The Joys of Redundancy Stage 2

By JAB

I am a few weeks into my redeployment phase and applying for jobs. I am choosing carefully. Not just any jobs but ones I think would be a-shoe-in for me. I spend many hours constructing and reconstructing my CV and cover letters to highlight my skills and achievements. I am applying for jobs where I can confidently meet all the key selection criteria. I detail my experience. I am quite upbeat. After all I have 13 weeks to reinvent myself.

I spend many hours appraising my situation. What is it I want from my next job? How many hours do I want to work? Where do I want to work? Will there be a work-life balance and enough time for me to pursue my dreams? Will I be able to schedule some holidays with my husband? Will I be able to travel interstate at short notice to visit my aging parents? I am dying to retire, but still wishing to interact in a professional environment and keen to earn decent money. I’m not yet ready to work in the local café. I’m not yet ready to choose to do volunteer work.

Perhaps I am demonstrating signs of being a job snob. All I really know is that I have sound qualifications and vast experience and want to find work in a meaningful setting with authentic people. Surely that is not unreasonable.

The Joys of Redundancy Stage 1

By JAB

My job has been made redundant. The team must be downsized. It's not I who am redundancy, but my job. I must hold onto this fundamental fact, at least until I find another job.

My colleagues are second-guessing the motives, schemes and outcomes but I’m confident I’ll get another job. I try to detach from their gossip and the grapevine. My manager encourages me to apply for internal jobs; to date there is only one that might suit and so I do. It’s basically my former role, rebadged and paying half the hourly rate.

I consult Wikipedia and note one definition of redundancy; ‘Layoff, termination of employment of a person whose post becomes unnecessary.’ Surely the basic support tasks I currently perform are still crucial to the new restructure. There seems to be a disconnect here. Have I been shafted? I plead with my managers for a re-evaluation of the old versus new position descriptions and the new hourly rate, but my small voice falls upon deaf ears. It’s all about the dollars, I am told.

I begin to apply for external jobs – just in case. I am feeling confident that I will survive the restructure; after all, I have successfully managed my career to suit my needs – until now. I update my profile on Seek and break an oath with myself to re-assign with Linked-in. I have avoided social media, but realise I must now get with the program.

Album Review: TVXQ! - 'TENSE' / 'SPELLBOUND' (Part 1)

Released: January 6, 2014 / February 27, 2014

Language: Korean

Genre: Pop, Jazz, R&B

By James Williams

Instruments of Darkness, Robert Wilson, HarperCollins, 2005

By Joanna Garrett

 

Wilson introduces the main character, Bruce Medway, the location – Cotonou, West Africa, and the story Medway gets caught up in. I had to keep reading just to find out what would happen next. The language is spare on adjectives, yet still creates a distinct picture in the reader’s mind – ‘I used to live in London…Now I live in this warm, damp hole in the armpit of Africa and it suits me.’

The book begins with deliberate slowness, and Wilson captures the frustration and inevitability of waiting. The opening scene has enough detail to explain the story, with a bit of humour thrown in –‘…an Oriental crew leaned on their elbows, waiting…Above us, on the roof, a couple of vultures were waiting for someone to make a mistake crossing the road…We were all waiting. This is Africa where everybody has mastered the art of waiting.’

The rest of the story is fast-paced, and although the characters are a bit shady, Wilson's depictions encourage the reader to sympathize with them. The ending is short and sharp, making me think ‘Wait! It’s not finished!’ This is a clever device, reminding me of novels by Elmore Leonard – the reader is deliberately left hanging, leaving ‘What happens next?’ to the reader's imagination.

Father Bob – The Larrikin Priest

By Joanna Garrett
Father Bob – The Larrikin Priest

Sue Williams, Michael Joseph Press, 2013

Father Bob Maguire is inspiring, and he stands apart from the conservative orthodoxy of the Catholic Church, not afraid to call it as it is, shrugging his shoulders at the resistance of the Church to his methods.  In 2009, the year of his 75^th birthday, he was asked by Church authorities to tender his resignation. He announced publicly that he would leave that decision to his parishioners, but he was forced to retire as parish priest in 2012. Despite the Church’s attempts to shut him up and put him out to pasture, he continues working with community organizations in South Melbourne and he is president of the Fr Bob Maguire Foundation.   

‘He is a man of the people, everybody loves him, and he should be here regardless of what the hierarchy thinks’ declared one parishioner (p283). He is popular because he takes the church to the people, and unlike many other priests and bishops, actively engages with the community rather than delivering sermons and dictates from on high. I am not particularly religious, but I did enjoy reading this book.