Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Thursday 2 February 2017

Careering away

Now I can't afford lunch in my old office
After three years working in a bank I realised that every day was the same, every day stretching out over years, and I was so bored I was prepared to do almost anything else, although while looking for my second job I did interview with a Pension Actuary, I was so bored I almost feel asleep in the interview!   Word processors were still a long way in the future so I was limited to jobs that didn't need me to write anything.   I ended up working for the Michelin Tyre Company in a commercial accounts related role. In my first department there we had a Data Input Clerk, a Junior Clerk, three Commercial Clerks a Supervisor and a Manager, later all except the Manager were replaced with a P.C.

The Suit
Mostly I enjoyed the work, I liked the Company and if they hadn't moved location to North London would have stayed with them a lot longer.   I worked in three different departments over a period of seven years ending up in the technical support department.   I was always office based which I did find a little frustrating but did enjoy some odd outings, occasionally even dressed up in "The Suit".   This has led me on occasion to claim that I was a model for a rubber goods company; it also got me into a few race meetings that would otherwise have cost a lot of money to get a worse view.

When in 1979 I started with Michelin there was still an assumption that this would be a job for life, the Company were quite paternal and seemed to care.   By the mid eighties everything had changed, finances were everything, the fine old office building was sold and any staff who didn't want to move were made redundant.   This I consider to be the end of my first career.   My small redundancy payment meant that I could start out on my own doing something on my own account, the only question was what?

I recently realised that I still have a pension from my Michelin days, it is worth a lot more than I would have thought, and will make all the difference wen I do come to retire, hopefully in about 8 years time.

No comments: