....I decided to say no to Aurora or rather remove myself from their options. I had worked a trial session with the chef there and he was nice enough, but I had an underlying discomfort with the place. I’m sure they’ll do well. Maybe it was more due to how I was feeling and what I actually wanted. What did I want? I wanted to cook the food that I wanted. I wanted to return to being “Head Chef” somewhere. That is what i’m good at. To be honest the offers started coming in. It was nice to feel wanted and respected again. The pressure had been taken off me due to my redundancy package. I knew that so long as I found work by the new year I would be fine financially. My wife had been awesome throughout and at no point did she panic. I guess this was one of those “Trust” moments you have in marriages. She trusted and believed in me. I had quite a few options. I was being offered business partnerships, shareholder options, head and sous chef positions.
So what have I decided to do? The Greyhound Pub. This is owned by one of my best friends from my training days as a student at Suffolk College. He had heard about my situation. He needed a chef. Straight away I was excited about this. I would be in a kitchen, cooking the food I wanted (within reason :-) and more importantly having some fun with it. I know there are always issues with working with friends. I may look back on this blog in years to come with a frown, but I very much doubt it. Just down to the nature of our personalities our friendship has survived living together and drinking together.
The pub itself has won Adnams pub of the year Award as well as other awards for food. Dan himself has won awards for his wheatsheaf* work :oD (He’s a bit shy about that fact)
Did you hear the one about the chef who left the security of a good, steady job and took a gamble on a new career as a teacher? He got the job and really applied himself and was really happy with finally realising his academic potential. Becoming a qualified assessor, a respected and competent teacher and turning himself from a chef who could teach to a teacher who could cook.... .... He got shat on!
The long and short of it is. Back in July/August the alarm bells were starting to sound. The College where I was employed started to get a bit twitchy, as the numbers for the new term (September2012) enrolment were a lot lower than anticipated. This led to weeks of speculation as to what was going to happen. Rumours about mass sacking/redundancies etc. As the days, whittled away, we were put under pressure to quite literally go and find some students. To the extent of "cold calling" some students who may have enquired at some point. September came, numbers were down. But we were told we were OK. A little tweak of the timetables had secured our futures.... so we thought. November.... An Email came asking the three Instructors, which included me, to attend a meeting. In this meeting we were told our futures... Reapply for our jobs, an interview and so on. In my mind I felt I was always the least favourite to be successful, due to me being the "Newest" employee. With less than a year under my belt. I knew I was the easiest option for the College. The whole process took just under three weeks. Just days before my birthday I found out my fate.
The next stage was the college offering me "Re-deployment" within the college. My pay was to be protected for the next 12 months, but the Job they were offering me was in a LSA- Learning Support Assistant. With all respect to the role, I did not go to the college to be an assistant teacher. The reality of the situation is that the job would not have even been in the Catering department. So I could have been an assistant in motor-vehicle or Arts! I know NOTHING about either.
I took the last offered option which was paid garden leave- redundancy.
How did I feel?
To be honest. The moment I was told the news I was initially pissed off, then relieved. Pissed off that I was being laid off and that I had spent the last year trying to become this "Super-Teacher" and it coming to nothing. Relieved that the whole process was over and that it WAS me. I'm not sure how I would have felt if I had been selected over my other 2 colleagues Especially as they had been vital points of reference to me over my training period. I really enjoyed my time as a teacher but I learned a lot about myself and I feel that my next employer will benefit most from this. I will miss a lot of my students and co-workers. But life goes on!
As I left the college on "Judgement Day" I already had my bag filled with copies of my CV. Ready to hand out to any restaurant or hotel I passed.
First stop was Aurora. This was very promising and did excite me but....... To be continued
