It’s Been a Funny Old Year

Actually, for me, it’s been a funny old two years.

It’s at this time of the year that we pause and reflect briefly before moving into the tumult of the next year – or, more of the same…

When I was made redundant by Network Rail back in the autumn of 2003 during the night of the long knives; later dubbed “Operation Violet”; when the company decided that shedding people with skills that it needed was a spiffing plan, I had a cunning plan all of my own. I walked out of one job and straight into self-employment as a training consultant. Given that training and development was something I’d been doing on and off for a couple of decades combined with my fiercely independent nature, this was a sensible move. At least, I thought so. Sometimes, though, we see what we want to see, not what is looming before us with “This is a titanic disaster waiting to happen” writ large in big friendly neon letters all over it.

Initially, one expects things to be slow while building up new business. Things were. They did, however, start to pick up during the autumn of 2004 and early in 2005. By that time, I had earned roughly half of what I could expect in my erstwhile post at Network Rail. Never mind, my redundancy payout cushioned the blow. By mid 2005, the work tailed off again and the agency I was working with lost a major contract – with Network Rail, as it turned out. From then on in, things just steamrollered downhill and I was forced to take on temporary driving work to keep the wolves from the door.

It was in the spring of 2006 that I had the cunning plan to regain my ADI qualification and go back to being a driving instructor, while at the same time taking on any training and assessment work that might be going. I took and passed my part 1 with little to worry me. During the summer of 2006, I took and failed my part 2 twice before passing on my third attempt. Being in denial, I refused to acknowledge to myself that I had made a serious error of judgement. When the examiner picks up faults that have not been picked up during training, one really should take notice. But my trainer was a decent sort and I ignored the obvious. It wasn’t until I failed my part 3 on the first attempt and I was offered temporary work with the driving school coaching PDIs through their part 1 exams while I prepared for another attempt at my own part 3 that I really took a step back and reconsidered my position.

It was then that I realised that the whole training programme for driving instructors was inadequate and had only been running for a year. Now, though, the poor quality training received by the trainers was coming home to roost as I took call after call from people who were failing their part 3 – and, the examiner was picking up flaws not covered in training. Those trainers who were experiencing a high success rate were the ones who had taken the time, trouble and money to develop their skills beyond the basic day and a half training provided by the company – and it showed. It was after one such discussion with a failed PDI that my own observations were confirmed.

I took and failed my part 3 a second time. I knew in my heart that if I was to succeed, I would have to go to another training provider and spend a considerable sum on remedial training before making a third attempt at this exam. This was money I didn’t have. Added to this was another factor; franchising. The big schools (and some of the small ones) operate franchises. This is good for the school, but encourages them to flood the market to push up their revenue. The instructor is squeezed as a consequence. This was why; nearly twenty years ago; I went independent. This was why, shortly after that, I left the industry. I realised just under a year ago, that I didn’t want to go back, irrespective of the cost of retraining. This time last year, I had reached a low, such that I could not see an obvious way out.

During 2007, I reluctantly went back onto the job hunting circuit. Several interviews followed, but no job offers. I even decided to try my luck with Network Rail. This was my final shot – I was becoming increasingly weary of the process and my confidence was already low. By late July, I had one more interview lined up and my temporary contract was coming to an end. The financial black hole was increasing in size as Mrs Longrider and I tried to cope on her income and my greatly reduced one. Common sense would have had us selling our French property and clearing up our debts. However, we would never have a second chance to regain what had taken years of saving to achieve and what was, after all, our preferred home. If we found ourselves with our backs against the wall, we would sell the UK property, clear our debts and take our chances in France. It would be a huge risk, but better that than lose it. At least, that’s how our increasingly desperate reasoning went.

In early August, I was advised that I had not been successful in my job application. The driving school had nearly completed its plans to take all driving instructor training out to the instructors in the field, so my services would no longer be needed when the contract expired at the end of August. We put our house on the market and had an offer of the full asking price within 24 hours. Something was wrong. It was all too quick. The buyer wanted us out by November and we wanted time to prepare. I managed to get another short term contract – similar to the previous one and equally badly paid, but it slowed the rate of financial descent. We withdrew from the sale, realising that the agent had undervalued the property by about £10,000, and decided to pause before leaping. Meanwhile, I emailed my old contacts, just in case something turned up.

My first day in the call centre on that temporary assignment in early September was my low point. I recall thinking just how desperately I wanted to be anywhere but here, doing anything but this. How did I end up in a sodding call centre? I went through my contacts again and there was one I hadn’t contacted. His company had been taken over during the previous year and I wasn’t sure if they used associates still, or, for that matter what the current work situation was like. I sent an email and he emailed me back almost immediately. He had auditing work for me on an associate basis – and it would bring me back into the rail industry. The pay for an associate was more than I took as a training consultant. Indeed, I can earn a living with 2 – 3 days a week, although since October I’ve been working flat out to bring that debt down. Given that I can earn a decent living on twenty weeks a year and there is plenty of work, I can go back to the plan Mrs Longrider and I made optimistically when we first bought the French property back in 2003; sell the UK property, move to France and clear both mortgages. With no mortgage, we can live comfortably on money I can bring in by commuting back the Blighty for a couple of weeks work every so often. My client is happy with this arrangement; I’ll be easing myself gently into semi-retirement while still young enough to enjoy it and Mrs Longrider will potter about in the garden, which is what she wants to do. With 1000m² of land to play with, we plan to grow some of our own veg and keep a few chickens. We may even open a chambre d’hôte to bring in a few extra Euros.

Yes, it’s been a funny old couple of years, fortunes can change so suddenly; both for good and bad. It’s nice, for once, for it to have turned out well this time.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and I hope you have a prosperous New Year.