Work Takes a Tumble

So we had meetings on Friday and it wasn't very good news. From my team of three they are hoping to make two redundancies. This isn't very good odds under any circumstances.

I stuck around to talk with the two directors after our team meeting to explain my visa situation. There is no way that I am going to not be applying for citizenship as soon as possible. Yes, I could potentially look for another job, hope that they sponsor me for a new work permit, get a new visa, etc.- and then apply for citizenship. However, I am four weeks away from applying for citizenship. This is completely unreasonable. Also, there is no guarantee given the current job climate that I would get a new work permit. That is a real risk that most people never consider (because it hasn't been an issue) but would be possible at which point I would not be eligible for citizenship and would have to leave the country. Unacceptable.

So basically I explained this to the office and said that even if I was one of the people they wished to make redundant, I would rather stay on in any sort of limited capacity until my application came through. They seemed to be alright with this in principle, though obviously I was just introducing the subject. Basically, my understanding of how this will work is that if I am one of the two 'chosen', I have about a month left of full time work and then I will need to arrange something with the office. Hopefully where I can work three days a week. I will continue in this way until my paperwork comes through and can use the free days to secure a new job.

In the worse case scenario, I will stay on the books but they won't have any days a week for me to work- or will only use me sometimes on an irregular basis. This will make the three months of paperwork processing particularly difficult. I will manage, but it will be a financial hardship. In this scenario I will also use my free time to find a new job and have it lined up.

The best case scenario is that the office intends to put me on part time but so many people are made redundant and then new work comes in and I can just continue to work through Christmas and this is all just a massive headache of preventative thought. But I need to plan for the worst case scenario really, and it's not great.

The reason that I need to stick with my job, aside from the not wanting to apply for a new work permit thing, is that once my citizenship application is made, I will not have the ability to take new work since I won't have a work permit and I won't be able to show I have the legal right to work in the country. This is where my hands become tied. So while I can look for work, and secure a job, I can't legally start working until the citizenship comes through. And this will take three months to process.

So here I am, over a barrel it feels like. All I can think though, is that the key to all of this is to have my citizenship. Once I have that, none of this will ever plague me again and I will be free to make any number of decisions or choices that are closed to me now. That's why it's so critical, and that's why it's my priority.

So it's going to be a tough few months I think, but it's not the end of the world. I have enough savings to probably last me two months of complete unemployment and I have credit cards for the third. And hopefully it won't come to that and I'll get a couple days a week to tide me over. It'll just be unpleasant, but I will get through it.

And then I will be free.

In other news, the 'maybe date thing' was alright really. I thought he was interesting and we certainly didn't run out of things to say. But I'm not going to hold my breath. I suppose at the very least, I may have made a new friend. And that's not entirely terrible as he seems to know quite a few people on the kink scene and stuff. Whatever, we'll see what happens. It's just not been the sort of week that's going to let me get my hopes up or excited about pretty much anything. On the other hand, maybe that's not the worst thing in this case.