An introduction to my blog!

Hi!


My name is Jason Taylor and I've just turned the ripe old age of 30...which I'm finding pretty scary to deal with to be perfecty honest with you! "Why so?" I hear you ask? Well ...here's the thing ...and also the main reason I decided to start this blog in the first place:


At the age of 17 and after a short spell in college, I took up an apprenticeship with a pharmaceutical company and have been in employment ever since. Following my qualification, I spent three years with the company before being made redundant due to site relocation. Despite this set-back, my experience of work until 2005 was one of fulfilment, enjoyment and relative security.


Unfortunately, over the last five years I have been in and out of work, trying my hand at a whole host of jobs ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous! I really have enjoyed some of these roles dearly and feel that I've actually excelled in a number of them - contributing well toward team goals and achieving positive results. On the flipside, I have also endured a number of terrible positions that I have resented with a passion!  These jobs have left me feeling totally frustrated to the core, not-to-mention demeaned, undervalued and even embarrassed at times.


In the last five years alone, I have been made redundant or laid off FOUR times. Whilst my employers will no doubt testify that I always arrived on time, was pleasant to be around, often went above and beyond the expected call of duty and never had a day off unwell - I have always been the guy on the temporary contract, the guy with the least experience or simply the youngest serving member of staff.  When the axe has been wielded...the decision has not always been with my direct line manager, so I have no angst or bitterness toward any of these former employers.  Indeed, it's likely that the call has been made by a financial decision-maker in some far-away office, making a choice to place the head of a man that they'll never even meet firmly upon the chopping block.


As a result of the government’s public sector cuts, I was made redundant from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council on the 31st of December 2010. There are many already in a similar position and thousands more are likely to follow over the coming months.  This blog has been established to tell the tale of the ups and downs of unemployed life, recording the stories of anticipation, the feelings of despair and all the emotions inbetween after the redundancy curtain has fallen.  My head tells me there is a long and arduous path ahead...but my heart tells me there will be a happy ending to look forward to.  This is my blog…this is ‘Life after the Public Sector’.