Almost a year has passed since I last wrote anything on this blog. So much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin. As a wise human once said, maybe it’s best if I just start at the beginning.
Around this time last year, I was starting to have second thoughts about the company I was working at. The true nature of some people in the team had become all too clear and I wondered if I’d made (yet) another blunder in choosing a place to work at. It’s a clear pattern throughout my career that seems mostly based on the amount of pressure I’m under when accepting job offers. Anyway, fast forward to August and it was clear I’d run my course there, so I resigned and left at the end of September. I spent a month resting and preparing for another interview cycle when I was given the chance to rejoin the first company I worked at when I initially moved to London.
Things got slightly on track and plans were made for the upcoming year. Alas, the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the world and turned it upside down. On a personal level, the initial impact was having a fairly apprehensive kid at home with school closures in place and the added stress of my wife being a key worker in the NHS. Then came the lockdown in the UK and all the economic turmoil that followed. The timing couldn’t have been worse for my company and, like many others, immediate cost-cutting measures were put in place to guarantee the sustainability of the business, including reduced work hours and salaries. Plans made, plans put on hold.
Unlike so many people out there, I’m still fortunate to have a job. I’m working hard (maybe harder than ever) to do my part and make sure that everyone at the company has a job to come back to for the foreseeable future. But this brings a lot of financial uncertainty that piles up pressure on an already stressful situation, for many personal reasons that I won’t disclose. Some days are easier, others not so much. Good spirits (or the semblance of them, at least) are required to make my kid feel as comfortable and happy as possible.
I’ll be dumping some of my thoughts here as I feel the need to. Just like managing a hard drive and clearing up space for new batches of data. From a non-mechanical perspective, to vent and clear my mind as much as I can.