Counting Blessings....

[JulieSherris]

So, hubby had a meeting at work yesterday - it was expected.... and the workforce had a choice of options.
1) 20 workers to take voluntary redundancy
2) All workers drop their shift allowances, & change shift patterns to fall in with the standard 39 hr week.....

So, option 2 was voted on & from 3rd Feb, hubby gets to work 3 x 13 hour shifts each week

Which means that he'll be home 4 days a week here, just in time to really get a move on getting the garden ready for the coming growing season - yay!

So, instead of doom & gloom in our house, we're actually celebrating... are we mad?

I just think that it could have been worse - each night on the news another company is shutting it's doors - I know it may only be a matter of time before hubby's firm goes the same way, but in the meantime, he has a reprieve, so we're feeling fairly happy at the moment.

So - does anyone else count their blessings when they get so called 'bad news'?

[pumpy]

11 months ago, i was made redundant & as OH is registered disabled, it meant that we would be living on benefits. Well, in that time i've learnt to make bread & beer, expanded the veg patch four-fold, aquired a dog ( which means i get to walk in the forest for about one hour everyday), spent more time on the wood-lathe,& with increasing prices, we're hardly any worse off. Especially as i seem to be spending far too much time at the doctors/hospital just lately, & would have been spending a fortune on prescriptions etc..........redundancy?, Ha! don't know how i ever had the time for a job anyway!!

[eccentric_emma]

yes, well Julie as you saw on facebook I got made redundant today! So after a while of wallowing in self pity I was actually quite pleased because I was leaving at the end of Feb anyway, so hopefully I'll get a bit of a payment and now I have the time to sort out packing up my house before me and my husband go travelling for 3 months!

So yes I guess you could say I count my blessings too!

[red]

So - does anyone else count their blessings when they get so called 'bad news'?

yes - I think this is what 'luck' actually is... its seeing the best in the situation. of course sometimes things are just so pants there is no best, but a lot of the time, you can see thigns this way.

I remember once on holiday in our van, we exited a castle grounds by the wrong exit, and ended up walking all the way around the moat and everything, and it was hot, so we had to buy drinks.. moaning about getting away later than planned. jumped in the van, and drove off,.. came across a really nasty (fatal) accident.. that we might have been in if only we had got away on time..

so sometimes when total carp things happen, I say well, maybe we are missing something even worse...

[Camile]

Ah redundancies !

I love them ! that is one of the best things that has ever happened to me ... because I always bounced back right after them .. and I've been through 3 of them by now .. in 9 years ! it could have been 4 if I hadn't left a company 2 months before they announced it ..

The last one was back in July 2007 ... and it was the best move of all .. no need to commute 35 miles twice a day no more ...

I got a nice package (paid for a new kitchen and solar evacuated tubes) .. took a nice year off to mind the smallholding ... and in that time I learnt how to milk cows, make cheese, brew booze, make bread, kill lambs ducks and geese, getting the hang of the polytunnel ... amongst other things ...

and now I found a lovely community scheme employment since september last year .. supposidely working 4 hours a day, but barely do 2 then go home because there is nothing to do ... loving it ..

and the joy of it is that it's 5 miles away from home ...

and we now earn half of what we used to .. and end up being better off ...

I love redundancies !

Good luck to you all .
Camile

[Odsox]

Yep, I also love redundancy
I was made redundant 15 years ago and haven't yet found the time to go looking for another job, let alone apply for one.
And I would like to point out that for the last 15 years I have had zero income, no unemployment or benefits of any kind. We have an arrangement, OH goes to work to earn the money to pay for the essentials and I stay at home and grow all our vegetables, tend the animals, do the cooking and spend far too long on the internet typing messages to 'ish
Never been so happy, on fine days I'm out in the garden working at my own pace and on days like today when it's chucking it down, I shall hide away in my radio room and waffle to other radio hams around the world.
And if the worst happens and OH gets made redundant, at least we should be in a better position than most, her unemployment benefit should continue to pay for the essentials and we carry on as normal.
Thank goodness there's no council tax or rates in Ireland, were we still living in our old house in England we would have to pay getting on for £2,000.00 a year for council tax, water rates and sewerage rates ... here no council tax, private water supply and septic tank and with the weak sterling prices are actually going down for most things.
So, yeah ...recession, redundancy ... no worries mate.

[Green Aura]

I'm constantly amazed at how much people identify themselves through their job - even though they often hate it - and completely pan when they get made redundant.

I've never been made redundant (NHS don't do that much) and I can have a tendency to doom and gloom at times. But never when faced with a potential crisis. For me it's not so much counting my blessings as getting some satisfaction from not only surviving but improving our lot.

When OH and I graduated, in the mid 90s, the bank came down heavily quite quickly about our overdraft - they wanted us to take out a loan to pay it off. I still fume about it - I still don't think £1500 between two of us, for 4 years study ( in OH case) was excessive, and we both had jobs! But they closed our account leaving us with just the cash in our pockets.

We found ourselves with something like £30 to feed ourselves for the month (we had a few bits in the cupboards and freezer - but not much). I actually got a buzz out of planning the menu, ticking it off as we went through it.

It was around that time we looked out onto our jungle and had our first serious go at growing veg - not that it benefited us then of course. I also learned to make the most from everything we had - and not just food. Start of my ish life I suppose.

[Loobyloo]

We've got potential homelessness to thank for putting us on the right path (and Clara for introducing me to Wwoofing!) our plan is still in the early stages but has the potential to be truly life changing.

What looked like being the worst thing that has ever happened to us has turned out to be the best!

[invisiblepiper]

Good for you for celebrating Julie!
We are coping Ok wiyh my OH's halved income - (That or redundancy).
My daughter will now get some funding for University - we had been £125 per year above the cut off. He is still working locally and cycles in the better weather - the cycle network passes our frony door. I am beginning to get commissions for work. we are eating more healthily as I continue to make all food from scratch.
watch out garden - here I come!

[Uller]

My OH was made redundant at Christmas - second time in 3 years. He received a bit of redundancy pay and it was the boost he needed to set up his own business - now gets to work at home with a view over the garden and the dog at his feet. It is very early days, but there is some money coming in and I'm actually enjoying cutting spending, making from scratch or just making do etc.

With any luck, the redundancy pay will just end up being a nice boost to our saving and things will be better than ever.

I have another friend who was told last week they might be made redundant. Was miserable on Friday, but after a long talk with the wife over the weekend is now looking forward to the opportunities it might bring - shorter working hours, less stress, change of career. He now thinks he might be disappointed if he is not one of those who loses their job!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Julie - well done for being so positive! With an attitude like that I doubt you have anything to fear.

[MuddyWitch]

And we thougt we were weird for being dissapointed when hubby wasn't made redundant last time...

Fingers crossed for this round

MW

[pumpy]

And we thougt we were weird for being dissapointed when hubby wasn't made redundant last time...

Fingers crossed for this round

MW

In the nicest way, good luck, if it's what you hope for.

[JulieSherris]

Julie - well done for being so positive! With an attitude like that I doubt you have anything to fear.

Hmmm... Jon, I've had time to ponder this.... he's going to be home FOUR days a week......
now, if that isn't something to fear, I don't know what is!

[JulieSherris]

MW - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you too - will be nice going visiting to someone who has a 'normal' accent, & has pork pies in the fridge