Cuts

I'm sitting at the kitchen window watching Mr KE downstairs fiddling with the innards of our little car. He's so cute when he gets out all his spanners, pliers etc. He doesn't really know what he's doing, but with the help of the internet, anything is possible, right?

I'm still very busy at work although there is a overall feeling of pessimism as the country seems to be heading towards a long recession. On Monday, all the staff were all called to a meeting (actually it was more of an announcement) and told that the outlook was bad for the next 18 months. Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

The dreaded R word (redundancies) was not mentioned but it was highlighted that 80% of our costs are staff costs. The London and other SE offices are doing OK but the Northern offices are in dire straits. Unfortunately, the company can't just shut down the Glasgow office (for example) because of long leases on company premises and also because it wants to maintain a presence throughout the UK.

So the pain has to be spread throughout all the offices. Realistically, this means that every office will have redundancies, even London. I have heard off-the-record that a list has already been drawn up although staff will be told that everyone is at risk. The word is that the cuts will be at all levels - from top to bottom. The redundancies will also be made at the same time; so not 2 or 3 one month and then 2 or 3 next month etc which generally leads to widespread breakdown of morale. Short and swift is the aim. Let's wait and see.