I left work - forever as it turned out - in 2007. Here's what I wrote in my Tandleman's Musings Blog which, was a kind of personal diary, which I must resurrect. (My beer blog didn't start until nearly 6 months later).
DWP is Department for Work and Pensions and CSA - Child Support Agency. LSA is Lytham St Annes where I worked for many years and still had staff. Tina was my Assistant.
There is a slight connection to beer. My "do" was held in the Palace, Leeds where many a pint of Ind Coope Burton Ale was supped in different and in many ways, better, times.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Old Friends, Curry and Blackout
My "do" is a jolly affair with a lot of my old team, my mates Graham and
Steve (Graham ex DWP and Steve current DWP) and former colleagues.
I even get a little chocolate present from Tina (which I later left in the Curry House) and some cuff links from my former team. I am very touched again.
As is usual with these things, by 4.30 or so, there is a hard core of boozers left and we have a merry old time before tipping out around 7.30. In between there are farewell's and best wishes issued and received from time to time. Andy and I head for the station where we have some time before our train. We wait in Wetherspoons where Andy has coffee and I have beer. I think. Or maybe I had nothing. It is getting hazy by now. Our train goes direct to Mills Hill. We totter off and Andy says " fancy a curry?" Of course I do, so we nip into the handy Modhubon where curry is ordered, taxis sorted and presents inadvertantly left!
When we get home, it is all pitch black. A power cut. We stagger about searching for candles, then something to light the candles with. We wolf the curry down and retire hiccuping to bed, me stopping only to phone the curry house. They have my goodies and I arrange to collect them today. As I finish my call, the lights come back on. What a day!
I even get a little chocolate present from Tina (which I later left in the Curry House) and some cuff links from my former team. I am very touched again.
As is usual with these things, by 4.30 or so, there is a hard core of boozers left and we have a merry old time before tipping out around 7.30. In between there are farewell's and best wishes issued and received from time to time. Andy and I head for the station where we have some time before our train. We wait in Wetherspoons where Andy has coffee and I have beer. I think. Or maybe I had nothing. It is getting hazy by now. Our train goes direct to Mills Hill. We totter off and Andy says " fancy a curry?" Of course I do, so we nip into the handy Modhubon where curry is ordered, taxis sorted and presents inadvertantly left!
When we get home, it is all pitch black. A power cut. We stagger about searching for candles, then something to light the candles with. We wolf the curry down and retire hiccuping to bed, me stopping only to phone the curry house. They have my goodies and I arrange to collect them today. As I finish my call, the lights come back on. What a day!
Game Over
Thursday is my other "going away" do. Andy arrives early and we set of
to Mills Hill station. The guard does not collect our fare, and we buy a
ticket at Rochdale where we change trains. For a very cheap £6.50 we get
a long, tedious and rattly journey to Leeds. On arrival, we walk to
Quarry House and Andy goes off to a motorcycle clothing shop and I go to
Quarry for the last time.
I have memories of this building too. I was responsible for moving all the IT into it from London and LSA and was a member of the original Steering Group that discussed all the matters pertinent to getting the place operational. I even had a hard hat tour when it was a shell. I had some great times there, met some great people and some shits and hopefully did some good work.
I walk to my room and greet Ali and Jane and sit at my desk for the last time. I log on and delete all my emails, I send one last email and log off. My smart card is handed in, my phone given to Ali who will swap the SIM for hers, as she likes mine more and my laptop also given to Ali who will take it to Warrington for disposal. It is a museum piece anyway. It has a future only as landfill. Finally, I un-divert my phone, which was diverted to my mobile. I say a quick goodbye to the CSA lasses outside my room and tell Ali and Jane I'll see them in the pub. I leave for the last time and walk away to the cash point. I don't look back!
I have memories of this building too. I was responsible for moving all the IT into it from London and LSA and was a member of the original Steering Group that discussed all the matters pertinent to getting the place operational. I even had a hard hat tour when it was a shell. I had some great times there, met some great people and some shits and hopefully did some good work.
I walk to my room and greet Ali and Jane and sit at my desk for the last time. I log on and delete all my emails, I send one last email and log off. My smart card is handed in, my phone given to Ali who will swap the SIM for hers, as she likes mine more and my laptop also given to Ali who will take it to Warrington for disposal. It is a museum piece anyway. It has a future only as landfill. Finally, I un-divert my phone, which was diverted to my mobile. I say a quick goodbye to the CSA lasses outside my room and tell Ali and Jane I'll see them in the pub. I leave for the last time and walk away to the cash point. I don't look back!
I left DWP in 2007 too, under voluntary early release after my office closed and I was declared surplus as I was outside mobility for the office where the work was relocated to, and didn't fancy the other options which included redeployment to immigration at Manchester Airport (the MoD pay office which I did apply for a job at also didn't fancy having me there, on "security grounds").
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown is now widely seen as a progressive Prime Minister who saved the British economy from the world banking crisis and subsequent downturn, and his role in laying the ideological groundwork for a decade of Tory/Lib Dem austerity by cutting what he deemed to be a hundred thousand wasteful and unnecessary jobs in the civil service, including thirty thousand in the DWP, has been almost entirely forgotten.
Where did you work in Lytham St Annes? I ask since I was born there and my father has lived there for over 90 years now, all (except for military service) in the Civil Service. I think he started in what is now MAFF but spent most of his time in the Premium Bonds.
ReplyDeleteMoorland Rd. DSS
ReplyDeleteMatt
Same happened to me really. I worked for the user side in IT - mostly in Project Management, but before that on operational stuff at LSA and previously in local offices - the complete range.
Having handed representing the users over to the suppliers, they couldn't find me anything at my grade - Grade 7 -and eventually paid me off.
Was Acting Branch Head of Infrastructure Management Group when it all went tits up.