Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.
All right, so it’s not autumn yet. Not ’till tomorrow… But there are goodbyes to be said, and this poem popped into my head as a suitable set of words to describe my current mood.
I got laid off yesterday, and am now on what some companies refer to as “garden leave“. I’ve loved working in my old company, but I’ve also for quite some time been looking for a new job, so it’s a melancholy feeling, mixed with a sense of relief. It’s definitely not all bad, though of course it’s certainly not all good, either.
In short, it is what it is.
It was all very civilised, as these things should be, so I guess it qualifies for the term “amicable divorce”; I shall be missed and I shall miss my old colleagues, but such is life.
So next week I will be gardening! On garden leave. Maybe this means that this year I can actually get the garden ready for winter? -Something I failed miserably at last year, partly due to business and partly due to wet weather in the few weekends I made it up to the garden, and which had knock-on effects that lasted well into spring.
The lawn needs mowing, the annex (with the storage room, the workshop/shed and the spare bedroom) needs painting and of course a good weeding is never amiss, so I can definitely keep myself busy while I begin to work out what I want to do besides gardening.
Autumn is the time when you look back and see what worked and what didn’t work; which plants were stars and which were failures; what do you want more of, what do you want less of (SLUGS!); what should be played a bit different, tweaked a little, next year. And so I will begin looking at the garden and my CV with the same set of analysing eyes, seeing what I enjoyed and what I didn’t and then taking it from there. After all, in a garden there is always that much-vaunted term “Next Year”, and the same goes for work. There will be another chance at creating something that will be even better, even more satisfying, even more life-enhancing.
(I hope.)
I am so sorry to hear about the redundancy. But yes, a wonderful time of year for gardening leave. Lots of photos, please!
It kind of sucks, but then it kind of doesn’t; it’s just the way it is. And tomorrow I go up to the garden for a well-earned holiday. And there will be photos.
sorry to hear of this but as I was cut to part time a few years ago i discovered it was a gift and I had time to garden..now as I am working full time again i long for the time in my garden that I no longer have…I know you will enjoy your garden leave.
Part-time is not an option for me, so I need to find a full-time job before my garden leave expires at the end of the year. -But until that happens I intend to enjoy autumn, do a little part-time work to save up some extra cash and generally just enjoy Life.
If we still lived in Switzerland, I imagine I would have been able to slot into flexitime, as I once did. But, there was NO garden, just an unhappy balcony. I wish you a satisfying autumn in your garden, and success for the future.
The future has one unchangeable quality: Promise! There will be another chance at making things just right, exactly as in a garden, and I am in a sense relieved to be on this new path.
Really sorry to hear about the job. It’s happening a lot over here too. A friend was made redundant last week and my husband is waiting to hear about a round of redundancies. It’s good if it feels like a new chapter and a new beginning. Very few people nowadays stay in the same job their whole career. Who knows what opportunities may come your way? I’m sure your garden will give the space to consider what you want to do and where you want to be.
*fingers crossed for your husband*
But yes, it’s sadly an all-too-common situation to find one in these days, and I’m actually in a fairly good position, with 4 months severance pay and all…
I’m leaving for the garden in a few hours, so I will soon be up there and at peace for a handful of days.
Boo for redundancy, but yay for leave and gardening!
I hope a great FT opportunity comes your way soon.
Something will come, I’m sure. After all, there will always be jobs to be had, even if at first one might have to settle for something less-than-ideal. And if I do end up with a boring job in the interim time frame, well then I will just have to get excited about my hobbies; books, garden, blogging etc..
Change is always a little stressful, even if it’s for the best. I hope you have a lovely respite of September gardening, which may actually be more satisfying and effective than spring gardening, and then a great new job after that. — Onward!
I find spring gardening more fun than autumn gardening, but… Spring gardening is a lot less work when the autumn work has been done!
As for the stress, well, it’s there. But I also enjoy the fact that my last job is now over. I was overworked and underpaid, so all things equal I’m quite confident I can find something that will make me happier.
Well, harrumph. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been laid off, Søren. The search process is never fun, even though it always seems to end in a good new challenge eventually. I like how you’re considering the fall garden and CV in the same light. Here’s to a good Next Year for you (and the garden, of course)!
Gardening is a great parable for many things in Life, I think.
In spite of what the news are full off these days (165,000 unemployed in Denmark – out of a total population of 5.5 million – and only 10.000 vacant jobs posted officially) it does seem that there are some great jobs out there in my range, so I feel confident that I’ll find a new and better job, even if it might take some time.