The Times They Are A'Changin'

Well, another hectic few weeks have passed.

Perhaps I should reconsider the use of the word "Mundane" in my sub-title...?

So where was I?

Oh yes. I resigned with immediate effect from that dreadful job, and then had a hard fight to get the outstanding wages and expenses they owed me. Luckily I had them by the short and curlies, as they had WAY too many skeletons in their closet to mess me about. A few emails to the managers suggesting I would be quite happy to take them to ACAS over the money, and that the firm would certainly find that event rather embarrassing, soon saw the money transferred into my bank account.

I also set about finding another job, not the easiest thing to do in this neck of the woods. There are very few decent jobs around up here and the crap ones are really crap, only promising more of the same sort of nonsense I experienced in private care work. Being badly treated AND badly paid is not a combination I am prepared to accept, so I soon started to realise it was time to think about the direction my life was going in.

This has been pretty much ongoing since I returned form Thailand, and is tied to a growing confidence in myself, a sense of self-worth which events over the past couple of months have actually increased. At the end of September and start of October I was summoned for Inquest Jury Service at the local Coroner's Court. That was an incredible experience. It's far more interesting than normal jury service, as the jury is part of the investigation and actually questions witnesses. If you get the chance, do it!

On the first day, I was elected Jury Foreman by the others. We sat through four cases, all of which were incredibly interesting. Having to question witnesses in front of a room full of people, then guide the jury discussion, then deal with the coroner at the end for the verdict, proved a real boost to my confidence. It was also wonderful to get back into a "nine-to-five" job again. But the constant pressure from my company to do late-evening and night support shifts for them, after each sitting, was an increasing annoyance. I refused to do any, and it brought home to me the true cowboy nature of the firm I was working for.

Once the Inquest Jury was stood down I returned to work, but things were not the same. I had changed, got stronger. I went back to work but refused to be messed around. A clash had to come sooner or later. It came sooner. Oddly enough, even though the result of that clash has left me out of a job for a few weeks, I again feel much stronger for having stood up to them.

I have a casual job in the Royal Mail lined up starting in December (subject to security vetting). After that I need to look at where I am in life and where I see myself going. I came to this town for good reasons, but I think the time may have come to move on, as its limitations have become vividly apparent to me.

It cannot give me what I now want from my life.