I think it is time to reflect on the blip on my career which occured this year; and I will be posting several articles on life in the bleak opportunities here in the south. I have thought a lot in the past weeks and while my comments may anger, confuse, or cause me to be ridiculed, these opinions are mine, generated at the sharp end of recent experience. I used to keep a paper diary in the past but the intert interface of a keyboard and screen seems a logical place to record things - how times have changed.
So my career came to a grinding halt on the 30th June 2011? I think not, and perhaps I have been watching too many episodes of the X-FIles, as there is a path emerging in my thoughts my redundancy is nothing more than a usurping of my role by a lecturer who only knows a library from a user perspective rather than a qualified career professional, and openly declared war in a meeting on 17th March 2011. At this meeting he presented a highly negative portrayal of the library service without prior notice, I would like to think, to either myself or our line manager. Fortunately my blood pressure is excellent and though this made me at my angriest for some years at Highbury, the paper was withdrawn until the required discussions had been completed, which of course they never were.
Then on the 6th April the department of IT & Library Services were called to a compulsory meeting about the state of the College finances and all present heard the department manager declare in his view no redundancies were to occur in the team. A colleague from elsewhere in Highbury had a similar assurance from a more senior figure at a discussion the same week. Strange then two days later, I came into work on Friday 8th, to a concerned library team who had read an email sent the previous night, naming my post redundant. So in my view my employment ended there, in April, and not later in June. As I played the game of being pliant and smiling through gritted teeth, I prepared my battleground against insurmoutable odds, knowing the outcome was already fixed, though legally this is not possible, but the result was as written, and more disappointments, unexpected ones, followed.
Next instalment will be a brief tirade about the redundancy announcing email. Don't get me wrong, I love libraries, it is my career and training, but my redundancy was also an attack on my wife and twin boys. Libraries are always the soft target in challenging economic times, but now removing or downgrading professionals, this business is getting personal. I have been able to resume a great voluntary library role with spare time between job hunting, but the employment market has changed since I was last in it back in 1996 and am having to change with it.
