Good morning Steria, um, I mean Fujitsu.. Matt speaking...

The fun of my office for the last 2 days has been the fact that we all are trying to stop answering the phones with our previous company name. We've all been assimilated. Apparently resistance is futile.

All week its been:
Good morning Steria... uh.... actually its fujitsu, its matt here.
Good morning Steria slash Fujitsu? its matt.
Good morning Steria....... *someone makes fun of me* no that's right, I meant Fujitsu.

The Biggest question still remains to be answered of course, what do we rename the office garage band, formerly the "Steria-Phonics"?

We're aware that the Fuji's is already taken, Fuji-Phonics isn't catchy, so we'll need help, please reccomend suggestions in the comments.

Well, back to the grind, before they realise I'm a lazy, lazy man.

M

Currently listening to:
Tracks: Positive Jam / The Swish
Artist: The Hold Steady
Album: Almost Killed Me

Farewell Team Steria

I've been working with Steria on a customer's site since 10th Jan 2005. The contract we work on is being taken over by Fujitsu. We are about to become Fujitsu employees. Before this event takes place we thought we'd have a final night out.

We've gathered together the folks from our office and some other people who have worked with us over the years and we're going out for dinner, a drink or two and then bowling.

I've never worked with a better, more interesting group of people. Some folks have left us already for other jobs and still some people will leave soon, so the dynamic of the office will never be the same for those of us remaining. I've had a great time with these folks, big characters all.

Tonight we celebrate. (tomorow i'll show off drunken photos).

In other news, i got my staples out today, but just so's you can see the horror of what it looked like before hand, here is a pic curtosy of my lovely missis:

Currently listening to:
Song: Mayonaise
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Siamese Dream

Ah Crap....

I found out this morning that I'm not going to be working for Steria for a whole lot longer.

Let me explain. We have a contract to work for a government client. That client was reviewing our contract and put it out to tender.

We made the final 3 list of contractors, but not the final 2. Being forward thinking, our management decided to talk to the finalists. We have special knowledge of the setup here and are pretty indispensable.

We only got an offer from one of the finalists, who agreed to hire us in the event of them winning the contract. The other finalist told us to get lost.

The finalist who told us to get lost won the contract.

This is not as bad as it first seems. I am a little gutted, because i like working for Steria, but this is where TUPE comes in. TUPE, pronunced "tue-pay" stands for 'Tranfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)'.

Basically, I can't be made redundant from a job that will still exist under a new company. I have the legal right to be employed by the new contractor, at the same money and with the same conditions i enjoy with Steria.

A change is as good as a rest eh? I'm a little anxious, but I do believe in God having a plan for my life. I don't think i'm going hungry anytime soon. I will have a job with the new guys and i'm sure most of my workmates have little choice but to do the same.

Prayer please. Updates to follow.

Steria (drunken) bowling.....

I'm just posting this for fun, and so i can get at it easily.

This is what the good folks at my company are like when we get together out of work hours!



I was supposed to be doing my windows XP exam the day this was filmed. The test centre was closed when i turned up and i was given no explanation by Thompson Prometric, the testing people who just asked politely: "Did no one contact you to arrange moving your appointment?"

No one had called me, of course they hadn't or I would not have been studying every waking hour for the past month or panicing in the carpark about whether i was too early or trying, against my usual exam taking odds, to remember the fine details of unattended installations.

Why am I explaining this? Well, the end of the video has a clip from Chris Evan's BBC Radio 2 Drive Time show, which he mentioned the text i'd sent in explaining my rubbish day to this point, but how it was fine now 'cuse the folks in my office were all going bowling!

After checking through, just now, I've realised that the radio mention bit got cut from the end of the video. It was a good day all round. I'll post the mention in a bit.

(update - the video is the correct one now with mention)

Was listening to: (the video soundtrack)
Song: "Alcohol"
Artist: Barenaked Ladies
Album: Stunt