They gave me 3 weeks training with ( Ian ) to see if I would be suitable to this new administration role.
What in the hell is this contraption ?
With a heavy sigh , Ian explains once again that when we have typed out our reports we fax them off to the responsible managers on this fax machine, you will also receive some documents by the same method & try not to be so slow & tentative when you are on the computer, no matter what you do you can't break it.
Excuse me Ian but I have managed to freeze up this computer yet again, no problem, Les, you have probably just forgotten to ... how in the hell did you manage to get into this ... you don't even have access ... you have managed to crash the whole system...it will take me & Tony all week to rebuild the entire data base!
Well, I was just experimenting a bit, trying to teach myself some new functions & after all you did say, don't be frightened you can't harm the computer.
Despite these early setbacks, I did adapt to the role & it wasn't long before colleagues were looking to me for advice because of my practical experience in the field as a signalman.
That made it very easy, anything that involves typing, report writing or computer work, is delegated to others on shift while I take over all their responsibilities with regard to assessing & informing everyone about delays to services.
The job was really full on, you were constantly on the go from the time that you took over until the time that you signed off.
Then came a restructure, a private contractor took over all of our responsibilities with regard to dealing with the public (oh, how I was going to miss picking up the phone to hear an angry voice stating " I want to make a complaint ' ) we were freed up to concentrate on our primary role which was to deal with delays, cancellations & disruptions to services & we also monitored CCTV & dealt with security issues throughout the network answering calls from " emergency " help phones that were located at every station.
I got a promotion from this restructure & was made a supervisor.
I really did excel in the role, I had four other supervisors to work with & we were responsible for 21 staff in both the communications & security sections.
We did the rosters for both sections, their time sheets, managed their leave & guided them on how to handle different situations but the worst part for me was having to deal with their grievances, mostly personality clashes between co-workers, every little issue that was raised had to be seen to be dealt with fairly & I always managed to achieve that without having to refer any issue to higher management where someone was going to get into serious trouble. ( besides, it was too much paperwork )
All was going well until for no other reason than budgetary cuts, we have another restructure.
A dedicated security unit will be set up to deal with security issues & all supervisor positions will be abolished.
Your team numbers will be reduced & your sole responsibility will be communications.
There is a redundancy package on the table or you can revert to your previous position but you will retain your current rate of pay.
I would have loved to have been able to say yes to that pay out offer but I was only 54 years old so, financially, I just couldn't do it.
Ok , so I will take the demotion to my old job which now has a lot less responsibility, I will just go through the motions, do what I have to do & be responsible for nobody else except for myself.
That's where I am at the moment, just hanging in until I hit 60, then retire with unrestricted access to my superannuation at which time I will start booking my world cruises, so look out Pen, one of those cruisers might be coming your way.
