Thursday 31 March 2011

Making Sense of Things


Two weeks have flown by since I was told my job is moving 32 miles away. I guess for many people 32 miles will seem like nothing. For me it means losing 3 hours a day so I can travel to work. Only a third of that journey is by train.

Each way the journey is 30 mins in the car, 30 on the train (not really enough time to snooze) and 1 20 minute walk.



So the positives are - more exercise, some reading time.
The downsides, less time at home, in bed, at the gym, walking my dog.

In fact my whole work life balance will be out of kilter.

I have taken stock though. The alternative looks OK. There is an offer to work a three month trial - which I'm going to do. It has longer term financial benefits for me which I'm not going into here.

I then, can go back to my original office in my home town and look for other jobs. There is a chance I will find something suitable, right grade, money, skills and hours and if so great.

If not, then I get paid severance

, leave after 22 years and start my new career. Really get into my business and go for it.

Its very scary and exciting all in one.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Its all a matter of timing

Sometimes you think you have all the answers. For the last ten years I've said to myself (and publicly to others that if my company made redundancies I'd be the first in the queue waiting fro my cheque.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy working for my company or my job, just simply that with a number of years service behind me, experience in two very different roles, a cheque in my back pocket and a strong chance of walking into another role it seemed to be an easy decision.

More recently that's become more likely. My company has merged and departments are seeing changes and restructuring. I'm also looking at setting up a coaching business.

Trouble is yesterday I was told that my job is moving 32 miles away, a 1 1/2 hour commute and I may have the opportunity to take redundancy. Now in the cold light of day that's a scary thought.

Hubby has recently taken redundancy to start his own business. I am the only wage earner. The thought of not having a regular income into the household is well, frankly terrifying. The job market has worsened with tales of 200 applicant applying for one job and I'm not quite ready to get my business off the ground, with all the doubts that go with it.

Heck, do I follow my heart or my head?

Sunday 6 March 2011

Happy Birthday Blog


I can't believe it - this blog is one year old today.

I've not blogged everyday, I'm not the greatest of bloggers but I've still made it through the 12 month mark and I think that's an achievement.

As a birthday treat, it would be great if you are reading this, that you leave a comment anonymous or otherwise. I'd love to know if you read this regularly, have just dropped by, or dip in from time to time.

Many thanks and I hope you continue to stay with me.

Snowdrop!
xx

Friday 4 March 2011

Self development Workshop

How come its so easy for other people to mess up your plans?

When I was on my coaching course, I met another girl who had similar ideas to me, she was fab and we got on really well. We have ideas for the future and although we want to have separate businesses being in different parts of the country we can see opportunities to work on joint projects.

One of those projects was a workshop. Without going into too much detail, I found a venue for the workshop that allowed us to show case the workshop, and through charging a very modest fee we would be able to cover our costs.

Everything was agreed, we'd settled on a date with the organiser and I'd submitted an advert to attract the delegates to the organisor. And her boss has pulled the plug on the basis that she things its too expensive with just 4 weeks to go.

The amount we were charging per delegate was about a sixth of the starting prices for other similar self development workshops and wouldn't cover the cost of an hours coaching. I thinks its great value for money. Sometimes I just want to scream.

Now, we can still run the workshops but funding the venue and finding delegates will be more difficult.