True but in some rural spots they’d be at fuck all.
Snigger
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Too shay
Dont they have to serve their time in Dublin or some hellhole before being sent off to some rural outpost?
Fact.
I did. I really did. For a good 6-7 years.
Then July happened. Arrived into work on a Monday that felt pretty normal. Got an email from a lad on my team asking me if I’d seen an email. No I said. Went and had a look. My bosses bosses boss was asking for a bit of our time. Him and a person from HR. 
My team was split between US and Ireland. Not too far from 50/50. My boss and his boss and a bunch of my team mates were US based. When America woke up we asked them if they had a similar email. They did.
We had our meeting. Two options. Change your role to a more technical job or take redundancy. As it turned out it landed perfectly in a window where my house was half built and my mortgage was half drawn down. Taking redundancy in the middle of that with a pregnant wife wasn’t really an option. So I took the new role knowing that it’s not a role I’m compatible with. About half my Irish team mates took the money. Many of them had been there 20+ years, so big payoff to leave.
The US lads. Pack up your shit and gtfo. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. European labour laws are really valuable for us on this side of the Atlantic.
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t deadwood on our team. In fact a few of us had many a time suggested that there could be a few let go and it wouldn’t have much impact. But this was an incredibly heavy handed version of what we had talked about.
It’s 8 months on now and I’m more convinced than ever that the new job isn’t for me. I’m actively trying to get back to the role I had been doing. I have been applying for things, all internal. I’m not leaving for free after having to turn down 18 years of redundancy only a few months ago. I’m confident I’ll find a new role and I’ll get back to doing what I enjoy. Right now, it’s not very enjoyable. Just about tolerable. But as my old mate Braz often reminds me, if work was meant to be fun, you’d pay them to do it.
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I got done at the start of 2023. Bought by a new company our biggest competition and they basically got rid of the whole lot of us. Was madness they got rid of lads that were unreal at their jobs and had destroyed them in their markets, and kept their own lads who had been bate to death by the lads they were getting rid of.
Like yourself I was saved by Irish labour laws. God bless them. There was only a handful of us in the Irish company and they had to look after us. The rest of them just got fired on the spot basically. I could have slow rolled it a while as they were following their HR guide book to make sure they were compliant. It was actually funny I googled it myself and it was like they were following it step by step offering me new roles etc. But it would have involved me moving country and they didn’t really want us either. I could have pulled a few more months out of it doing fuck all. They actually wouldn’t let me work, which was right up my street. But I was lucky enough.
Got a new job while the fuck acting was going on and basically started the day they made me redundant, was able to get a few quid for my troubles for making it easy for them and all was okay.
The new job is grand. It’s a job. I’m fairly happy. Working from home which is worth a lot of money to me. As far as I’m concerned if you go to bed on a Sunday and you don’t dread it, it’s a good job. I had that before and it was horrendous there’s nothing pay you for that. Some people are looking for their “calling” I think that’s nonsense to be honest. Work will always be work. Find your happiness somewhere else.
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Would they ever (possibly) be required to knock on some poor mother’s door at 4 o clock in the morning? Or attend the scene of the cause for that knock?
Like a Ballyseedy
Yes. My father spent 15 years I think in a rural Kilkenny village. He loved it but that was a different era. There was a lot of respect for guards then. He had to knock on the door of his best friend’s house down there to let his wife know that her husband died in a car crash.
Looking at the current pay conditions and the job they’ve to do, I wouldn’t see much attraction in it.
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I’ve a friend in the job down that way. The case of a lifetime was how he described it
So do I. I’d not be a Garda for any money. The things they see, the things they do, the people they meet. It takes a certain type. Or an idiot ago didn’t realise what they were letting themselves in for.
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I’ve cousins who are Gardaí, three out of my four uncles on the mothers side were Gardaí, tough life, not easy, but the cousins knew what they were getting themselves into. One described it as taking on the fathers trade.
This exactly
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I’m verging on the dread zone… Hovering just above it.
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I enjoy these TFK moments when posters set aside their INTERNET persona bravado & share some real insight into their lives/careers etc.
I’ve a bit of a reckoning coming myself. Our place is essentially winding down on a phased basis so there’s no origination or new lending, it’s managing/running off the existing book & trying to sell the transactions we’re in.
We’ve probably 18-24 months left & the company in fairness is open to paying for training/courses in both related & unrelated fields so people can get ready for their next role. They’ve also committed to giving people 12 months’ notice that their specific job will become obsolete & most people are happy to hang on for the tap on the shoulder & redundancy.
In the meantime, there’s folk doing all sorts of company funded weekend & evening diplomas/certificates/degrees but I just can’t be arsed due to my parenting & fun running responsibilities. Aside from the driving theory test (!), I haven’t sat an exam since my chartered accountancy finals in 2004 & I’ve no intention of changing that any time soon.
I’ll be more inclined to procrastinate & just drift into something else. I’ve mentioned before that it would be nice to work in an area you’re actually interested in but that ship has sailed - I don’t want to give up my time to qualify over a period of years & I don’t want to sacrifice too much financially either by taking a more junior role in a new field.
But it’s a potentially tricky one when you’re early/mid 40s & roughly halfway through your working life. It’s a bit of a poker game in job interviews where you have to put across how ambitious & dynamic you are (because we’re too far out from retirement) when I just want to tip tap away on my spreadsheets quietly.
The last thing I want is to talk myself into some highly stressful position so I need to find something strictly 9-5.30 where it’s commonly accepted that work is done between 10-12 & 2-4. Having some insight into the places you’re interviewing for & finding folk on the same level is key. I’ll have to up my NETWORKING game to make inroads here.
It could be considered wishing your life away when you’re just looking for a role to pay the bills for the next chunk of years. But I see it more as wishing my working life away so I can arse around & do the things I like, hang out with the people I love/like/tolerate without having work angst hanging over me.
Each to their own though - lots of my peers are forging hugely successful careers & really grafting very hard on an ongoing basis. But did they get to spend at least 1 hour on Monday over around 8 separate incidences bursting out laughing at @Gman ’s immortal post on Liverpool’s average age being misleading because the calculation includes their 4 oldest players?
Did they fuck?
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Finance guy type role in a professional services firm (not accountant) may suit you?
Could you become one of these full time running influencer types? You could be a brand ambassador for Lululemon or something.
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You also wouldn’t be picking up handy likes on TFK before your mid morning Nespresso
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