Sayonara to the work place

“So its goodbye to the sunshine, goodbye to the dew,
Goodbye to the flowers, and goodbye to you.
I'm off to the subway. I must not be late.
I'm going to work in tall buildings.”

John Hartford - Tall Buildings

For me it’s hello to the sunshine - it’s a scorcher this New Year’s Eve in Melbourne - and hello to the flowers and goodbye to the Department, I’ll no longer work in tall buildings.

Yes, today was my last working day. I’m all set for a 10 month holiday using up recreation leave and long service leave credits, after which I will officially retire from the workforce.

God knows what I’ll do with myself, but I’m sure something will occur to me to occupy my time for however long I’ve got left. But firstly I’ll enjoy winding down , chilling out and forgetting the stresses of training a new person in my job over the past few months, and particularly the past week.

I’ve got plenty of new books to read, having scored a number of books for Christmas by way of gift vouchers, which of course I’ve redeemed.

Anyway, this New Year’s Eve will be a memorable one for me, even though I’m not planning on doing anything special.

Whoopee! No more work.

I also wish readers of this blog just as memorable an occasion and love , peace and happiness in 2011.

Greetings from the Coalface

Today finds me at work on the second day of hopefully my last year in the workforce.

Just before Christmas we were compelled to move, once again, one floor up to make room for new employees engaged in Nation Building. At least my section only had to move floors, as the desks we are now occupying used to belong to employees forced to move to another building altogether.

After sitting at my former desk for three years or so, it takes a bit of getting used to. One has to remember to press the correct floor button in the lift, and get accustomed to the layout of the new floor, which admittedly is pretty much the same as the old one, but with slight variations. We still have small partitioned workspaces, though I must admit this new desk space has room for a bookcase on which to pile stuff. It’s an improvement, in fact.

Anyway, I tell myself that it’s only for a year and then I can depart forever into blissful retirement, so these minor glitches hardly bother me. Truth to tell I’m sick of work and bored with what I do there and I have a problem seeing eye to eye with my boss.

Toil on I must and simulate professional dedication, even if I long for freedom.

Fortunately there is the first in store of the year at Basement Discs this Thursday lunchtime to look forward to. It promises to be a good one – when are they not? US rockabilly artist Rosie Flores is the performer this week. I saw her many years ago at the Continental. She’s only doing a few small shows this time as she is not officially touring. A fan is bringing her from New Zealand where she has been on a writing holiday.

So Melburnians, if you’re not doing anything at 12.45pm on Thursday take this rare opportunity to see Rosie Flores live.

Also not to be missed, Charlie Parr, ace guitarist and highly engaging country blues artist, will be performing at Basement Discs later this month.

I was pleased to discover today that Mary Gauthier is scheduled for two concerts in Melbourne. One is at the East Brunswick Club on 26th March, the same date as Lyle Lovett’s concert, so I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get a chance to see her. Now I find out she’ll be doing a show at the Brunswick Town Hall as part of the Brunswick Music Festival program.

The Situation – art imitates life (or life imitates art)

About a month ago I downloaded the online version of Jeff VanderMeer’s novella The Situation and read it. It seemed appropriate that I read it at work, here on the 25th Floor of a building housing the large bureaucracy from whom I earn my daily bread. I found The Situation to be a delightful reading experience and very true to the situation I work in every day. Jeff’s story is a surreal satire on corporate life and the people one is obliged to work with – the many betrayals and shifting alliances inherent in this type of industry. I was so impressed by The Situation I ordered a copy of the book and it arrived two weeks ago. As a physical object it’s a lovely little book with fantastic cover art by Scott Eagle.

You can order it from PS Publishing here.

There’s a great review of it on OFBlog of the Fallen here.

The following email message, which landed in my inbox last week, could almost have been written by a character in The Situation.

Dear All,

After much consideration I have decided not to attend M's function. I am writing to let you know that I would be happy to " break bread" with any of you at any time and I am not being anti-social per se but the reason for non-attendance is a deliberate snub to M.; my attempt at a protest if you like.

A lot has gone on behind the scenes regarding incidents emanating from my unpleasant encounters with L S and I hold an opinion that M has treated me very badly and unfairly. So much so that I have come to this considered position. I told M a couple of days ago that I will not be coming to his lunch.

Recently I clearly outlined my concerns to M and I requested that I wanted him to apologise to me in the presence of E D over certain matters but M is sticking to his ideas of how he perceives the world. We have diametrically opposed opinions about some certain matters.

Thankfully, M will not be able to do me any more harm once he retires. I also hope that he is not invited to the staff Christmas party this year either.

K

Myself, I keep a low profile here at work, and even if I have no close friends I don’t have enemies either. There are some people whom I pretend don’t exist and who do likewise to me, but in the main I get on alright with my colleagues, unlike the LS mentioned in the above email message, who had a talent for making enemies wherever she worked. I remember a staff meeting a year or so ago, where she managed to insult two fellow staff members and disgust the rest in less than 30 minutes. Normally I’m bored to death in these staff meetings, so it was certainly a memorable occasion and a more interesting meeting than I’ve before or since attended.

Moving Shop

It just so happens that today there is a big change in my workplace. We’re moving.
The picture shows the current state of my workspace where in a frenzy of packing, all around me are boxes, boxes and more boxes.

We are moving from the west end of town to the east end of town. The town, or more accurately the city, is Melbourne in the State of Victoria, Australia. I work for the Victorian government as a humble public servant. We've been in this building for nine years.

I am not really looking forward to the change in workplace. We are going to a newly built multi-storey construction where they are squashing in a whole Department. Up to now, the Department has been spread over several buildings, so space will be a problem and our work cubicles will be much smaller with no allowances for storage. After all, we’re supposed to be a paperless office. Ha Ha!

Speaking of the Victorian Government, yesterday brought news of the retirement of the current Opposition leader, the Hon Robert “Headmaster” Doyle. This is good news and bad news. The current ruling party are leftist (sort of) and would have shooed it in at the elections later this year had Doyle still been leader of the Conservatives as he was pretty ineffectual. Whoever they choose to replace him will not be much better unless, as is mooted, Jeff Kennett returns to the fold.

Jeff Kennett was Premier of Victoria for 7 years and eventually made himself very unpopular with the electorate. He basically sold off the State and introduced draconian workplace laws long before John Howard, who only recently has managed to ram through his own draconian industrial relations policy. Despite being unpopular with a vast majority of the electorate, Jeff Kennett had his supporters none the less and managed to win two elections.

Kennett has personality plus, in an abrasive way, so he will no doubt enliven the appallingly bland Liberal Party and, at the worst, make them noticeable.

I remember the Kennett years very well. Being a state public servant then as now, we were put through the hoops by his government. They were awful years. Despite that, we found humour in the situation by coining several expletives to express our dissatisfaction with the times.

“I’ve had a Kennett of a day” was one. “Get Jeffed” was another.

Kennett even had the temerity to plaster his face everywhere. Driving from the airport there above an overpass was Jeff’s ugly mug. However, he soon abandoned the idea when the hoardings were defaced every time they were put up. Jeff’s face was always given a Hitler moustache.

Colourful times perhaps, but we don’t’ want them back. Coupled with Howard in power in Canberra, a Kennett government would be a double whammy of conservative politics. Aargh!

UPDATE!
While writing this Jeff Kennett has declined the honour of leading the party, so we can briefly breathe a sigh of relief.