Post Holiday Blues

I spent the last day before I went away creating or chasing up invoices. Invoices for such small amounts of money - £100 here, £150 there. First day back at the computer after the holidays I’m completing one of the many CPD activities I’m supposed to complete. Six hours of CPD for nine hours of work in the last year. I don’t think of myself as Jack of all-trades, but I do seem to be spreading myself rather thinly. I’d like to give up the (non-health and safety related) job that this year has provided such an overhead for such little reward, but until more health and safety work turns up, I feel I have to clutch even at such flimsy straws. For advice on CPD in the IOSH/ IIRSM context see ‘Ready and able?’

The proposal I submitted back in July has been turned down. See if you can understand this. The company interview 5 people and tell us all that they want someone to work as self-employed, on a contract basis. I was the only person who prepared a proposal based on this. The other four all said they wanted to be taken on as permanent employees. I was told by the company that we were all of equal merit. So if I’m the only person offering what they want, I’d get the job, right? Wrong. They decided that despite having made people redundant this year, despite the costs of employing someone on a permanent contract, the hourly rate was cheaper, so they’d do that. I was cross, especially as I’m suspicious that my proposal will be used as a project plan by who ever did get the work, but in the end I realised I was probably better off out of it. If they can’t understand that the costs of employing that person to do the job will end up way beyond what I was going to charge there may be little hope for their business in the long term…

Still, hols were good. Two weeks with no email – just sand, sea, sun, swimming, canals and culture.