Tuesday 2 December 2008

Fault and responsibility

This bit on CoffeeHouse

One other thing stood out for me from the evening. A man got up and said that his son had recently returned from a night out wearing a leather jacket that wasn’t his. He asked his son where he had got it from and his son explained that at the end of the night the jacket had been left at the club and so he had taken it. The father thought that this was all MargaretThatcher’s fault. It never seemed to have occurred to the man that his son’s morality or his parenting might have been the problem.

That wee nagging voice of blame and responsibility, and how to avoid it or attribute it correctly. It weighs heavily in ma heid.

I got made redundant yesterday afternoon, and whilst I accept these things happen, I'm wondering how much of it was my fault, could I have avoided it.

There's a financial crisis going on in the UK, banks are tightening up all their loans and stuff and squeezing businesses of all sizes. I didn't vote for international economic maladministration, I just worked in manufacturing. And I wonder, if I'd worked harder or made different decisions would I still be in a job right now.

If I'd replied to emails faster, or not ordered so much stuff from RS or took faster corrective action when faults were made, would it have been enough? If I ordered smaller quantities of components and sub-assemblies from different suppliers, would my contribution have made the company more able to withstand the credit crunch.

Since the other year and the flight from Glasgow I racked my brains, but even with the benefits of hindsight and timetravel there was no way I could have prevented the emotional and social turmoil that took place. It was completely unavoidable, the venomous combination of me and other people, our personalities, bodies, actions and reaction, there was no wy to evade what happened.

Damn it I tried. I saw it, I knew it was coming and there was nothing I could do.

And I'm starting to think the same thing about this latest redundancy, we saw it coming, sure we could hold it off for a few weeks, a month or two, but it was inevitable.

On the other hand, I've always tried believe that things aren't inevitable, that when Gav Princip pulled the trigger WW1 didn't have to start, it could have been avoided.

Right.

  • Got to update CV and wander round temp agencies as soon as possible
  • Got to make up CDs and mail them out
  • Got to format my novel, Shag Times, into paperback, sling it on lulu.com, and find people to send review copies to
  • Got to make up a list of other prospective careers before wading back into hi-fi manufacturing
  • Possibly PR, full time blogging/writing/drawing, full time education.

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