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Pigs winging gently overhead	[Jun. 7th, 2011|03:14 pm]Footpad
[**Tags**|job, life, mischa, redundancy, whoa, work]There have been rumours, and questions, and slow seismic shifts, and some revealingly explicit denials from the management, and even now I only get the news from a trustworthy source in the management who's heard something more than usually reliable on the grapevine, and wants me to be prepared for what's coming, but:Within the next fortnight I can expect, with near-as-dammit 100% certainty, to lose my job at The Bank.Apparently it's normally done completely without warning. They ask you if you can drop in on a meeting for a moment, and when you walk in you find that there's a manager and a HR droid and a piece of paper on the table. From that meeting room, you are escorted to your desk to pick up personal effects, and then you're escorted to the door, and that's that. I look forward to this process with morbid interest.This is, of course, because they don't want me getting disgruntled, sowing logic-bombs all over their critical infrastructure, and costing them millions more than they could sue me for. Needless to say, that's not my style—but, as my contract specifies a three-month notice period, this basically means that I'm getting pushed out of the door with at least a quarter-year's pay in hand. More, if I'm canny about various training initiatives. So, while the job market in Germany isn't as robust as I'd like, Mischa isn't going to have to worry about his dog-food supply for at least a little while.To summarise?Cons: loss of high income that I probably can't fully replace (especially with the current CHF/EUR rate). Leaving Switzerland. Uncertainty of finding another job. Possibility of not finding another job, with catastrophic consequences for our current living arrangements.Pros: More time with Mischa. Going back to akeela and draugvorn. More time cuddling Mischa. Comfortable severance package that gives me a bit of leeway in finding another job. More time walking Mischa. More chance of seeing German friends—generally improved social life, including Mischa.So far, I'm punching the numbers into my calculator and they make a happy face.
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Progress	[Jan. 29th, 2009|02:30 pm]Footpad
[Tags**|house move, job, pant pant pant, the bank] [Current Mood**	twitchy]Things are careering along just on the right side of the line of loss of control.Yesterday we hired a 7.5-ton truck and cleared out the cellar and garage. We filled the truck, and that's after we filled the back terrace with stuff that we agreed to throw away. (And a few things we didn't: akeela hasn't yet found out that I smashed the old DIN-5 keyboard that he insisted we keep. I will accept that he should keep one because "it still works and might come in useful", but I'm damned if he's ever going to need several when all they ever do is sit in boxes in the basement, getting lugged from house to house. I guess you can spot the commonest bone of contention in our relationship?)So, apart from my vengeful satisfaction in dismembering my mate's treasured personal possessions, the good news is that die Hexe has the cellar and garage to move her stuff into. The removal company wanted silly money to move our household, but it turns out that most of that was for the labour; we can hire just the truck and driver at a much more reasonable price. They're coming tomorrow, so all we have to do today is to finish breaking down the household so we can pack everything expeditiously. After posting this I'm going to pack all my computing stuff, which will place me offline until the 'net gets connected at the new place.The other good news I've received a big bunch of paperwork from UBS. Finally, a contract: I am now officially moving to Zurich in a week. Hmm, they want a passport photo. That definitely means getting a haircut this afternoon!
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Form and substance	[Jan. 8th, 2009|04:25 am]Footpad
[Tags**|geek, house, job, late night, music] [Current Mood**	cosmic] [Current Music	Faithless, God is a DJ, followed by _Insomnia_]I'm messing around with imposition software. I'm a bit caffeine-buzzed, since a friend of mine dosed me up on "mild coffee", which turned out to have "reduced caffeine" in the way that airport duty-free shops have "reduced prices". I've got a beer by one elbow and a chocolate pasty (don't ask) at the other. Today I took long walks with Mischa in the snow, and then I spent all afternoon teaching Mischa's girlfriend's owner how to use her computer.My day has been full and I'm deep in creative endeavour. I'm flying so high right now, I feel like the whole universe is open to me in all its range and potential.This is my church, my place of the mind.÷I really, really enjoyed teaching Angelika computer basics. It's really starting from scratch; she can sort of use a mouse and keyboard, so she does things incredibly laboriously and slowly. But that doesn't matter. I have all the time in the world. It's like a kind of meditation, an exercise in creative empathy, keeping an intuitive and sympathetic track of what the student knows. Where she's getting stuck, what she wants to do, how she's trying to do it. When to step in handle something she doesn't need to know (like fixing a DNS problem). When to drop in a suggestion, a tip, a reassurance (my favourite is, "Try it!"). And, finally, when to sit back and watch her figure it out, since that's often the most instructive tactic of all.It's kind of strange: the teacher has to be not only one step ahead of the student, but one step outward. The student focuses on the task at hand; the teacher focuses on the implicit, general understanding that that task will bring, but which the student doesn't yet perceive. You can't teach someone to use a computer. You can only show them specific tasks—which individually are no use at all—and let them osmotically acquire the conventions, language and praxis of computing. It's like becoming someone else's intuition.I've never thought of myself as a people person, but I realise now that I could quite easily envisage becoming an teacher—at least of people who want to learn.÷House-hunting goes on. akeela had found a place we liked near Cologne, but then the landlords have been so serially disorganised that we can't wait for them, and we aren't sure we'd want to rent from them if we could. So Aki's gone on searching and, as so often happens, ill-luck breeds good: he's found a place that looks so wonderful that we're begging the Fates to make it as good as it seems. It's a fairly solitary house in a hamlet in a sizeable nature reserve; it looks well-appointed with lots of space for Mischa; the price is right; and the landlady seems nice. The only catch is that there are twelve other interested parties, so we're going to be trying like hell to make a good impression when we visit on Sunday. Aki will be his usual affable and competent self; I will muster the best of my charm, see to my grammar and perhaps play up my English accent; and—best of all—they've asked to meet Mischa as well, to make sure he won't kill and eat their children. Instead he'll be our secret weapon in the charm offensive.The house is in a place called Wolf-stall, with a nearby village whose German name can only be translated as Under Male Dogs Over. We believe the Fates are trying to tell us something.÷The job in Zurich is looking very probable indeed. I had an e-mail from the bank today, asking, "When can you start?" An informant tells me that the IT middle-managers are discussing my hiring as a done deal, and the Human Resources people generally listen to them. So I give it a 90% chance that I'll be in Zurich within two months. It only remains to negotiate the salary. I'm angling for a little more than I got when I left. Between you and me, I'd take less (still not a salary to be sniffed at), but I'm damned if I'll tell the HR people that. *wag*
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The year in review	[Mar. 31st, 2008|11:15 pm]Footpad
[Tags**|holiday, job, leisure, ruminate] [Current Mood**	placid]It is now one year since I finished my job at The Bank, moved to Germany, and became a gentleman of leisure.It's been a very quick year.In a way, a lot has happened. I went travelling in America and Canada, including a canoeing trip in Algonquin with raikawolf; I moved to another country and set up house with akeela; I did a lot of gardening; I learned a lot of German; Aki and I went to conventions; I visited England once or twice; I kept on playing with computers like I always do. And of course there's been everything to do with Mischa, who's occupied at least three hours of my day almost every day since he arrived, and sometimes much more. So, while I've definitely been lazy, I haven't been altogether idle.But, three more years of this? No thanks. It's been delightful—a year off, doing more or less whatever I want when I want. I'm well aware of how lucky I am. But I can feel myself starting to stagnate. It's time to find something structured to do with my time. And unless inspiration strikes in the very near future, that means finding a job.Today I finally whipped my book-keeping back into shape, and ran a tally of where the money's been going for the past year. The bad news is that I've spent a lot more than I thought; the good news is that my reserves will hold out for at least another two years at this rate, and three with only moderate prudence. I don't like the current economic situation but I'm probably going to weather it okay.Even so, a job would be a good idea financially as well as personally. I've known this for a while, but I've been procrastinating. And I must admit, part of that is because I've been worried about finding a job as good as The Bank—a job which had a ridiculously low stress-to-pay ratio. I'd better accept that a job that good probably won't come round again. Fortunately, having just a little margin of financial security, I don't have to be too eager to go for high-paid but stressful jobs: I can sniff around for something I like the look of. My still-broken German will be a hindrance, but it's improving all the time. I'll manage something.But, morgen. Tonight I'm going to take Mischa for a walk, then get a decent night's sleep. Morgen fängt es an.
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Job interview	[Jan. 31st, 2008|05:38 pm]Footpad
[Tags**|bank, job, zurich] [Current Music**	awu? from downstairs] [Current Mood	boppy]I just had an interview with someone from The Bank. It went well. Assuming that things work out with contracts and with Mischa, it seems reasonably certain that I have a job in the data-storage department. My primary responsibility will be NAS storage, with emphasis on the UNIXy side of things, but I'll also be expected to learn about SANs and the fibre-channel infrastructure to any depth of detail that I can manage.So, yet again, my CV proves largely irrelevant in getting me a job. It kinda helped at my first ever permanent job, but the manager was an idiot and would hire anyone; after that, I've always gotten jobs by recommendation and word of mouth.Mischa will come with me to Zurich, since akeela is on a full-time course for the next three months. Mischa's well-being is a primary and non-negotiable part of my working conditions: if The Bank can't allow space in my life for him then I don't take the job, and that's that. Since he's so tranquil here at home, I'm pretty sure he'll be quite content to spend four-and-a-half hours alone twice a day. If he's not, then... well, I give up the job and come back. We're guessing that Aki will come out to Switzerland when the course is done, since my salary is enough to support us both while he job-hunts. But we'll play it all by ear.Now Mischa has just made a little plaintive noise downstairs. So it's time to go for a long, long run to celebrate, and to work off the post-interview nerves. C'mon, dog, let's go run up to Die Haard.
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