Like a dog returneth to its vomit...

[venta]

A month ago, I wrote here about the demise of the company I'd worked for since leaving university.

I went through the signing-on pantomime, I looked through job adverts. I polished my CV and sent it to people.

Who almost all ignored me.

A couple of weeks back, I agreed to work for a new start-up company. It hadn't an office, or any equipment. I've been working at home for the past ten days or so, and today I went into the hastily-acquired but tiny office space. Which still doesn't have any equipment - like, say, computers - in it. I already know my immediate boss; it's the same guy who was my boss at the previous company. Similarly, the CEO making the introductory speech looked strangely familiar. In fact... all the people piled into the room were ex-colleagues. The office is - with a bit of imagination and a big lever - a stone's throw from our old building.

A handful of people - some management and some engineers - have somehow brought an entire new company into being in slightly under five weeks. It's not a carbon-copy of the old one, though it's working in the same area of technology.

So, the good news: I am employed again, working with people I know and like for a company which sounds exciting. The bad news: I'm back to the grind of two hours' commuting every day. Oh, and I drew the short straw: the stuff I was working on at the old company is not currently required, and our former documentation guy has taken a contract elsewhere. Being literate, pedantic and inclined to whinge about documentation standards I am temporarily seconded to the life of a technical author.

Of the people on the books of my previous employer when the ship went down, fewer than 10% have not elected to climb aboard the new vessel. As yet, I'm unsure whether this demonstrates amazing staff loyaly, or merely highlights what an amazingly slack bunch we were when it came to finding new jobs.

Edit When I posted this, the formatting went all to pot and I had to manually add <p> tags to make it sensible. So apologies if it gets very spacey when whatever glitch it was recovers.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Glad things are working out OK, Liz!

Cathy xxx

[(Anonymous)]

Next year we'll be millionaires.
Aardvark ;)

[marjory.livejournal.com]

Well done to you for getting another job so quickly!

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Starting a company (which you are doing, you're not just working for it) is probably a time to put in all those things you didn't have at the last place. Whatever they were sort them out, because once set 'the way things are done around here' is bloody difficult to change.

[uitlander]

Ah, welcome to a whole new world of pain and misunderstanding. I gather you're just the other side of the railway. There's a walkway through to my place - you're about 5 minutes away. Fancy lunch at some point?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I am temporarily seconded to the life of a technical author

wah! -- hope it's not for too long. And good luck with everything.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Sounds like amazing staff loyalty to me and glad that things didn't remain in the wilderness for long at all. I hope the new job is less annoying and more fun than the old one; may you all be paid generously for as long as you like!

"Who almost all ignored me"

[jennyh.livejournal.com]

I don't know who your contact here forwarded your CV to, but I've checked and it never made its way as far as my team. Its a real shame, we've been trying to find people with your skills. If you look again, tell me, I can get it to the right person here immediatly.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear it from the side of job, money and work colleagues. And I hope that it works out better this time around.

[naranek.livejournal.com]

'ey up; well done on the new job! what's your company doing?
(he says, mysteriously .. )