I went to work on Monday with a view to enquiring about my already belated April pay after making amendments to a private house which I was drawing up for a planning application. The weather was pallid and rainy. The skies seemed to brood throughout the whole day. Five o' clock arrived at once and so did my boss as he returned to the office from a typical day of late involving scurrying to all the project building sites and meetings to ensure that things were not going to slip behind schedule even further. He called me out for a stroll along the beach and a chat. I sensed that this was going to be one of those conversations. I did my best however to mask any anxiety by looking out to the Elbe.
Half an hour later the news that I had been expecting for about a month was revealed. I was told that this would be my last day at the office. My Hamburg dream was over. The reason imparted to me was that I was too young, too inexperienced and that they needed someone who could take over projects completely, such is the daunting workload the practice faces at the moment. So much so that my Indonesian colleague, a diploma-qualified architect who has worked here for a month, also got told to leave. Whatever the reason and despite my anticipation of an end point it still did not cushion the blow which I am still reeling from today.
Thoughts have been scrambling through my mind since then and the redundancy I am currently experiencing has come as a result of swallowing a bitter pill. One only hopes that this setback is a bittersweet one. With time the sweetness should come, but for now I'm left to fill my empty hours enjoying Hamburg (money permitting) and devising a plan to return to London.
The dream may have come to a sour end, but with loose ends still to tie up, the farewells to follow will provide much optimism for my next venture...
No comments:
Post a Comment