uh oh

The Sous Chef has had a visit from HR at his office today. That’s generally not a good sign, so I’m not hugely surprised by the news that his team are going to be either redeployed or made redundant.

He’s been at that job for more then ten years now and it’s been so convenient that he could cycle to work every day. He lives an easy 12 mile cycle ride away from his office. But more than that, we share our cycle routes as he cycles right past where I work. That means we get to cycle into work together like the love birds we are each morning and meet up to cycle home again at 5.30, just about every working day.

We also depend on his salary. I earn peanuts doing my admin job, as my contract is term time only and a mere 30 hours per week at that. My monthly pay packet is a three figure sum. If he can’t find something that pays reasonably, I’ll probably have to quit my job to find something better paid. It suited me for its easy working hours, while I concentrated on studies. It’s not enough to live on.

But I don’t feel bleak about the news of the Sous Chef’s redundancy. He hasn’t enjoyed his job for years and the only reason he hasn’t already left is because he’s supporting me through my degree before we go on our world trip on our bikes next year. He decided to stay in his reasonably well paid job despite hating it in order to build up a travel fund for our trip. He’s been putting away half his salary every month toward that. I have also been saving half of my earnings (yes, one half peanut every month) to be the cushion for when we return.  I hope we don’t have to dip into that to live on. We can live quite frugally, since we don’t run a car.

At least it’s a job he hates. I’ve been made redundant quite a few times and it’s always been a good thing in hindsight. The uncertainty is nervewracking but opportunities come up. I’ve never lost a job I shouldn’t have jacked in already anyway. I’ve always gone on to do better and more interesting things.  It’s a bit like being a plant and not realising you needed repotting.

But the uncertainty IS neverwracking. We can’t just up and and go travelling until my exams are finished. I don’t complete my final course for my BSc until January. That is the earliest we can go.

I haven’t had a long chat with him yet about what next or how he feels about it. I should think he has mixed feelings about this as I do. I have to admit, despite an optimistic bent, I also feel a bit frightened.