Private Thoughts Made Public

Despite everything I wrote in yesterday’s post, I can see where my ex is coming from. Although she’s no longer technically a single parent (she’s got a new fiance) she is still on a limited income and our son does need school dinners and clothes and everything else.
To cap it all, I’m not bringing home as much as I was when we were married, due in no small part to the fact that I was demoted at work a couple of years ago. Let me tell the story of how that happened.
At the time, I was the IT Manager, and tried to keep everyone happy. I thought my career was on the up, I had a company car and health benefits, and had earned a couple of decent pay rises in the previous couple of years.
We weren’t that bothered about software licencing or copying the occasional cd for other people at work. This proved to be my downfall. The place where I work is split into an office section and a factory section. One day, someone from the factory came through to tell me that a friend of theirs was starting a computer course and asked me what they’d need. This information was very vague, but I offered to do him a copy of Windows 98 anyway. This I did (at the end of the day when it was quiet) and off he went. He came back in a couple of days later to tell me that Windows 98 wasn’t what he was after in the first place, and it was while we were discussing the matter that one of the directors came through with the morning post. We have very hands-on company directors. The director wanted to know why this guy wasn’t at his station, and it all kicked off from there.
I was suspended pending an investigation (this wasn’t the first time I’d clashed with the directors over my managerial style, and I already had warnings and disciplinings [is that a word?] on my file). The chairman’s first reaction was “Fire him! Get rid of him!” but then they realised that I was the only person in the building who knew how the IT department worked. I went back in a week later for my hearing.
I pointed out that copying software wasn’t exactly frowned upon, and that I had in fact installed unlicenced software on the directors own pc’s (work pc for one director, personal laptop for another one) at their request. As a result of this, they could only discipline me for unauthorised use of company equipment, i.e. using the cd-writer to copy the disc. I was brought back on a four-month contract which would run up to December, in order to document the systems and give me time to look for another job. I was allowed to keep the company car, but lost health benefits (and had to take a hefty pay cut).
At this time my assistant was a man in his late 50′s who had a lot of IT experience. There has never been more than two people in the IT department here. He’d been working for us for about a year, and took the role of IT assistant as he was looking for something less stressful as he wound down his career until retirement. He was immedaitely promoted to IT Manager, a position he never wanted in the first place. The company hired a new guy in his late teens (not quite a school leaver, he already had 12 months experience working elsewhere) to be the new IT assistant. Part of my duties was to train him up in the day-to-day operations of the department.
All this happened after my marriage had falling apart, but before the divorce had come through. During the last few months of 2002 I was in the situation where my wife had asked for a divorce, I was about to move into a house of my own and I didn’t know if I’d have a job after Christmas. This is a whole other story, but I’d put in an offer on this house in November 2001. I couldn’t move in until I’d saved enough for the deposit and the current owners had found somewhere else to move to. This took until August 2002, during which time I was back living with my parents. At the age of 30-whatever-it-was.
Anyway, back at work, the directors employed somone else in a role not related to the IT department, and he needed a car. He was given mine. Since my contract specified a car, they got me a replacement. I went from driving a 10-month-old 1.8 litre family car to a 10-year-old 1-litre shopping trolley rustbucket. Still, it was transport, of sorts.
At the start of December they told me they were actually quite happy with my work and offered me a further six months. Since I didn’t have anything else to go to, I accepted.
At the end of January, the new assistant was given the boot. He turned out to be quite difficult to work with, and they let him go at the end of his three-month probationary period. I was told that I could have a full-time job with them again once my six months was up. Also at the end of January my car was stolen by joy-riders and trashed. They got me another replacement, which was another 10-year-old rustbucket.
Towards the end of the six month contract (this would be June 2003) I was told the terms and conditions of my new full-time employment. My job title would be IT Administrator, but there would be no company car. Bugger. But there was a ray of sunshine. They were going to give me the 10-year-old rustbucket! Free, gratis, and for nothing. I was mightily impressed, I can tell you. Not. They would also give me an extra £750 a year to cover running expenses for the car. £750 does not cover tax and maintenance on any car, no matter how old or new it is.
I kept the car until the end of the year. I had to get rid of it before it’s MOT was due at the end of the year (for the benefit of overseas readers, the MOT is an annual test of a vehicle’s roadworthiness). I remortgaged my house (it had doubled in value over the previous 24 months, finally something was going my way) so I was able to get myself something decent to drive. I still have this car and I’m extremely happy with it.
I put the rustbucket into an auction. After the auctioneer had taken his fee, I got £27 for it. I spend more than that on a tank of fuel each week.
With the marriage falling apart, getting demoted, moving out of my 3-bed semi-detached suburban home into my parents house and then into my current four-roomed house, and everything else that’s happened to me in the last three years or so, I think I’m holding up pretty well. Still need a big kick up my arse to get a new job, though.