2015/16 – Business and Work
Posted: Sat 14 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Business, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »At some point in the coming year, I’ll be changing contracts. That’s just par for the course (although I’ve been in the current one for a year now) so it’s not a worry. I’ve mentioned it before in relation to finances and so on, but this post is going to be more focused on the work side of things.
One of the bigger changes within this year was that I’ve also gone back to working through my own limited company, instead of through PAYE Umbrella companies, which means I’ll be better off in the long run.
I’m pretty much sure that I’ll be sticking with contracting for the coming year at least. There *may* be a perm role somewhere out there with my name on it – but I’m not convinced, and not looking for it.
In fairness, I have had some good perm roles (or as they’re sometimes known, “proper jobs”) along the way. However, it’s also valid that every single role I’ve fucking hated (or has involved working for an utter shitwhistle) has been a perm role. The last couple in particular have left me not wanting to go back down that route for the moment. (And yes, that could come back to bite me on the arse, I know)
So for now, I’m aiming to stick with the contracting. Along the way I’m also looking at developing some of my own stuff properly – like the writing post, I’ve got a huge number of ideas on the go, but unlike the writing post, I’ve got a goal, a target, and a particular product/concept to focus on.
There’s a timeline for that, which is the end of this 2015/16 process. At that point, there’s a conference and exhibition going on, where I want to be able to have a product I can launch and discuss with the target market.
That’s the goal, and the plan. Things may arise to change those aims, but for now it’s looking promising.
2015-16 – What’s coming up next?
Posted: Thu 5 November, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015/16, Bankruptcy, D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More | Leave a comment »Following on from yesterday’s “what happened in the last year” post, now we get to the fun stuff, the “What’s going to happen in the coming year?” post.
Although, to be honest, some of those goals aren’t going to change much. I currently see 2015/16 as a year that’s more about consolidation, of building from the foundations of 2014/15.
So, the outline goals are going to be
- Continue rebuilding finances.
- Continue with health/exercise/weight-loss stuff
- Write more
- Develop more things based around my own business
- Get out more
There will be some significant changes during 2016 that I already know about and/or expect – as well as a number of things unexpected and un-planned-for.
Among the expected changes, I know that I’ll definitely be looking for at least one new contract sometime in that year. As yet I don’t know exactly when, but I can live with that – when it happens, it’ll be fine.
Also, the final financial stage of my bankruptcy will come to an end early in the year, and I’ll have paid off the three-year repayment plan. (That’s happening later than the three-year anniversary of the actual declaration, because it takes time to organise and sort out in the first place) I plan to keep making that payment, but into my own savings account, which will (obviously) help build things up.
Finally, I may end up moving by the end of the year. Or I may not. I don’t know for sure. Actually, that most likely won’t be in this time-span, as my 12-month tenancy agreement renewal starts today. I may know that I will be moving (as I’d have to give a month’s notice to end the tenancy etc. etc.) but the odds are that I won’t have actually moved. If I decide to do so.
I’ll write in more detail about those outline goals over the next few days, and see what they bring.
For now, I’m just happy to have some ideas about what’s going to come next.
What Comes Next
Posted: Fri 2 October, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »This week I’ve secured and extended my current contract through ’til the end of the year – which is a pretty decent situation to be in.
However, I know that at some point in 2016 I’ll be looking for something new, and it’s making me think a bit about how it’ll work out.
The thing is, I’ve now been working in the current one for a year, and I’ve very much become used to working in my own office, at my own speed, with my own company. One day a week of on-site work, which has been enough on the whole workplace socialising thing for me, and the rest of the time I’ve been able to avoid general inanity and bullshit – which has been lovely.
I’m convinced it’s one of the things that has resulted in my general equanimity and contentment this year (as written about recently) so in some ways I’m really not looking forward to a return to four or five days a week on-site – which is the likelihood for the next contract, unless I can get very lucky and another ‘working from home’ contract – but we’ll just have to see how it all works out.
I’m not going to borrow trouble, though. It’s just something I thought about while looking at the contract extension and so on.
And really, only time will tell how things work out in the new year.
Situationally Unaware
Posted: Thu 1 October, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Weirdness, Work-related | Leave a comment »As regular readers (what few there are) know by now, this year I’ve been renting a small office in a big building. On each floor there’s ten or so small to medium-sized businesses, so there’s a fair number of things going on at any given time, and deliveries are just par for the course.
What surprises me (still) though is how unaware so many of the people in those companies are. It’s a regular occurrence for delivery people to come up and not find a business, so ask another one where the recipient business is. And it seems like hardly anyone else knows even who’s on this floor, let alone the others in the building.
All of which strikes me as pretty strange. After all, the people at this end of the building walk past all the other businesses/offices on the way here. Yet they obviously haven’t paid attention to the signs outside the other offices, saying who’s in each one.
I know the names of all the companies – not the employees, obviously, that’d be stalkery – and where they are on this floor. Come to that, I’ve a pretty good idea of all the businesses in the building – if not a precise direction then at least to the point of which floor, and which way to go out of the lifts to get to them.
Surely I’m not the only person who does this? It’s only a basic awareness of stuff around me, after all…
All Lit Up
Posted: Tue 18 August, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Cynicism, Green, Laziness, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »In the office building I share with a bundle of other companies, I find I have my irritations. I know, shocking.
One that regularly annoys me is the way people shove on all the lights – even in public spaces where they’re not necessary – and completely fail to then turn them off again.
At the start of the day, people come in and just automatically turn on every sodding light – regardless of the conditions outside, the time of year, or of anyone else in any other offices. In short, the entire place is lit up like fucking fairyland – even in the height of summer, when you don’t need the lights on at all.
The same applies in the toilets – again, an area that at this time of year really doesn’t need any illumination other than daylight. But no, on go the lights, and then no other fucker turns them off again.
Of course, I don’t mind people turning on the lights when they need them. What bugs me is that they then don’t bother to turn them off when they leave the rooms/facilities.
But the thing is, everyone pays a piece of the electricity bill. You’d think that would encourage some responsibility, some desire to only use what’s necessary. But of course that’d require some vague sense of altruism, of being interested in something other than self, of just giving a shit about things. And that’s what’s missing.
Grrrr.
Inherently Lazy
Posted: Fri 20 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Introspective, Own Business, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Weirdness, Work-related | 1 Comment »As I’ve said before, I’m inherently lazy – but in some ways my laziness makes me put in more effort. Weird, but true.
My new office is up on the fourth floor. The building has both lifts and stairs to get there – and that’s where my laziness kicks in.
You see, the lift takes ages – and I’m too lazy to wait for it, and then dawdle up to the fourth floor. So I slam up eight flights of stairs – eighty steps, all told – and always get to my floor before the lift does.
I know that’s no-one else’s version of laziness, the whole “can’t be arsed to wait” thing. It just always strikes me as somewhat amusing that my version of laziness expends more effort than anyone else’s. It probably says something about my brain, but well, the fact my brain works in strange ways (or possibly in Strangeways) has never been in any doubt at all.
Looking Back – 2014’s Jobs
Posted: Thu 19 February, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2015 vs 2014, Cynicism, Domestic, Looking Back, Own Business, Weirdness, Work-related | Leave a comment »I’ve been thinking a lot about the contrast between 2014 and 2015 (to date, of course) and realised that I couldn’t easily list the jobs/contracts I’d had last year.
2014 was a crap year for me in many ways, and the contracts and work I took on were definitely part of that. There were a couple of spectacularly bad choices – both contracts and permanent roles – and one of those didn’t even last a month. I stuck the other one for three months (balance, and all that) but yes, not good.
Looking back and doing the figures, I actually had eight roles in 2014. Bear in mind that three of them lasted three months each. Which means somewhere in there, there’s five jobs in three months. (They’re spread out, it wasn’t just a three-month period of abysmality) Oops.
With luck – and without tempting fate too much – 2015’s going to be a big improvement on all that. It’s started well, so let’s hope it can maintain that achievement through the year…