The last month or two of my life has focused almost exclusively on my health but, now that I am back to my regular, healthy self, my attention has been returned to that which consumes most of my thoughts and energy: work.
I don't think anyone has a good work story from the last year. The recession has been difficult for everyone and I know, I know I should be very happy that I have a job, that I got a raise, and that my performance reviews are merely opportunities for my manager to heap praise and thanks on me. But, that said, things at my company do not seem to be improving. Last winter, as the shock of the recession was hitting, the company made siginifcant cut backs and did so in an unprofessional and poorly communicated manner. We weren't even that upset about the changes themselves - we were upset at how the company was treating us and how disrespected we felt.
The economy may be improving, but my company's attitude is not. My department has been under-staffed since the spring. Throughout the summer, when we asked management when we would be getting some relief, we were told to wait until the restructuring was complete in August...which then became September, then October, then November. My work group is the most poorly staffed within the entire department - several days this month (and we're only 10 days in!) I have been the only person working. A year ago, there were 5 people, down from the ideal number of 6. With the new reorganization, we are supposed to have 3 people only. Even my manager thinks this is a joke and has been petitioning the higher ups for the reasoning behind this decision, trying to determine how we can get extra staff allocated.
I suppose I'm just really frustrated by the lack of communication and the lack of reasoning behind decision making. Everyone in my department is frustrated and increasingly bitter. I know a large number of them are sending out resumes already, which, if they leave, will create an even more difficult situation for those of us who remain. We're the lowest down on the totem pole in the company and are treated as such but we are also one of the only departments classified as essential services within the company. You don't need four years of HR training (training which has been going sadly to waste) to know that the longer an unhappy worker remains, and is in daily contact with customers, the more potential there is for damage to the company.
I would not be surprised to see 10+ people quit in the next two months. We are, for the most part, young and have no mortgages or families to tie us to a salary at a job we dislike and at company where we have limited prospects. That's the real issue for me: in March, my commitment to my current position will be up and I will be able to apply to other jobs within the company. However, new jobs aren't opening up. And with nothing to move on to, you stay where you are. I find that idea terrifying.
The current game plan is this: come March, I start applying for jobs. If there are good opportunities within my company, excellent. That would surely be the most convenient option and I think my resume would benefit from showing that I could progress within a company. If nothing is available internally though, I'm applying for jobs in Vancouver, speeding up my "Go Home" timeline by a year, but always, always making sure I have something lined up before I quit.
A new idea (or, rather, a very old one) has surfaced recently, complicating these plans further - I see that there is something called the Youth Mobility Scheme (replacing the holiday maker visa) that would allow me to live and work in the UK for a full two years (being, thereby, infinitely superior to the holiday maker visa). At University, I had a burning desire to run away to Edinburgh after graduation but my practical side said no, since, at that time, the only visa I could get only entitled me to work for up to a year. But with this new scheme, with a two-year permit, I could actually be hired into a real job, something relevant to my career. The mind boggles, though the scariest part of this option is that I'd have to move without a job lined up - can't really justify a $1300 return trip flight for interviews.
And then my father reminds me of how many are still unemployed, how tenuous the job market still is. It was so easy for me to find a job two years ago and it has been easy for my classmates over the last year, even those who were laid off, to find jobs as well, that I forget the realities of the world at large. He has always been so sympathetic about all the awful things at work so to hear him tell me today that we should all stop complaining and be happy we have jobs when so many do not, was rather upsetting. That said, I do think his comments were influenced by the fact that he's been in California for the last three weeks, in a state, in a country, that has suffered far more than anywhere in Canada. But I still can't discount his comments completely.
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