Warhead (I suck at the internet)

The End of an Era.

The end of an era is rapidly approaching. Yes, we are being 'outsourced.'

For the last couple of years I've spent less time on IT support and more on IT strategy. It wasn't something I particularly wanted to do, but my director delegated it to me as he had more than enough meetings to go to already. So I got to go to London once every three months to discuss strategy with my colleages from our other offices.

And then, as happens every few years, the government decided to have spending and efficiency reviews in an attempt to cut costs. Many areas of work were studied, but one particular review looked at 'back room' jobs to see if they were really necessary, and if we couldn't move more staff to the front line to deliver more services. Sounds good in theory, but just as an army marches on its stomach, so an office relies on its back office functions to keep going.

The review suggested that over 200,000 civil service jobs could be cut over the next 5 years and a lot of staff could move to the front line if back office services were outsourced. IT services were identified early on as an area ripe for review.

To cut a long story short, we've transferred some parts of our work to other branches within the office, and from August 2006, IT support services will be transferred to a private company. Some staff will transfer with the jobs, and others will not, so will no longer be doing IT work.
It looks to me that I won't be transferred out, as I now spend so little time on IT support. I don't yet know what options will be open to me, but they're likely to be to transfer to non-IT work, or take early retirement. Given the choice, I'd take early retirement (i.e. take the money and run) pay off as many of my debts as possible, and find a lower paid, but less stressful job until I 'really' retire. And as all our offices have to lose a third of their staff in the next couple of years the competition for the jobs that are left will be fierce.

There was a time when I'd have liked to transfer to a company specialising in IT, but it's a hard, competitive world out there, and I'm getting too old to be ambitious. IT moves so quickly these days, it's hard to keep up with all the latest developments. I think it's a younger person's career now.

So, my fate is in the balance. By August I could be filling shelves in Tesco.

posted by Warhead @ 9:00 am