[scrotnig]

Well, that's that done and dusted.

We're encouraged not to be bothered by this news, after all we've known since April and all of us have either got new jobs within ntl, or have decided to take the money and run...a formal decision on which I have yet to take.

Nonetheless, an era is coming to an end. Regardless of everything else, I enjoy working for ntl and I have really enjoyed my curent role. It's reasonably paid, interesting, satisfying, and the shifts are great.

I may enjoy my new role if I decide to stay, but that doesn't alter the fact that this, for me, is a very sad and upsetting time. Last time ntl made me redundant, it didn't really amtter as I'd only been there four months and had no 'affinity' with the company. After three and a half years you know the company inside out, you know its foibles, you know how it works, you understand it and in fact, whether you like it or not, you become a part of it...and to a degree, it also becomes a part of you.

So it's sad, very sad, and I make no apologies tonight for shedding a metaphorical tear at the passing of my current job, and possibly, the passing of my entire employment with ntl.

I've been in this situation twice before, once with a national pizza company which I was an openings manager for, the company was quite quirky (as is ntl, I always seem to work for quirky companies!) and abruptly got sold to a rival. Then again with a supermarket chain for whom I was a department manager and my job 'went'.

Both occasions were sad, and both occasions resulted in my leaving a job I didn't want to give up.

People tell me, whatever happens, it'll be a new era of my life and I will probably enjoy it as much if not more. That may be so, however none of that alters the huge sadness at the ending of something in this way.