Old Weather Forum

Enjoy your short time off and hope the new venture is everything you want.
Re the painting- gotta love those wigs, UGH.

A couple people have sent PMs asking what's up with me changing jobs, so here are the details:

In late November last year, I was made redundant effective Feb 28th because my employer is doing really badly financially - they had to let a total of 65 people, or 15% of the company, go!
However, I did get something very nice: Although I am still employed and paid until Feb 28th, I didn't have to work anymore after Dec 31st, so I basically got two months paid vacation!

The new job is with FaktorZehn GmbH - they are a consulting agency, but with much better focus on work-life balance than most - I had a "technical interview" with a couple developers, and they confirmed this. Clients are insurance companies, which some people think are boring to work for but I disagree - my brother works for one, and he says you can end up doing things that really save big sums of money.
It will be 100% remote to start with, after that there may be travel to clients, but not all the time - about a few days every two weeks, according to what I was told. I've thought about this, and am OK with it, since working from home all the time gets boring after a while. Also, I got a good salary boost!

As for why it starts April 1st: During the interview, I explained that March 1st would be my earliest possible starting date, but left out the part about not having to work Jan-Feb.
So they said they would be fine with me taking March off, and starting April - and after thinking about it, I said yes. I can afford it easily, and this isn't something you get all the time, so why not?
Plus, it means I have more time for OW

Glad to hear that all is well! Were your employer's financial problems caused, at least in part, by covid?


"Plus, it means I have more time for OW "

Great to hear things are working out well for you Chris.
Enjoy your break and the new job.

Ditto!

Randi wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 8:57 pm Glad to hear that all is well! Were your employer's financial problems caused, at least in part, by covid?

Possibly, although when COVID first hit, we were told that our digital document management products were doing VERY well.
What I do know was that they changed CEOs four times in as many years, had a lot of legal/financial troubles with one subsidiary, and recently announced they were gonna leave the stock market and go private again, which according to my financial advisor is a Very Bad Sign.
I personally think they will keep declining because people are demoralized to see friends leaving (my team really felt that way about me!), and they will likely get more work, so some of them might quit, which will cause even more work and even worse morale for those left, until they quit too...
Well, it was good while it lasted, and now I got something better to look forward to.

Randi wrote: ↑Sat Feb 26, 2022 8:57 pm "Plus, it means I have more time for OW "

Addicted for life!

That's amazing news, Chris. I'm sad for your previous company, but it does sound like it's become an interesting and useful move for you. And having the pay in hand to take a bit of a work break - that's a nice treat

My kids (40yo+) tell me their generation are expected to change jobs regularly to show they are keeping up with developments. Go figure
Not in my day, a job was usually a job you could keep for life.

OW moderator travelling in style.

No use of fossil fuels there!

Love it!!!

That would be fun

Oh gosh - I'd be up for that transport - beautiful!

History editor in his workshop, constructing Journey Plotter maps.

Nice one Chris!
You see a plotted journey and it looks so tidy and interesting. This workshop shows just exactly how much goes into those elegant pieces of work. Well done the Editors, well done Maikel!

At 7:25 Launch #38 left ship with cutter & whaleboat in tow. Launch broke down & anchored – boats got adrift – sent motor dory out to pick them up. Dory launch broke down. Launch 38 returned to ship – sent Launch 38 after other boats. Launch 38 broke down soon after picking up the motor dory, but finally managed to get all boats to the Str Yukon.

This series of unfortunate events happened to the Patterson (a Phase 3 ship) on September 17th, 1914, while anchored at Goodnews Bay (heh).

Brilliant picture for this very funny story. Goodnews Bay, excellent