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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Update on Recession and Redundancy


A few weeks ago, I blogged about my company making cuts. The entire week after the announcement was made, the entire team's productivity and morale hit rock bottom. The big wednesday (a reference to the recent Lotto Jackpot) was preceded by a Tuesday outing where we all took a half day to do one last big social thing together. We had lunch in New Market at this Spanish (I think) place offering $10 lunch specials which was completely funded by the Snack Box (Cheers Stephen!!). Then we were off to Panmure for some 10 pin bowling. And next we went off to watch a movie: Ice Age 3. And finally to top it all off, drinks at Garrisons. Where all events were paid for by our awesome team leaders Simon and Jacqui!

Anyway. Big Wednesday came and our team of 16 was cut by 5. Including me... sort of. I offered to work part-time including working some extra days for free. Why did I do it? Many reasons, I think Olympic Software is a great place to work with an fantastic team in ASD. The actual work I do is very satisfying (most of the time anyway). The office is just a 10 minute run away, and the hours are very flexible. But ultimately, I want to serve people. In my previous blog entry, I asked what Jesus would do. After some thought, I think he would be serving people wherever he could. He would probably have been struggle financially too, and would need to be giving to others from what he had, not out of his abundance but out of love for fellow man. And thats what I'm striving to follow too.

So with that, my 3 days a week starts today! What will I be doing in my spare time? I was made the unofficial official social coordinator for my team, so I will need to plan events, and ideas to boost morale. Then theres volunteer opportunities available from Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army that I have long been intrigued by. And then theres sharpening my programming skills, maybe learning some SharePoint, or looking through MCPD books, or even FireFox development... Then theres my excersise, my running, my basketball. But Most of All, I want to look at my time off as a kind of Sabbath. In the Bible, God ordered people to rest from work, which is for our own good. What do we do on a Sabbath? Build our relationships! With God, with our family, and with our friends. So if you haven't seen me in a while and want to catch up, I would love to meet up, drop me a line!!

2 comments:

KiwiChronicles said...

Ed, great testimony, great example and a challenge to many in the midst of hard times. Thanking God for you and encouraging others to look at your blog post.

William said...

It's really encouraging to read of your heart for serving Jesus, it's definitely challenged me reading this.

The volunteer opportunity at Habitat for Humanity sounds fantastic - they happen to also be the charity I'm running for at this year's marathon www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/williamchong).

Will pray for your situation at homegroup next week, hope your church travels continue to be fruitful. Tell Kathleen I said hi!

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