Work is particularly oppressive today. Looming as large as Everest is the Staff Recognition Ceremony at 2.30 pm. Whilst it doesn’t involve chanting, nudity or flagellation of any type as the best ceremonies do (budget cuts, you know) it does involve reminding me that I’ve been here for over ten years (just a few months shy of 11 actually).
I can still remember the day back in 1992. It was the depths of the recession-we-had-to-have and the place I was working for went belly up. Being a poor uni student who was toying with third year studies and still needed to pay his rent I ran straight to student employment and asked if they had anything. The lovely lady behind the desk obviously saw the desperation in my eyes. “Well” she said, “we do have a position at a hospital. Applications have closed but if you get your resume to me in an hour I’ll put it in the pile.” I raced to the computer center, typed up something in Word Perfect 5.1, printed it on a dot matrix printer and ran back.
I made it, she put it and almost eleven years later I haven’t got around to leaving.
Funny old thing this life.