Monday, November 22, 2004
Patience and Publicity
The Company is really trying my patience. Today, although they never announced it officially, they have put information up on the company intranet explaining there are to be no bonuses paid to staff next year.
I had to insert a search term into the web page to find this information out (rumors were wild), and even more incredibly, I knew 4 hours before my boss. At 2pm he sent out a memo to staff saying there was the "possibility of a change to the bonus structure over the next few years and an announcement would be made soon". I wrote an email to him saying, "Remove the word possible, we already know". He was less than amused at HR for allowing it to happen, but it is typical of this place to be so irsit towards its staff.
I suppose I should have seen it coming with the bonuses being so low this year, but I rely on it for my Christmas presents and to get me through January. Looks like there will be no heading for the highlands in 2005.
Meanwhile the company bigwigs sit on their million pound salaries. One of them, who shall remain anonymous (for the moment), had the cheek to buy himself a Ferrari at the same time he made the decision to ditch 25% of the workforce? No wonder someone took a key down the side of it.
I got a letter with a Sheriff Court postmark on it - my heart stopped. But it was just a letter informing me I am on the jury list for the next two years and can expect a citation. I got one of these once when I lived in Glasgow but moved to Edinburgh before I got a call-up so this should be good. It will definitely be an experience that can be used in future writing adventures.
Due to my late night walk through the ice-cold streets of Edinburgh late on Saturday night, and the fact I have no hair (by choice), I can feel myself getting stuffy and sniffly. A cold is impending so I took one of my vitamin C tabs to try and stop its progress. Time will tell but the random sneezing is doing my head in.
And it's not just me - some of the people in this office are so damn loud whether talking on the phone or sneezing or coughing or laughing out loud suddenly - I mean how's a bloke meant to get to any sleep in here?
I started sending off my batch of completed issues to my ed at KIC. From 28 onwards, stopping at 34. I have to check a couple of things for accuracy in 34 and 35, then I can get them off, probably tomorrow night. I wrote some more on 38 and redrafted 36 and 37. Almost at the half way mark now.
Speaking of which, I removed my NaNoWriMo meter from this Blog. You will see it is no longer there, a sign of my defeat in this particular exercise. I'm not deflated, I had to register to at least give it a go but I didn't have the time, being too absorbed in a giant roll of creativity surrounding Jackie. But - the story is still there, and it will be told.
I replaced it with a new status bar, which tracks the number of words completed from an expected amount. As I expect Hunting Jack to reach the region of 90k for the 9 month contract, you can see where I am in relation to this now.
I was about to go to bed and I checked my email one last time, and was delighted to see I received a response to one of the press releases I sent out at the start of the month. It was from the editor at a new publication based in the University of Paisley called The Banter and they are interested in doing something to promote Hunting Jack.
When I sent the PR to them, it was on the basis they had not published yet, so it was a chance sending it to them as no details were available on the student association website of content etc. However, I got my degree from the same Uni and so I think that may be the angle they want to play it from.
It is primarliy an news forum for the students but they wabnt to expand it to include features, so here's hoping. The Ed will be in touch end of the week and has sent me a sample copy of the magazine in PDF format. Click here to read Issue 1 of The Banter
I had to insert a search term into the web page to find this information out (rumors were wild), and even more incredibly, I knew 4 hours before my boss. At 2pm he sent out a memo to staff saying there was the "possibility of a change to the bonus structure over the next few years and an announcement would be made soon". I wrote an email to him saying, "Remove the word possible, we already know". He was less than amused at HR for allowing it to happen, but it is typical of this place to be so irsit towards its staff.
I suppose I should have seen it coming with the bonuses being so low this year, but I rely on it for my Christmas presents and to get me through January. Looks like there will be no heading for the highlands in 2005.
Meanwhile the company bigwigs sit on their million pound salaries. One of them, who shall remain anonymous (for the moment), had the cheek to buy himself a Ferrari at the same time he made the decision to ditch 25% of the workforce? No wonder someone took a key down the side of it.
I got a letter with a Sheriff Court postmark on it - my heart stopped. But it was just a letter informing me I am on the jury list for the next two years and can expect a citation. I got one of these once when I lived in Glasgow but moved to Edinburgh before I got a call-up so this should be good. It will definitely be an experience that can be used in future writing adventures.
Due to my late night walk through the ice-cold streets of Edinburgh late on Saturday night, and the fact I have no hair (by choice), I can feel myself getting stuffy and sniffly. A cold is impending so I took one of my vitamin C tabs to try and stop its progress. Time will tell but the random sneezing is doing my head in.
And it's not just me - some of the people in this office are so damn loud whether talking on the phone or sneezing or coughing or laughing out loud suddenly - I mean how's a bloke meant to get to any sleep in here?
I started sending off my batch of completed issues to my ed at KIC. From 28 onwards, stopping at 34. I have to check a couple of things for accuracy in 34 and 35, then I can get them off, probably tomorrow night. I wrote some more on 38 and redrafted 36 and 37. Almost at the half way mark now.
Speaking of which, I removed my NaNoWriMo meter from this Blog. You will see it is no longer there, a sign of my defeat in this particular exercise. I'm not deflated, I had to register to at least give it a go but I didn't have the time, being too absorbed in a giant roll of creativity surrounding Jackie. But - the story is still there, and it will be told.
I replaced it with a new status bar, which tracks the number of words completed from an expected amount. As I expect Hunting Jack to reach the region of 90k for the 9 month contract, you can see where I am in relation to this now.
I was about to go to bed and I checked my email one last time, and was delighted to see I received a response to one of the press releases I sent out at the start of the month. It was from the editor at a new publication based in the University of Paisley called The Banter and they are interested in doing something to promote Hunting Jack.
When I sent the PR to them, it was on the basis they had not published yet, so it was a chance sending it to them as no details were available on the student association website of content etc. However, I got my degree from the same Uni and so I think that may be the angle they want to play it from.
It is primarliy an news forum for the students but they wabnt to expand it to include features, so here's hoping. The Ed will be in touch end of the week and has sent me a sample copy of the magazine in PDF format. Click here to read Issue 1 of The Banter
Colin 1:05 pm
2 Comments:
Colin, sorry about the bonus thing--when I worked in retail, sometimes I got em' sometimes I didn't. It sucked. As for NaNo--it's ok. Just the fact that you tried is awesome--I couldn't do it--too much pressure!
Great news about Hunting Jack!
Great news about Hunting Jack!
I think it's despicable that company VPs/Pres. buy expensive cars and then lay off their staff and/or cut bonuses.
Don't worry about NaNo. At least you tried, eh? I didn't even try. :-)
Don't worry about NaNo. At least you tried, eh? I didn't even try. :-)