22nd March 2010

This is the BIG day. My final day of working for BT. Although I don't officially leave the company until the end of March I have some annual leave outstanding, hence my last day being a Monday. I am meeting my boss John to hand my Laptop etc and also to hand over the role to the gent who is taking over from me as he has been on annual leave. I have also arranged to meet one of my team who lives in the vicinity.

The usual 9.11 am call takes place with our big boss and then down to business. The day is interspersed with calls, mails and instant messages saying good luck. One instant message from Steve Crawford read 'Did you get the wine' SHIT... On Saturday I had received a nice bottle of wine delivered to the door. The card read 'good luck for the future Steve C' I had automatically thought it was from the Steve C that worked on my team. Indeed when I had met him that morning I had thanked him and he had acknowledged it with a 'you're welcome' I quickly got on the phone and we laughed like drains.

Earlier in the year I had been on a trip to Borneo to see my sister and the kids. I had also taken a ton of camera equipment to get some photographs of the native Orang-Utans. After many hours of trekking in wet, hot, humid forests I came back with not one sighting. As a leaving gift John and Jill had come up with a novel idea of making this up to me. I am now the adopted father of Koyah, a four year old female Bornean orang-utan. A brilliant gift, thank you. I shall be visiting in September and shall make a special trip. I am very tempted to turn up with the adoption certificate and tell the rangers that I have come to collect my adopted daughter. Not sure that the Malayan sense of humour would get it though.

On my last day in BT it came as a huge disappointment that Dawn could not even be bothered to say thank you, good luck or even good bye. As a representative of BT I think this is out of order and really quite disrespectful after 29 years 303 days of service to the company. I really hope that she does not get treated the same when she decides to move on !


That night I didn't sleep a wink. I was actually worrying about the things that I had not had the time to finish off.. Get a grip man... It's over


23rd March 2010


Today is a R and R day. I do have to take the car back to Sheffield this morning. It was a bit of a challenge to get the BT fleet people to accept that it needed to be today. I called them up yesterday and advised them that I was leaving BT and needed to take the vehicle back. I was told that the only day Icould take it back was Friday.


" I'm not here Friday - I'm leaving BT" I told him.
" Then your manager will have to take it back".
" But he lives in Birmingham and the car needs to go into Sheffield".
" It takes 90 minutes to check over the car and they are busy".
The reality is that it may take 90 minutes to check over the car but that first check takes just 15 mins. The rest is done in the workshop my a mechanic after the driver has left. I managed to persuade the helpful chappy that I could drop the car off on Tuesday as it made no sense to drag someone all the
way from Birmingham. There are still plenty of 'Job's Worths' around !
The car was due in at 10.00am. I dropped it in dead on time only to find that the BT fleet 'helpful chappy' had not even booked it in. The workshop supervisor was a bit miffed. Only until he found that we had something in common, he was also leaving BT, but not till next week. After the check Trevor shook my hand and wished me good luck for the future.


I don't want to harp on to the fact but it comes to something when someone you hardly know shakes your hand and wishes you good luck and your Boss can't be assed. It has really fucked me off big style... can you tell ?
 I walked out of the garage like some cowboy walking into the sunset. It was a lovely spring morning, the birds were cheeping but..... the next challenge, I had to get home by public transport.......

First leg of the 20 mile journey was a tram. How do you pay, how much is it, when will I know where to get off. It's a bit bizarre but I have travelled the world on all modes of public transport but not at home. I safely found the tram stop - they had a conductor, who you paid, so no drama there (but a tad inefficient if you don't mind me saying).

The tram took me into Sheffield where my second leg was by train to Chesterfield station. I go on trains all the time so again safely negotiated that leg and arrived in my home time. I'm afraid the bus was one step too far... It's too early, I need to prepare myself...

I decided to walk the last 5 miles home as the weather was beautiful and I'd not been to the gym for a little while. I arrived home with a dab on....

The rest of the day was getting ready for my 1 month trip to Ireland to take up my new position helping my sister out in her Deli in Belfast.While cooking dinner I had a call from a very good colleague Jill to see how
my first day had gone. That was a lovely surprise and also had a chat with both Nigel and John. Great folk to work with, a real pleasure.

I had a glass too much wine and slept like a baby.

Life after BT !

29 years 303 days...... It's a long time to do anything.

I'm a bit of reflector, after nearly 30 years I have decided that perhaps the cut and thrust of corporate life is not for me and have made the very major decision to take a leaver package and move on. Don't get me wrong, I have had a fantastic time with BT, it is a great company to work for. I'm certainly leaving a much more knowledgeable person than I was when I started as a naive 20 year old.

Over the years I have met and worked with some great people. Many I would call friends.

So, what's the plan...

I'm jetting off to Belfast for the first month. My sister has a Deli business and since having a baby in December she has been run off her feet. I have offered to help and fly out on the 24th March to take up my position as a waiter in a deli bar... Sound a bit like the first line of a song ! I have negotiated a deal. Minimum wage and I get to keep my tips.

On my return I intend to get accredited in Workplace grievance mediation and hopefully pick up some part time work. I have plans to travel in the summer. Another sister lives in Borneo and I intend to base myself there for a few months and visit the sights of South East Asia. Hopefully I can make my two passions of painting and photography help pay the bills.

After that, who knows. suffice to say I won't miss the endless (often pointless) conference calls and the sniping and politicking of corporate life one bit. It's no one's fault, I guess that is just the way it is and I suspect that BT is no different to most.

I know there is no such thing as BT, it's a collection of people, transient and fluid. However if there were such a thing as BT beyond that legal entity, Thank You BT for giving me a great career, masses of knowledge that hopefully will be transferrable, introducing me to some brilliant people and allowing the opportunity to finance the next chapter.

Lets see if the plan comes together. The following blog will be a record of the next years journey. It will be light-hearted and I hope will bring a smile to the many people who have brought a smile to me over the years. You never know, it might inspire one of you to take that next step.