In Coventry (where I currently used to work) we were all supposed to move out of our building into a much smaller office on to a tech park somewhere on Warwick University.  Those who remained were really looking forward to leaving the Coventry office and into a new space to make a fresh start.  The one major stumbling block was that the building had to be sold and after being on the market for sometime (6-8 months I think), it was sold. Rejoice we all thought, time for a fresh start.  Our management (a guy from Bath who manages a completely different brand and is physically in the office maybe one day every two weeks) went to see the potential office again and speak to the board.

On Friday he came into our office and said the board thought the cost too high so we have to work from home starting within 3 weeks (that was when the exchange of contracts was happening).  Thats it, no talking no looking at other options you all have to work from home!  I was gutted and angry, I mean I worked from home at my last job for about 3 years and hated it.  I felt isolated, unmotivated and it was drove a wedge between me and Katie.  I went it and told Chris Aston (our Coventry manager, who works in Bath) that I wasn’t happy about this and wanted to know if there was another alternative.  My house is not built for home working and I don’t won’t it to become an office again.  I mentioned about shared office and would that be considered, his response was that money was tight but alternatives would be considered.  So I went to twitter and did a shout out for office hubs/space/desks and found some here and here.  I would like to thank everyone who replied with suggestions you guys are all great and I think this is why twitter works.  I haven’t yet had a chance to get across to the Moseley Exchange but I plan too and I have to thank Julia and Nat Higginbottom for showing me around Aquila.

So I have to wait to hear back from Chris and see what he says hopefully its good news (but then again this is Planit).

PS: After checking my work emails this morning I have found out they want me to support a product that I had the bare minimum of understanding (I could do a report but as for the concepts behind sales order processing forget and thats was 3 months on the product 2.5 years ago!) till the end of the year.  I don’t have the software installed and I can’t remember how to use and there’s no knowledge base of it inside the company.  If it goes down its very bad for customers.  What the hell are you doing Planit?  Needless to say I’m still looking for work and if you need a geek/social media type for hire send me a email through the contact form.