Red Day +1 week

Thursday was focussed on the interview with Trinity, driving down to Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Arrived with plenty of time so got my head down in the car for 30 minutes so that I was fresh and de-stressed. Still registered with reception 15 minutes early, but was collected by Caroline bang on noon and taken to the meeting room where I was introduced to Steve (the CEO) and Lee (programme manager, I’ve worked with her before, all be it briefly). From my point of view it went well, more of a chat than an interview. Steve remembered Arcast (pre-MidlandHR) which lead to some discussion as he’d worked for a competitor at the time.

Basically, I’m the 7th ex-zeda person that they have interviewed and to date they say that they have yet to see anybody that they wouldn’t offer a job to. In fact he's so impressed that (his own words) "If I'd known Zeda was in trouble I'd have bought the company". And another thing he said "It's not everyday I get the opportunity to snap up nearly 100 people without having to pay recruitment agency costs, I'm not going to let an opportunity like that pass me by.” "

After years of being dumbed down by an overly oppressive management that hadn’t got a clue about running a business and only every went chasing pots of gold at the end of rainbows it’s great to find a hands on COE that cares for both his business and his employees, recognises real opportunity and goes for it. This country really would be Great Britain if there were more like him.

As a result I came away from the interview making a promise that I’d have a contact list of ex-zeda employees with Trinity by noon Friday 8th Jan. That was just over 1.5 hours ago and I made the deadline and got the obligatory read receipt at 12:04. So that’s another 48 people that stand a chance of being contacted for an interview.

In the meantime I’ve lodged my updated CV with CWjobs, Jobserve & Jobsite. Barclay Anderson in Sheffield have been in touch about a potential job in Nottingham. My approach to MODIS has resulted in my CV going off to Severn Trent Water and they are contacting Argos who I’ve worked for in the past (for zeda). While at Job Seekers I found an opportunity that I’m going to follow up in Leicester and 2 others that came up on the JS computer. Becky at Jumar-Solutions has been in touch and I’ve circulated the news of the “job fair” for ex-zeda staff round to all those that I have contact details for.

News from others, in brief:-
1. The 2 Andy’s and Trevor have been interviewed by Trinity and will probably be made an offer
2. Viv had a first interview in Chesterfield and is waiting to hear back from them
3. Paul B has found work
4. Paul C has gone to MidlandHR but despite having a clause in my contract that my CV would be shared with companies in the Ancaster group nothing appears to have happened – perhaps they anticipated where I’d tell them to stick it!
5. Many / most of the folks that were working for Argos and the Alliance & Leicester have been taken on by them, though they have had to go “contracting” through MODIS to get it and they’ve been screwed down on the rate.
6. Members of the “zeda top table” met up for lunch yesterday – I couldn’t have attended but it’s nice to know that old habits die hard and cliques persist.
7. There’s an open invitation to meet up at the Pitcher and Piano today (Friday 8th) at 7pm for a few drinks – no promises but I’ll try and be there.

In my last post I put in a link to the Nottingham Post, and an article where a Mr Green spouted off about the help that was being extended to those recently made redundant in Nottingham. Well, being my usual tactful self I posted a reply along the lines of Mr Green being the invisible man as that article is the only thing that he appears to have done and certainly, neither I nor any of my former colleagues have seen or heard from Mr Green. Strangly, the Nottingham Post hasn't published my post -- censorship? Denial of the right to freedom of speach? What's next? I doubt it will be help finding employment....

That’s it for now, there’s jobs to be applied for....

Red Day +3 & +4

So what happened…. Well basically I woke up on Tuesday feeling a bit depressed with it all, so I buried myself in job hunting at 8am and went straight through to 4pm. Stopped to cook dinner, took a break, went and played badminton and after showering I went to bed knackered out. It had been a good day though – I’ve an interview lined up for Thursday and I’d got just about all the evidence they asked for ready for my Job Seekers interview.

Wednesday - Job Seekers interview day. I turn up early, the first contact {Karline) sees me early, proceeds to say that we don’t need most of this data and re-does the statement which I then sign. Part way through this process Viv taps me on the shoulder on her way out. I then have to wait to see contact #2. This is Ester (she’s just processed Viv) so we run through all the stuff they have on their system about me, confirming my details, and then we determine what sort of work I’m looking for – and they don’t have Business Analyst, Project Manager or Payroll Manager on their main categories. BA and PM are both sub-categories and Payroll Manager doesn’t come up at all. It’s a clumsy system so it’s no wonder that those that don’t want to work end up skiving off, the system appears to make it easy.

I’d gone to the JS interview on my motorbike, parked it right by the door, so when I came out I went off and met up with Mike “Hobby Bobby” and the pair of us went for a ride up from Nottingham, round Mansfield, to CMC at Calow Top, before dropping down into Chesterfield, Clay Cross, Ilkeston and home. It was a great day for a ride, though a bit cool but I needed that and like I texted to Mike when I got home, if more people rode motorbikes there would be fewer druggies on the streets.

Tomorrow night I’ll post how I got on in Hitchin and news on other people as well (if they tell me).

Oh, nearly forgot, you might like to see this in the Nottingham Post

Red Day +2

So what of today? First I spoke to Dan Ayscough, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Computer People:-
Tel: +44 (0)113 2186854
Fax: +44 (0)113 2434528
Mob: 07715104542
To email Dan click here
Springfield House, 76 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 2AY
ComputerPeople ...and... Dan at ComputerPeople

After a good long chat I now have to wait to see if he has anything suitable. So with that under my belt it was time to get onto my mortgage protection provider and find out where I stand – quite well as it happens, so at least the mortgage will get paid for the next 12 months at least. Not loosing the roof over my head just yet.

Next up was following a lead from Susan in Denby, Jumar-Solutions. Went on their web site and applied for 3 positions and submitted my CV. About an hour later I got a call from Becky Goodfellow and it turns out that their web site only went live today and I’m the first person to use it to submit my CV. Details are:-
Jumar Solutions Limited, Jumar House, Pinewood Business Park, Coleshill Road, Solihull, B37 7HG
Tel: +44 121 788 4550
Fax: +44 121 788 4551
Mobile: +44 7825 080048
Jumar-Solutions

Becky and her colleagues are looking to do a “Job Fair” just for ex-Zeda employees on the morning of Monday 11th Feb. Any ex-Zeda people interested then email me or Becky.

After that it was a quick hit on a couple of recruitment web sites for 3 or 4 jobs, reply to emails from former colleagues and update the contact list. A phone call from Carol would have ended the day, but for a trip to see Viv and a brief progress chat. Back home for 20:30 and a glass of cider with Fred. Good night all, that’s it, I’m done.

The Weekend

Virtually all my working life I’ve worked Monday – Friday and enjoyed the weekend. This one is going to be no different and I’m not changing things just because I don’t have a job to go to on Monday morning. So sticking with the normal routine it was a day that started with changing the bed sheets, then washing, tumbling and ironing them, clothes and stuff - household chores, mundane but necessary. Suzie & Mark did the weekly shop in the morning and I ran her into town for a hair appointment in the afternoon.

Andy was at work in the morning and when he came home I got him to ring round some of his mates in the car trade. Basically the car has got to go as I can’t service the loan repayments without money coming in. First step - I’ve asked for a valuation. Once I have that I’ll see what’s the best way to sell. I don’t really want to use eBay, but will if it’s the best option.

Saturday night and Dave picked us up, and Fred, and then drove us round to TenPin for a couple of games. Lane 26, right on the end, out of the way and no passing traffic to distract us. Barry & Wendy turned up as arranged and the 6 of us had two leisurely games. Barry top scored with 148 in the first game, and I top scored the second with 161. A few drinks and good company made for a really enjoyable night out -- Thanks All!

Since posting the news on this Blog is my way of keeping in touch with friends and family it came as no surprise that my brother and sisters have to rung make sure I’m OK. Short of it is... I am. Life goes on and tomorrow being Monday will see me following my “Plan of Action”, which is basically a To Do list. Plus I’m going to be keeping a log of what I’ve done, who I’ve approached and responses received to keep the Government minders happy. I really can’t see the attraction of living off the social that so may inhabitants of this country seem to crave. I haven’t made my claim yet and the novelty has already worn off. How do those people think? How do they live? I really, truly do not understand.

Finally for tonight, I've been really encouraged by the contacts I've received. Not just those in the same boat as my now as a result of last week's events, but also, from those I've worked with in the past, who have moved on (mostly upwards) since leaving the Ancaster Group. To all of them, to all of you guys and gals, it was a pleasure to work with you then and it's a priviledge to know you now.

Red Day +1

Boy was it wierd this morning! For the first time in my life I didn't have a job to go to. While still at school, and since the age of 14, I've always had a job. I could always make that choice to be "good" and go in (mostly) or not and stay away. But today was different, I didn't have that choice and it was weird, like empty, sort of.

So what of today...?

First thing I saw my next door neighbour as we put the bins out this morning, had a chat. 20mins later he's at the door with an email address for his son and says to send CV "just in case" - a nice way to start the day.

Telephoned local Citizens Advice Bureau - couldn't find number using Yell.com, got it from Google. Gave all the particulars requested and she phoned me back. Advised to phone Job Seeker line 0800 055 6688. Making and taking her call took up 30 minutes -- thanks Julie for being so patient and understanding.

Then I telephoned the Job Seeker line - the automated voice recognition is fun. It took 3 attempts to recognise my post code (must be the way I pronounce my words). In total that call was over an hour. They want your life history to prepare a statement, which they send you. This has to go with you, with requested evidence, to JS interview (mine is for 6th Feb at 11:40) and failure to attend means no payments. After the Job Seekers Allowance, just about everything is means tested so although they've got my details and I can prove that we can't get by on just Sue's money, if I don't get a job we will have to.

On the suggestion of Neil Dodson at Argos Business Services I emailed my CV to Modus -- after a bit of looking I found an email address here... Modus however, I've had an email from another victim of yesterday that suggests this may not be the right place so I'll follow that one up soon.

Took a phone call from Ian Mander (an old MidlandHR mate who I'd rung last night) who has turned up a short term Deputy Payroll Manager role that is up for grabs. The job is 3 months in York City Council paying "high £20k's" which is better than Job Seekers but I need more.

Got a nudge (via email) from Simon Swinburn at Leicester CC - there was a Technical Analyst role going there, which I sent round the group as it could well suit somebody else. If anybody was interested I hope that they were quick as it closed today.

Nearly forgot -- last night I spoke to another mate Pete who suffered the same fate with MidlandHR (a sister company) nearly 2 years ago. His boss has authorised him to advertise and fill a Project Manager role in 6-8 weeks time, so if I'm not sorted by then it's a strong candidate.

Right at the end of the day I got 2 encouraging phone calls. The first was from the ZEDA HR dept to say that somebody from Trinity Expert Systems was trying to contact me and would I be interested in ringing her back. I did, got her answerphone, left voice mail, then went to the "contact us" on the TESL web site and sent an email requesting they forward it to her, so fingers crossed!

Then my neighbour's lad Richard phone to say his boss had reviewed my CV and had a couple of questions, which I answered and hopefully I'll get a call to interview early next week.

And I find I'm getting loads of encouragement from my fellow Deauvilliers including PMs, emails, a phone call and a number of promising leads. So summing up at the end of Day 1 - an encouraging start, long way to go but no need to get down hearted.

Stiff upper lip! That's the spirit. And if you want to see what others are saying about it all have a look see... Nottingham Post

Today I was made redundant

Just before we finished work yesterday afternoon an email went round saying that there would be an important company announcement at 9:00 today.

So, everybody turns up for work as usual and... we are told the company (ZEDA Ltd) has gone into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation and that we are all out of a job as of the end of the statement being read out.

So if anybody has, or knows of, any IT related vacancies for a Business Analyst or Project Manager in or around the Midlands, UK, then please email me here... phil_cooper@ntlworld.com

In the meantime I'm hitting all the usual job finder web sites with my c.v.

Ryanair censored

How mad is this country getting? Just how out of touch are the people that sit in judgement over us?

See this BBC article BBC News

Ryanair run an ad with a picture that can most accurately be described as saucy. It appears in 3 papers with a circulation of 3.5 million readers. One reader complains to the paper, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) get 13 complaints.

The ASA said the "irresponsible" image appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour and was irresponsible and likely to cause "serious or widespread offence,"

Now before you ask, yes I have seen the picture -- which is probably more than most of the people who complained as in most instances like this one person takes offense and gets their “friends & family” to complain on their behalf.

Why don’t the ASA get REAL? Out of a circulation of 3.5 million there were 13 complaints! That does not constitute “serious or widespread offence”. It just means that out of 3.5 million readers there are 13 nutters who need locking up in a darken room with no food or water until they either develop a sense of humour or die (preferably the latter).

Misco Customer Service

Yesterday afternoon (while at work) I placed an order for a 19” widescreen LCD computer monitor using Misco.co.uk where I performed a search for “widescreen monitor 19” and then sorted the results by ascending price. The item that caught my eye was described as:-

HANNSG HW191 19 WIDESCREEN TFT WITH DVI OPEN BOX – BOX AND PRODUCT PRISTINE

After a fuller description, and the price £85.55 inc VAT was the phrase:-
Buy now – while stock lasts

So I did. I went through to checkout, entered my credit card details and printed off the receipt. Now at that point I assumed that I’d bought the monitor – and I expect just about anybody else in my position would think the same. BUT NO!

After leaving work somebody rang from Misco to say that this was a one off offer and that all stock had been sold. My colleague rang me at home and advised me of the call. I checked my emails, and there was confirmation of my “Order Request” so I went back on the web site to check – and it was still there for sale. So I rang customer services at Misco. The person taking the call couldn’t find the order reference number and took my contact phone number promising that somebody would ring me in the morning.

This morning I got into work, and waited. No phone call. Visited the Misco website – item still listed for sale. So I rang them. Again the order couldn’t be found, so I was passed to “Internet Sales” where a very obnoxious lady refused to believe that it was still available for sale. Eventually she found it and simply informed me that there had only been 1 item and that it had sold.

So what to do next? Trading Standards? YouTube? I still want a monitor, they appear to still have it for sale - it's still there as I write this at 11:50. And the more I think about it the less happy I am. I could accept being disappointed. I cannot accept being shouted down by loud, rude, customer service staff!

Happy Birthday Dave

Sunday 27th January was Dave's birthday, celebrating 52 years on this planet we call earth. Happy Birthday Dave!

It's been a quiet week

Despite all the tension hanging round her, Sue has got through this week pretty well, ending with a day trip to see her friends Karen & Liz on Friday. They all met up in London, and for once Karen was early! They seem to have had a good time from the accounts I've heard so far, A few more weeks an she'll be off to London again - this time with Carol.

Mark had a photo come that was taken at his college presentation evening when he "got his certificates" for the A level exams he achieved. In reality he got a bill for some books he'd not returned, and the certificates came in the post a few days after he returned the books. Still, it's a very nice photo of him with the High Sheriff of Derbyshire who is dressed in his full traditional regalia.

Things are very quiet for me at work at the moment, with no chargeable work and little prospect of any right now. Fingers crossed that there'll be no redundancies just yet but days don't half drag when you know that the work you are doing is pretty meaningless. On the order of the boss our infrastructure management team introduced some heavy handed rules for internet access. Well, with around 20 of us basically twiddling our thumbs it was only a matter of hours before we'd worked out a way around them. Well we are an IT services company and 20 heads have to be better than the 1 or 2 that put the new measures in place! How dumb do they think we are?

Good old eBay delivered us a new roller blind on Monday. Not bad as we only bought it on a "Buy Now" on Sunday. That went up today in the main bathroom which is starting to look finished after all the attention it's received lately.

Tomorrow it's wash cars and get new landline phones for Mum & Dad. How exciting?

Happy Birthday Fred

Today is Fred’s 62nd birthday. Happy birthday mate! Hope you enjoyed the meal on Saturday night as much as we did.

Nice weather – shame about the forecast

In anticipation of yet another wet weekend I got all the necessary bits and pieces in to do some much needed tidying up and running repairs. Nothing major, just loads of little jobs that I’ve been putting off.

First was to sort out Sue’s hair dryer. That was plugged into a wall socket behind a set of drawers, which is part of a pair linked by a vanity unit. In order to un-plug the old hairdryer and plug in the new one I had to dismantle the vanity unit. So a bit of forward thinking – replace hairdryer with an extension lead which is easily accessible for both lamp and hairdryer, then re-assemble the whole lot, cleaning as I go – job done.

That done, another job was to sort out the distribution of clutter in the various cupboards & wall units in the dining room and wardrobes in the master bedroom. All VHS tapes in one unit (not 4), all books together in the wall unit (from just about everywhere in the house), room found for linen that had sat in a pile in our bedroom for months. Loads of clutter and clothes binned for re-cycling.

When the Central Heating Engineer came the other week I had to make it possible to get to the boiler (in the back of the garage), so, one of my jobs was to do a proper job and I can now see the top of my workbench (not seen in at least 5 – 6 years). The garage is tidy and there’s room to move around. Next job was to fit some draught excluder to the door from the garage to the utility room. Why? Because the cat flap in the back door opens wide as every gale hits the front of the house and blows straight onto and through the garage. Should make keeping the house warm a bit easier too.

Then there was the sinks and baths. As seems to happen with time, the sealant between these and the walls had hardened, formed gaps, gone a bit mouldy, and so on. So it was out with the tools and remove the old stuff and insert new. This is never a favourite job of mine as I never seem to get a nice looking finish. But I’ve been watching all those DIY programs that litter the digital TV channels and thought it was time to put what I’ve learnt into practice. Mainly thanks to the Canadian Holmes on Homes series, it came out looking pretty smart. Smart enough for the whole family to comment on the finished article, so we’re all happy on that one.

What with that and a whole load of household chores the weekend was pretty full. Add in a night out for drinks and a meal (see Happy Birthday Fred) on Saturday. Some shopping for dog food for Sheba (Mum’s dog), sorting out the Sky subscription for Mum & Dad (took over a hour on the phone) and another trip down there when the TV remote packed up (the batteries had died). All in all, busy.

But the worst bit of the weekend was the sunshine! Dry, bright and mild all day! Why, oh why, can’t the forecasters get their forecasts right?