Uphill

Sundays are turning into bike/bird days... Out the house at 7.30 I took a meandering route to the Esk mouth at Musselburgh to watch the waders wandering (in early-morning (lack of) light, hence no photos); before grabbing a newspaper on the way back to read while watching the rugby world cup final and eat breakfast (who says blokes can't multi-task?). Then we strapped both bikes to the car and made for the borders to do a nice little loop from Ayton to Paxton and back.

Nice day all round, with this wee work issue mentioned yesterday in the back of my head the whole time. At the start of the year I was made redundant - a blessing in disguise really as I'd been trying to get out of the job for ages, with the boorish bullying boss, and 6 years of virtually no salary movement. And I land on my feet, with a great job, with a fab group of people. But it's in financial services, and I've got no experience of financial services law. Ergo a 9 month temporary contract is offered, running up to 31st December, to prove that I can learn the ins and outs.

I brought up the upcoming end of the 9 month 'trial' at my one-to-one this week, and all was in hand. They're perfectly happy with the work being produced, and the personality slotting into the team. Then everything (sort of) changed on Friday. The company is going through a massive cost-cutting exercise, and someone looking at the numbers noticed a temporary contract. Instant saving come 31st December.

So now my boss, and her boss, who both are very very keen for me to stay, have to submit a 'case' for my retention. Thing is it's not just a business/financial situation. Politically other departments have made redundancies, and so the legal department actually converting someone from temp to permanent wouldn't look good. The finance director to whom the case has to be submitted has a legal background, which either means he'll see the sense in retaining me rather than outsourcing (as they will definitely have to do) some of the work; or he'll have to show he's not showing any favouritism. All of which kinda leaves me in limbo. I might get offered a further temp contract in place of a permanent one, which I'd accept, but if it's for more than 3 months then I get a raft of employment rights when I pass 12 months which basically means I'm treated like a permanent employee, so the business may want to avoid that.

And I can't afford to be without a job come the new year, so while waiting for a business decision (which will probably take a couple of weeks) I've really got to start keeping an eye on the jobs, and getting in touch with recruitment agents again. Because Christmas is not exactly the best time to be jobhunting. It may all blow over, and I may get kept on, and that would easily be my preference. But I need to cover bases while everything is so unsettled.

Not what I wanted to hear for many many reasons. But. Onwards and upwards...

Ayton Castle
Hutton Bridge
Cycling Mel

p.s. I think this shot is similar to yesterday, with a distant rider, right at the 200mm length of the lens - it's not a series, honest!