A bed of roses

The Women's Organisation, a local not-for-profit that offers training and support for women, was running a 'nothing to celebrate' campaign, today. Their statement says why better than I can.

Another Angry Voice was also ranting at Keir Starmer talking about how hard it is for the Labour party to recruit a female leader, when the rules he put in place would disqualify all but two of the women who have ever stood for the position.

On the other hand, I had a nice, relaxed working day thanks to EPC doing the lion's share of the work on our new PM tool :D I am going to tackle the project request form element on Monday, though. I've compared it to our current form and I know what I want to change/add/remove. I just need the confidence to go ahead, now.

I watched Ash's final stream, where she got the other members of the Access team playing various horror games - and then they all played a cutesy cake thing together. Whatever is next for her, I know she'll be great.

Got another couple of hours of FFXVI in. Jill is now awake and in need of new clothes. I noticed the strength of her love for Clive in her determination to support him, no matter what. I've never doubted her resolve or her quality, but I still feel she's short-changed by the writing. I'll be on the lookout for the game to prove me wrong, though :) And I'd forgotten the depth of the relationship between Cid and Benedikta - or maybe it just got lost in my empathy for Clive's struggles. I'm really glad I decided to replay the whole thing, though. I'm in a much better frame of mind and more able to appreciate it, I think.

The next email from Leafyard has dropped but I haven't looked at it, yet. Maybe tomorrow. I'm uncomfortable at the idea I'm expected to 'perform' somehow. But given the lack of mental health support offered in general, it seems churlish not to take advantage of something offered by my employer for free! But I have this space for pouring out my thoughts and feelings when I feel the need to, rather than when someone else tells me I should. A quick glance at the topic - slow down by putting technology to one side - tells me there's nothing new there for me, AND it's making assumptions about my use of technology, which is annoying. Of course, I'm primed to find the whole thing annoying :D I honestly do want to give it a proper chance, but it's not helping itself.

And that's all for today.

The PA/general admin person in our team has a new job and today we went out for drinks after work. I had a half-pint of beer that was 3.4% - and I couldn't string a coherent sentence together ROFL Yeah - I'm a lightweight. Anyway, it's a great opportunity for our colleague and we wish them all the best. I am also drawing very clear lines around my own role - at least in my head - just in case someone comments on the lack of coffee...

This morning, I went to the dentist surgery attached to our doctor's surgery and asked to sign on as a new patient. 'We're only taking on new private patients,' said the receptionist. Excuse me! When did I say I was an NHS patient?! I mean, I am - but I didn't say so. This resulted in a hike across the city centre so that I could call in on my current dentist on the way to the office. I've got an appointment for a check up (in FOUR weeks!) but if the grumbly tooth gets any worse I'll ask to be seen sooner. At the moment(!), it's MOSTLY OK, but now and again it starts really aching. A couple of paracetamol, and it goes away again. It decided to be achy when husband wanted to ask random questions, meaning I had to talk with a sore mouth, and son was singing the wrong lyrics to some song out of tune, which I found VERY frustrating. But that's them being them - normally it wouldn't be a problem.

After my 1 drink party, I did the bits of shopping that I'd wanted to do in the morning after signing up for the new dentist. I now have some meadow flower seeds, and even a Mother's Day card for my mother! And it's still two weeks away!!! Of course, I don't have a present yet...

Had a call from my daughter this afternoon - she's a bit further along than she thought (15 weeks rather than 12) but at least it isn't 8 weeks out like it was last time :D And we only have to wait 5 weeks to find out the sex.

And I played another 90 minutes or so of Fenyx. I'm on Story Mode but I'm finding some of the battles challenging - but not the boss battles <_< 

Tomorrow we have daughter, sil, and grandson #2 coming for a visit. And on Sunday, grandson #1 is coming to watch the cup final with the boys.

And at some point over the weekend, I will plant my new primroses :)

So, my line manager and team manager are being made redundant.  The stated reason is that we haven't been managing projects as well as we could do and that a restructure will enable us to do so - which is actually remarkably honest for the University (then again, the person saying it is from the private sector, so...).  My first instinct is that if this is a performance issue, there are other ways of dealing with it - but some of those ways would end up with people leaving with nothing and this way they at least get a pay out.

Personally, I think they were both competent PMs but the team manager wasn't a team manager and didn't move us forward at all.  I think they couldn't just get rid of that person without them crying 'discrimination', so they both had to go.  We are, however, still going to recruit two new PMs who will be the exciting, dynamic, forward-thinking people we need.  Well, we need to take a serious look at the person spec, then, because if that's who you want a) I shouldn't be able to feel I can put in a credible application based on current experience and b) why did you recruit those particular people in the first place and why didn't you attract those candidates in the summer?

I shared this last thought with the director and I hope he took it on board.

He was very open with myself and the two members of the team who were in (a tester and a BA), and I appreciate that.  He also talked about how difficult a decision it was to make and how much he'd hated not speaking to the individuals this week but HR rules forbade it.  I never thought he' done it for fun.  I feel more secure than I did last week - we talked again about my regrade - and I appreciate that he has the whole department to look after.  And it is the cleanest example of this kind of thing we've ever seen.  I have been involved in some really horrible restructures, both directly and indirectly.

- the woman who lived for graduation and got her dream job heading up the team that manages it, only for the post to disappear in a restructure and now she can NEVER be involved in graduation (that one was cruel rather than just unpleasant)
- the woman who was sent to Coventry on the orders of management (I was never directly told not to speak to her, so I made a point of talking to her every day - if I had been told that explicitly I would have gone straight to HR and I'm surprised other people didn't)
- the merger of two teams that resulted in people going up against each other for their jobs (ie, 3 people, 2 posts) where the people who were unsuccessful were immediately out of the door with nothing
- the woman I worked with directly who was just about my polar opposite but we worked really well together who took the bullet for me - she got a nice redundancy package and a new job right away, but it was still a horrible process
- my favourite colleague finding himself without a job last year
- this

This one has hit hardest because it was so unexpected, and my line manager was the best I've ever had.  He'll be a tough act to follow, although the person who is going to be my new line manager is really nice and I like him a lot.  But it won't be the same.

I appreciated the Director speaking to us sooner rather than later, but I did get a feeling that the bodies aren't even cold yet!  Both colleagues had been in work yesterday, although they are now on 'garden leave' until the end of the month.

So, a new age dawns.  But I am still on a path that leads me out of the University.  I can't deal with this bullshit any more - although I am aware I will have to deal with someone else's!