Saturday 11th February, 2012
As the week went on the weather didn't improve much. Overcast, cool and this morning we woke up to a sprinkling of rain. Next week the forecast is for the temperatures to climb again into the 30's. Bring it on! Oops did I just say that.........not too hot please, high 20's low 30's would be perfect.
As the week went on the weather didn't improve much. Overcast, cool and this morning we woke up to a sprinkling of rain. Next week the forecast is for the temperatures to climb again into the 30's. Bring it on! Oops did I just say that.........not too hot please, high 20's low 30's would be perfect.
We have had cloudy skies like this all week
Late yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Tony. He asked me if I was sitting down. I think I knew what was coming. He had just been told that he had been made redundant from his job. At first I was shocked, then a little disappointed but on thinking about it, it was on the cards as we had talked about it a few weeks earlier, that it may happen.
The company he worked for, Knight Frank, is predominately an office, business and warehouse leasing company. They also do Facility Managing of properties, that is go in and look after the day to day running of office buildings and such. Just recently Knight Frank have lost the contracts to manage five properties within the city area including the Central Market. The building that Tony looked after, Westpac House, was not one of the five properties they lost.
At their last FM meeting they were told that the company had lost these five contracts, they were also told that the Company was contracting to have other buildings to manage. Tony didn't believe that they were too serious into wanting to get more as they seem to be winding back the Facility Managing side of the business. When Tony first went to work for Knight Frank back in 1998 they had some 15 FM's.
It is also the case that whenever a company loses out to another company for the managing of a building, it is usual for the FM to transfer to the new company. This happened to Tony back in 2009. Knight Frank lost the contract to manage Westpac House. It was given to Global Facility Management and so Tony transferred and worked for Global for about 18 months until Knight Frank took the contract back again. Tony was then re-employed by Knight Frank.
The company he worked for, Knight Frank, is predominately an office, business and warehouse leasing company. They also do Facility Managing of properties, that is go in and look after the day to day running of office buildings and such. Just recently Knight Frank have lost the contracts to manage five properties within the city area including the Central Market. The building that Tony looked after, Westpac House, was not one of the five properties they lost.
At their last FM meeting they were told that the company had lost these five contracts, they were also told that the Company was contracting to have other buildings to manage. Tony didn't believe that they were too serious into wanting to get more as they seem to be winding back the Facility Managing side of the business. When Tony first went to work for Knight Frank back in 1998 they had some 15 FM's.
It is also the case that whenever a company loses out to another company for the managing of a building, it is usual for the FM to transfer to the new company. This happened to Tony back in 2009. Knight Frank lost the contract to manage Westpac House. It was given to Global Facility Management and so Tony transferred and worked for Global for about 18 months until Knight Frank took the contract back again. Tony was then re-employed by Knight Frank.
None of the guys who have lost their buildings have transferred over to the new companies it seems. Apparently there may be some more job losses for a couple more of the FM's.
Currently they have a total of nine Facility Managers working for them. Some of the guys look after multiple buildings. With the five buildings gone, they did not have enough work to sustain keeping the nine Facility Managers and with Tony being their oldest FM among the guys (he is at retirement age) they thought that he should be the first one to let go.
Needless to say Tony was shocked and disappointed. He loved his job. He was also annoyed that he had only just recently knocked back the job offer in Brisbane. As the building was going through a major overhaul he thought he would do the right thing and stay and see it through. Other factors also came into play as to why he didn't accept the job, like accomodation, sorting out our affairs here with the house etc, and them wanting him in Brisbane within a couple of weeks.
Oh well we just have to grin and bear it and get ready to write the next chapter in our lives. I don't believe that Tony is quite ready to totally give up working yet, but we will see after the next few months. He may enjoy being home with me too much. I know that I am going to love having him around, I'll get spoilt even more, making me breakfast every day and getting my coffee, helping me with the housework......hehehehe.
Next week will be a case of running around and getting our financial affairs in order, then after a few weeks for Tony to settle in to his new life we may look at going away for a while, maybe to Western Australia. Who knows where this may lead, we may become part of the Grey Nomads.
This morning we got up early. Neither of us slept too much last night as we had so much running through our minds. We headed out early to the Plaza to get a few things and then went and called into Robyn and Bob's place. Robyn was working.
We stayed for awhile and then we had plans to go to Outer Harbour as the Queen Mary 2 was in port for the day. She is one of the largest cruise ships to visit Adelaide. Bob asked us to come back later and we would go out for dinner. So we left there around 2.30pm, went down to see the ship, and then went back to Robyn and Bob's place.
Currently they have a total of nine Facility Managers working for them. Some of the guys look after multiple buildings. With the five buildings gone, they did not have enough work to sustain keeping the nine Facility Managers and with Tony being their oldest FM among the guys (he is at retirement age) they thought that he should be the first one to let go.
Needless to say Tony was shocked and disappointed. He loved his job. He was also annoyed that he had only just recently knocked back the job offer in Brisbane. As the building was going through a major overhaul he thought he would do the right thing and stay and see it through. Other factors also came into play as to why he didn't accept the job, like accomodation, sorting out our affairs here with the house etc, and them wanting him in Brisbane within a couple of weeks.
Oh well we just have to grin and bear it and get ready to write the next chapter in our lives. I don't believe that Tony is quite ready to totally give up working yet, but we will see after the next few months. He may enjoy being home with me too much. I know that I am going to love having him around, I'll get spoilt even more, making me breakfast every day and getting my coffee, helping me with the housework......hehehehe.
Next week will be a case of running around and getting our financial affairs in order, then after a few weeks for Tony to settle in to his new life we may look at going away for a while, maybe to Western Australia. Who knows where this may lead, we may become part of the Grey Nomads.
This morning we got up early. Neither of us slept too much last night as we had so much running through our minds. We headed out early to the Plaza to get a few things and then went and called into Robyn and Bob's place. Robyn was working.
We stayed for awhile and then we had plans to go to Outer Harbour as the Queen Mary 2 was in port for the day. She is one of the largest cruise ships to visit Adelaide. Bob asked us to come back later and we would go out for dinner. So we left there around 2.30pm, went down to see the ship, and then went back to Robyn and Bob's place.
Wow the ship was impressive! Enormous, in fact. The roads around the Harbour were very busy with heaps of sightseers. I still don't know if cruising is for me.....maybe a couple of days on board would be alright but I would have to have a cabin with windows and fresh air. The ship returns again on March 3rd and so we are going to go back to see it leave then.
The ship dwarfs the terminal building
This is the life raft. I thought they were more the size of a dinghy
It is hard to comprehend how a ship, I know it wasn't as large as this one, is able to be capsized just off the coast of Italy, like what happened a few weeks ago. Unimaginable! Just imagining this one rolling onto its side is.......I shudder at the thought.
Bob had booked us into the Roseworthy Hotel for dinner. It is a small country pub not too far from Gawler. The meal was very nice, Tony and I had satay chicken, Robyn had calamari and Bob had his usual steak.
After we finished eating there we drove over to Two Wells, guess what for? Coffee? Yeah, well that too. We had to have Dessert Pizza!!! We ordered the Fererro Roche again, but this time made it a large one. Ooohhhh it was so nice! We all complained about eating too much, but not one of us complained about the pizza. It is so worth it!
We dropped Robyn and Bob back home. We didn't stay as it was getting late. Not having had much sleep last night we were hoping for a better night's sleep tonight. Tomorrow we are going back to Outer Harbour as there will be three cruise ships in port. A rare sight for Adelaide.
Crikey ..... that is some news. I was talking to a friend the other day about how unwanted outcomes usually turn out well in the end. "It's just that it hurts like hell at the time," she said. Too right. Here's hoping that Tony will look back on this decision soon and realise that it worked out for the best.
ReplyDelete