Wardrobe Cull

Interestingly, now I have started leading a "normal" life (ie not taking on piles of extra work, leaving office at a civilised hour) I am starting to notice things I never remarked upon before. It's a bit like clearing out one's wardrobe. Out goes the jacket with too long sleeves which one has been intending to shorten for three and a half years. Out goes the blouse which drains all the colour from one's face and makes one look consumptive.

Out, out, out go the jeans which fitted when one was two sizes smaller, the peculiarly bouffant skirt, and the shoes one purchased because they were an incredible bargain (despite the fact that they caused such excruciating pain to the balls of one's feet, that tears periodically coursed down one's cheeks when one was wearing them).

So I have cleared my desk, bagged up approximately three kilos of redundant and mouldering paperwork, dumped the emails which have been sitting in my in-box for more than two months, stopped "volunteering" for extra responsibilities, and lost interest in chasing managerial pats on the back.

I can work off-site most of the time (hooray!! Lucky lucky me). So I am enjoying getting on with my work with members of the local community, and am feeling amazingly happy, all things considered. I am still busy, although manageably so. But it is peculiarly and unnervingly QUIET.

Last Friday afternoon I scrolled through my emails and it gradually dawned on me that most of the messages were from external agencies or automatically generated "reminders" about things. And it further dawned on me that the previous Friday had been the same, and - come to think of it - the Friday before that. And then I woke up to the sudden realisation that on Fridays I appear to be the only person in my entire department who is actually doing any work!

Line Manager never communicates with me at all, Fridays or any other day  (nothing much new there). New Boss ditto; whereas Former Boss used to send me a barrage of emails at 7am, exploiting my pitiful addiction to work. But now - no-one seems to be monitoring or chasing me! No-one seems to care!! I could probably take whole afternoons off, swanning around art exhibitions or seeing films, and I wonder if anyone would even notice..

I don't, of course. I just carry on plodding through my list of daily tasks, and maintaining standards befitting a local government employee. And on the rare and surprising occasions when I receive a communique from "on high", naturally I make sure I respond in exemplary Stepford Employee fashion.

Meekly, politely, and doing absolutely nothing to draw unwelcome managerial attentions down upon myself....