The wide open sea

I have news!

I recently had the chance to leave my job on very good terms financially. Although it’s a bit scary to strike out by myself, the opportunity was too exciting to pass up, and so I applied for voluntary redundancy*. I leave tomorrow (Friday)!

If I’m frugal the money should support me for many months, perhaps nearly a year. I’m very lucky: I’m single, no children, no responsibilities and no debts apart from a small mortgage. (And it’s amazing how expensive it is actually going to work: clothes, travel, food…)

A rather intense, extrovert friend asked me what my plans were. What sort of work did I enjoy? What job did I intend to do now? Put on the spot I was able only to stammer ineffectually that I didn’t really want another job and make a lame joke that girls just wanna have fun.

So what are my plans? Well first let me borrow a story from a post at Abbey of the Arts which came at just the right time for me (as these things do):

A woman once had a goldfish bowl and she enjoyed watching the fish swim around in its small space.  One day the goldfish bowl needed to be cleaned and so she filled the bathtub as a place to put the fish while she cleaned out its bowl.  She was surprised to notice that the fish stayed at one end of the bathtub, swimming only in small circles, about the size of the bowl it lives in.

I’ve had a couple of approaches from headhunters about other City jobs. And warning bells are clanging. Am I to be a goldfish swimming in a circle back to the office environment and the safety of conventional money earning, or can I be a dolphin playing in the open ocean?

Well of course I want to be a dolphin, but I’m going to have to make sure I’m brave enough to ride the big waves.

So back to my plans. First among them is less DOING and more BEING. I’m workaholic, always have been. My identity has been largely tied up with my role at work. That has to change: I have to be. Me.

I want to find ways of earning just enough money to live comfortably yet simply. And I want to stop drawing such a sharp distinction between paid work and what I do for fun. I want to do more writing, express myself in my art, make things (I have a yen to make soap, for example), learn to be a really good public speaker, get involved in environmental politics, sit and think, read, cook, be hospitable. I want to follow my heart.

Wish me luck!

Original image by gregmote

*An explanation of the phrase ‘voluntary redundancy’ for American readers who may not be familiar with it: in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe), employees have a great deal of protection under the law. An employer needing to reduce the size of a workforce cannot just tap people on the shoulder and say “you’re out, go”. In the UK, an employer has to consult with elected employee representatives and agree an exercise in which a certain number of employee roles are potentially redundant – no longer required. Only then can job losses actually begin. Employers are required to make at least statutory minimum compensation payments.

When choosing who should go, some employers, like mine, ask for volunteers. Some, like mine, offer far more than the statutory minimum payments, both to those who are ‘voluntarily’ and ‘compulsorily’ redundant. The advantages to the employer of offering voluntary redundancy are that it creates better morale by minimising the number who are forced to go when they don’t want to, and that those who might go anyway self-select, leaving behind people who are more committed to a career with the employer.

NB: if by chance any employment law specialists are reading this, I know it’s more complicated than this, but I’d need a whole new essay!

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