I suspect it is a similar story everywhere. Those who have survived have become more nervous and more suspicious of each other. The main liberation for me in the run up to the redundancies last week was that it really did not matter what you did, you could not change anything. But now there is a palpable sense of activity. People want to impart their vision and strategy to anyone who will listen and are fiercely protective of their spheres of influence. Even people whom I consider to be friends have warned me off their turf if I stray too far.
There's such miserable uncertainty everywhere. I have tried to get something out of our UK lawyers, by phone and by email but with no success. Our US lawyer is deeply uninspiring; at one moment promising to reply soon and at the other reacting in a surprised way when we follow up a week later. All we have received from him is a bill charging us 60 dollars for answering the email with no credit for us passing on our knowledge of UK law which his colleague had asked for.
I am working at least 10 hours a day during which time I need to chase these people who treat me with such contempt. If I charged £350 a hour then the second baby would already be started. We have deliberately reduced our Christmas presents to mere tokens this year and everyone understands why. Yet the various Christmas parties and team dinners that the directors subsidise still mean another four hundred pounds or so down the drain. Yes I sound like Scrooge and yes people were grateful and they don't just assume that it will happen but that's how I feel and it is not phlegmatic.
We know so little really about what is going to happen to us. The sword of Damocles that is our immigration problem continues to hover above us and there is still so much to sort out. The things we can control completely we have done. If Harriet arrived today in Field View the nursery has enough stuff to cope, admittedly with a few temporary expedients but it would be feasible. The things we partially control we need to get a move on with (I am having a nightmare finding long term car hire that costs less than what I reckon a brand new GM or Ford would cost in the current environment). Then there are the many and varied things which are beyond our control but not beyond influencing us.
Some of you may been turning your thoughts to the serenity prayer here but thanks to Wikipedia I have found a secular version that pleases me better:
- For every ailment under the sun
- There is a remedy, or there is none;
- If there be one, try to find it;
- If there be none, never mind it.
