Extract from a letter ......
.... I am now working at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Developement in central london. I am on a six month contact for Bonsai to support all the equipment Bonsai has sold them since april. I work with the bank's own support team to look after the network. This means I'm stuck in one place all day doing a job that never ends. There is never a dull moment in that place, you don't have time to stop and think. You are either too busy or too tired. However I did get a three grand pay rise to take the contract so its not too bad. But getting up at 7 am and not getting home till 7 at the very earliest is very bad news. Its good in that it gives me an insight into this kind of corporate support job without having made the mistake of changing jobs into it. I 've come to the conclusion that I prefer my old job cos this one takes up to much of my life. Sometimes I look at people at the bank and shake my head in wonder, some have commuted in by rail and tube to a city job since leaving school twenty years qgo. I think of my normal job, of the variety and the freedom, and the walls of the bank seem to press in on me. I really miss the fresh air and the sunshine and leaving one workplace behind and heading to the next job. I can see why people like the security of a job like that , cos you get to know everybody well and fall into a routine. I hope I don't fall into that trap. Trouble is though, the bank pay well and due to the way the bank was set up in london, staff don't pay income tax. Of course this does'nt apply to me as a contractor. There is talk of a full time job at the bank if I want it at the end of the contract. At arround 19 grand tax free it would be a tough offer to turn down. I don't think I could face working there permanantly unless I set myself a goal to save up and bugger off and buy a boat with the proceeds. That is the only way I could stand it. Having said all this, I probably earnt just as much before, with all the overtime I was doing. Now the overtime is there but I'm too knackered to think about working weekends .......
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