Redundant :: No Such Luck

I got to the site, somewhere near Birmingham, reasonably early, but the gateman said my colleague Phil was already looking at the job with the engineer; I went and found them, Phil had some drawings, and said he was almost done, he pointed to a couple of areas and said we could talk about them later.

I wondered whether to go straight home from the site visit, or to go back to the office, unusually I chose the second option. Back in the office, which was laid out like my school chemistry classroom, I was looking for my boss Kevin, but he wasn't about.

I really don't understand this job, it seems to be all large, above ground ductwork, and civil engineering, not a jot of interest for a fine-tuned electrical engineer like myself.

I was told that there was a meeting in the yard, and that I ought to go. I really didn't want to go, not my type of thing, but reluctantly I went along.

It was like a prison exercise yard; all along the back wall, beneath the fence, stood men with signs; like road signposts, but made out of blackboard material; they had messages scrawled on them, in chalk.

Steve said I should go and see one of the organisers, and get myself a board, because it was about redundancy. I went and joined a short queue, my name was number 3 on the list; they gave me a noticeboard and wrote a date on it, which was the 3rd of August, yes that's right, today's date.

I went back and stood by my music friend Steve, he said wasn't I the lucky one, to be made redundant so soon.

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