Faceless Bureaucrat looks redundancy in the eye

Faceless Bureaucrat: The time has come to consider a Very Different Future.  My team in the NHS has been issued with our letters notifying us that we are at risk of redundancy.  They are consulting for 90 days and then will let us know for sure.

There are massive (management) redundancies taking place - unprecedented in the NHS.  So here I am on holiday in Phuket missing all the action going on at work.  There's life coaches lined up, interview and CV skills preparation training, there's counselling available for anyone feeling a bit down about the future and, even worse, I'm missing all the Christmas fun they've been putting on this week.  Apparently people have taken to wearing woolly jumpers and playing board games at lunchtime.  They've been auctioning promises and there's live comedy and canapes on Friday to cheer everyone up.

What with the fact that it's been snowing in England and the heating has apparently broken down in our offices it seems I picked a bad time to come to a place sitting on a steady 30 degrees and which I keep mistaking for paradise.

So I have instead spent my time attending meditation classes in order to improve the ability of my mind to concentrate and access the inner me or higher mind, however you like to see it.  I've gone to the gym nearly every day and had Thai massages on the beach daily too.  Of course I miss the office terribly.

I'm not trading until January 11 (11/01/11 - good binary number) as not only am I on holiday but it's all so unpredictable over the Christmas period.  I'll wait for things to settle down before putting any more money on the line and any time I have to dedicate will go on analysis and backtesting of strategies. So Bad Assed Trader is also taking a break.

I am considering my future options regarding work.  It still stands that if our team can generate sufficient income to cover our costs and can find an NHS organisation willing to host us then we won't be made redundant but this looks decidedly dicey right now.  I've made a list of contacts I may start approaching come February if necessary for possible secondment or short term contract, depending on what's happening.  I am not at panic stations yet, nor even considering taking a bus to get there.  I may be a faceless bureaucrat but I'm not a bad one at that.

Even so, I may have a lot more time to dedicate to trading come April...