My friend has come round with a bunch of flowers, and spent about three hours cleaning my house!
She’s also made a list of small things that are broken, and is going to ask her husband if he can fix them.
Isn’t that brilliant!
Having a really sh!tty time right now, as I expect to find out tomorrow whether I’m being made redundant.
There is a compulsory conference call at lunchtime.
I’ve been in touch with others invited to the same call, but we can’t deduce anything. All we know is that everyone invited to the call will share the same fate. But we don’t know if it’s the “All staying” call, or the “All going” call, and there’s no way of finding out.
My colleagues had assumed it meant we were all going, but I asked: “How do you know we’re not all staying, though?” They said: “True. Hadn’t thought of that.”
So all I know is that, whatever happens, we’re all being treated alike (myself and my two former colleagues on the same team). But I don’t know if we’re all safe, or all toast.
I have been too embarrassed to let her do it, but this time, I wasn’t given a choice. She said: “I’m coming, and I’m doing it!”
Do feel a bit better - especially if I’m going to be faced with bad news tomorrow. Don’t want to be unemployed AND living in squalor. She’s obviously given this some thought. Nothing she can do about the employment situation, of course, but I have got a clean house (well, much cleaner than it was) and a nice vase of flowers.
My friend did that to me once too - very embarrassing, but good at the same time, I couldn’t have done what she did in a morning if I had a month! Every so often now I get a text from “The Cleaning Fairy” to see if I need her services - it’s good to have lovely friends
Hope everything works out job-wise Tina, let us know,
What a lovely, lovely, friend, could do with one of those myself, hate housework i just havent got the energy or motivation nowadays,(i can always find better things to do )
Are you the lady in the big company that is doing major cuts and you have been doing that project work that all got thrown into confusion if you should or shouldnt do it?
I wish you all the very best with your call…and dealing with the outcome whichever way it goes.
As for your friend what a lovely person.
I have personally taken on the quote I saw on here…have you ever seen a headstone saying I wish I’d done more housework!!!
Yes, that’s right. I work for a big company, but I work remotely from home, as I do stuff that can all be done with just a phone and a computer.
In March, I was abruptly dropped from the team of three I used to work on, as they literally ran out of budget.
Since then, I’ve had no proper full-time work (although I’m still getting paid). Just trivial odds and sods. Last week, a row blew up over whether it was “against the rules” for me even to be doing that.
Very demoralising, for me to be told that even the trivial work I’d been doing might get taken away, and that I shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.
Anyway, they backed down over that - realised it’s ridiculous to stop someone doing the one thing they were still doing that might have been seen as useful.
But the wider context is we still need to lose 640 people anyway… My section, or department, or whatever you choose to call it, consists of only 28 people. Of these, we know 15 need to go.
Tomorrow, apparently, is the day we find out who goes and who stays. I’d always assumed I’d be going, but find I’m on the same call with the two former colleagues I’d thought were on safer ground.
So either all three of us are going, or none of us. I suppose the odds alone suggest all three. That’s certainly what the other two had concluded. But when I asked: “But how do you know ours isn’t the ‘Staying’ call?”, they agreed they didn’t.
The invitations were all sent “blind copy”, so nobody can see the names or even numbers of who else was invited, and work out from that which camp they must be in.
I’ve almost got to the point of accepting it now, so if it turns out I’m staying after all, I don’t know if I shall be pleased or sorry. Financially, it would obviously be better for me still to have an income for as long as possible. Especially now, when I’m already ill, and there are so few opportunities elsewhere.
But psychologically, I can’t imagine it will be very positive to stay with a company where this has just happened. The picture doesn’t look very rosy for those who are staying. The future still isn’t assured; there could be another round of cuts if the books don’t start balancing soon. And the atmosphere is one of fear, uncertainty, and backstabbing. Not very good for anyone - least of all someone with MS.
Might I be better with less money, but without all the nastiness?
I just don’t know…
Yes, my friend, at least, has come up trumps. In the past, I’ve perhaps wrongly thought of her as quite self-centred. But she’s NOT sentimental, and very practical (she’s a divorce lawyer; that probably tells you all you need to know). In that respect, she’s been more support than at least one of my more “sympathetic” friends, who blubs about my diagnosis, instead of wondering how she can help.
What a wonderful friend Tina. My house is going to rack and ruin. My husband is doing his best but what with working and making meals he has enough to do! I must admit I would be mortified if anyone came to do my house. It is in such a state. Good luck tomorrow. Hope you get the outcome you want. Teresa xx
Oh, believe me, I was mortified. I didn’t want her to come and do it at all.
But realistically, I knew I was never going to get round to it, and with my job on the line as well, I could hardly afford to pay a professional.
So eventually, I had to swallow my pride, and say: “OK, come and do it!” Once I got over the initial shock of her coming in and seeing it, it wasn’t so bad.
What I can’t get over is how tired I am! Even though my friend did almost all the heavy work, like vacuuming and scrubbing the floor, I didn’t feel I could just sit there and watch, so I was on my feet keeping the kettle brewing, taking bags of rubbish out, and that sort of thing.
By the end, I actually needed her to go - as helpful and generous as it was - I can only take things in small doses. She kept holding things up, and asking: “What is this?”, and “Where do you want it put?”, while I was trying to press on with things like making coffee, or arranging the flowers.
She also kept handing things to me, and I didn’t have anywhere to put them (very little storage in this house), so I was having to say: “Look, I don’t anywhere special to keep it; it will have to be OK where it is for the moment.”
It’s not that I’m not grateful for the help, but even having company at all is unusual for me, and hard work keeping up conversation while sharing chores as well, so I feel exhausted this evening. Three hours at a stretch is a lot. People don’t realise that even standing in the kitchen chatting and keeping the coffee refilled soon gets tiring.
Oh well, we shall see what tomorrow brings. I’m not at all optimistic, but I suppose miracles do happen. But I already have a tidy house, which is a miracle in itself. Am I gonna get two in two days? Nah, don’t think so. Think the luck runs out tomorrow.
But I suppose at least I’ll know. With luck, not another horrible week wondering when - or if - the damn phone’s going to ring, telling me I’m out of a job.
Brilliant! What a lovely friend. I agree it is much easier to accept help when someone you know cares about you says RIGHT I AM DOING THIS! enjoy your lovely home, and I’m sorry to hear about your work xx
