more leave than the employer thinks, so they're overspent in holiday terms. It doesn't seem to have been the best-managed process.

It's raining and will probably be doing so for a while. There won't be much gardening done today. DH would like steak and ale pie for tea, which isn't my thing so I'll have something else (still using up salad from Tuesday!), and I really need to do some housework as the family is coming round on Saturday and there's a lot of clutter around which I know DD finds difficult to deal with. I missed out on whatever bit of genetic makeup gives people the ability and energy to blitz things, in fact the very thought of it drains me. It occurred to me to reframe it somehow: certainly 'do all the housework' is a non-starter. I think I might focus on small areas for today and report back.

Floss

Glad the emails got sorted!

Maybe an official announcement could be requested in your redeployment meeting? You really want people to know you've moved on to another role, not just walked away, as that gives the impression that what happened is acceptable & that behaviour is not being dealt with appropriately. 

I've not been reading all the time, but you come across as much more positive now, and more settled since your change of role was confirmed.

badmemory

Could the holiday thing be something to do with the placing of Easter as some financial years will have 2 in, so an extra 2 holidays.

WelshmansDaughter

At least a decision has been made and now can move on mentally 

Cherryfudge

@Floss, my intention is to email around those of the team who know me so everyone who might be interested knows at the same time (though I've told a few people privately. This is what I did when I went off sick - people are bound to gossip and conjecture, but I hope that by putting actual information out there, some of rubbish will be short-circuited. And I ought to say goodbye!

I have to put it carefully because I feel I'm representing the other who left through stress and management decisions, though I'm a self-appointed spokesperson.

@WelshmansDaughter, yes, and the next step is to find the next step! I've had various options to explore and common sense tells me to spread my options a bit. The relief post give me continuity of service. The digital skills course - if  get a place on it - will update my CV. The proofreading course (over which I've hesitated) would give me skills I could use if I weren't physically fit enough for certain work. Lastly, a post with contracted hours would give me stability and an income - always useful!

@badmemory, I think Easter dates will have been taken into account but the department messed it up big time so at one point people's booked leave disappeared and some people were told they had none left. It's supposed to be sorted out now but going from a reasonable amount of leave to very little between now and April is a big jump. DH says he's trying to find out more, presumably because it doesn't sound right and they already know the department made errors.

I'm slowly plodding through things, but took a nice long break to play Age of Empires and let my head clear. I'm just finishing the salad and during a break in the rain I pruned back a rose that was getting in the way. I've also got as far as setting up the ironing board!

Cherryfudge

The ironing board went away unused: I had a look at the jobs bulletin and found one that I'd considered a couple of months ago and which has been re-advertised. It had stuck in my mind as I might have gone for it if it hadn't looked perfect for a particular friend, but here it is again... hours are a bit long but it would be term time only.

I then decided to clean the fridge, which led to emptying the freezer so I could pull the whole thing out and clean behind. This is a pretty big task, so it doesn't happen often enough. The fridge/freezer is in what used to be a tiny walk-in larder, and the doors can't be opened beyond 90 degrees without getting it out of its hidey hole and the shelves will only come out when it's wider than that. Long story but the necessary steps are: remove all freezer drawers and stack well out of the way but nowhere warm. Empty fridge and manoeuvre it into the kitchen proper. Clean inside and out (and pull out the junk that's accumulated at the bottom of the larder, serve any spiders with eviction notices, and empty and clean the tiny larder window sill). Put it back, all spick and span except the junk, much of which is still dumped in the hall or bin. Realise the fridge shelves are still soaking in the bath because the fridge was in the way of putting them in the kitchen sink. Attempt to pull the freezer out again, which is, for some reason, far harder than it was before. Do some sort of freezer waltz while time ticks away. Eventually get it standing in the kitchen, go and clean the shelves, put them back, shuffle it painstakingly back into place, refill.

While this was going on, I was reheating all the marrow jam I made that didn't set, to add pectin. It's all re-bottled now... and still isn't setting, but I'm not going to try again.

Took ages, then I had to get Dh's birthday dinner as it wasn't available last night. He kindly gave me a lift home, and even admired the clean space (because I told him to).

Shopping included one of those 'posh' fortified milks because it was on discount and it makes very good yogurt. I thought I'd add it to a pint that was about to go over. (It was reduced from £2.30 to 79p so genuinely cheap, even when you add 35p for a tub of starter yogurt. What I didn't think enough about was quantities: it's now reached 85 degrees and is at the cooling stage which will take a while as it's nearly filled a 4 pint pan! Good job I have a much emptier fridge to store it in! (I did chuck out rather a lot, but it needed it).

DH has kindly scanned some documents for DS2 this evening (this is how to celebrate a birthday at our time of life!) and I've updated the finances notebook.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £10.58.

Cherryfudge

It's been a tiring week, quite full on. This morning my friend from work came round with a bag of my stuff she'd salvaged for me - who knew I had cappuccino sachets, marmite and assorted cereal bars in my locker? I've not looked through it all yet. In return I've handed her my uniform shirts, door fob, locker key and ID to return to management.

She told me the manger has emailed staff to let them know which staff have left or are leaving, and has mentioned me in it. I'm annoyed as that feels like a breach of confidentiality, though DH doesn't think it is.

In other work news, I've had an email asking for me to fill in a form for occupational health preparatory to starting the relief job, so I've got that out of the way, and I've sent an enquiry about a level 2 digital skills course that I think would benefit me.

I spent a couple of hours hoovering at church, which is a workout, followed by grocery shopping. I awarded myself a sit down and some overnight oats when I got in, then finished potting up last night's massive pan of yogurt before making an even more enormous vegetarian chilli, as recommended by @Sun_Addict. It's a good job we have family round tomorrow for DH's birthday: guess what they will be having? DH also wants to make a curry so that's our meals sorted for a while.  

A friend called in to witness our signatures for a document for DS2, but that took no time.

Today was unseasonably warm. I've had the door open while I was cooking and we had a walk this evening despite it being dark. It's nice not having to bundle up in a coat, though I do worry at times about climate change.

Tomorrow morning I don't think I'll go car-booting. I have too much tidying to do, and I don't need more stuff! I've made a start on the rubbish from under the bottom shelf of the larder, but there's plenty still to do.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £11.03

MS:
Huge chilli.
4 pints of yogurt for about £1 (value of this decreases if I don't manage to use it all in time).
Home grown oregano.
'Free' foods from my work locker! Some of the cereal bars were out of date but surprisingly most things were okay. I left so suddenly it was a bit of a time capsule. I think I'll throw the opened coffee out as it will be yucky by now, but marmite etc. is no problem.

Sun_Addict

It must be a relief to finally cut the ties with the old job. Where I work they list people who’ve left or about to leave, it’s good for colleagues to know so they don’t suddenly wonder where so and so is. I don’t think it’s a breach of confidentiality. 

Now you can move forward and make a fresh start. 

That’s why I only made half the chilli 😆 I don’t have that much room in my freezer so 4 portions is plenty, especially as there’s only me eating it. 

Sun_Addict

Adding to say the only time my workplace don’t mention someone leaving is when they’ve been sacked when their departure is cloaked in secrecy. Of course that gets people gossiping. Not that people get the sack that often but it has happened to a couple of people I worked with who were very stupid and breached the code of conduct. 

Cherryfudge

DH said similar, @Sun_Addict. Apparently the other leavers were mentioned by name and I got initials, so people were wondering who 'CF' was! Especially those I've never worked with.

I'm going to have to shelve it for now as I'm being overwhelmed with tidying prior to grown up children coming round. DH, bless him, said 'That's what you've got me for' and has been sallying forth and getting ingredients for meals, collecting my prescription, cleaning the bathroom, putting my summer stuff in the loft, etc.

I gave myself a headache by reading in bed (displacement activity), which doesn't help. I've only thrown out some out of date bottles from the bottom of larder collection, and put a couple of bits away, so it's time for me to push on. Oh, and I've done the banking update so a whole one receipt has gone in the recycling, and ordered eyedrops online, which is massively cheaper than the High Street for the same product.