TGIF | This Too Shall Pass

Greetings,

First of all, I wish a happy Friday to all who celebrate it. It is indeed a joyous day for many 9-5ers who look forward to the weekend every day of the week, hence the expression TGIF - "Thank God it's Friday". Behind me, across the Thames on the north side, in the photo below is the City, the financial district of London, home to a good percentage of the 9-5ers of this city. Mind you, it's more like 6-6sers or, in my case when I worked there, 6-8ers. What was worse, I didn't really look forward to the weekend per se. I often still had to carry work home, and be on call even while I was asleep. I had a pager (yes, back in those days), and a Blackberry, as well as a work issued laptop with all the latest encryption tech of the day. All that stuff can now be dealt with by an Android app. How things have changed.

It was quite interesting walking through that district recently and seeing all the workers going about their business. I could spot myself in the crowd occasionally; the exhausted analyst who's step was slightly out of place. He has been working unsociable hours and is now off home while others are arriving to work. She appears to be arriving late, during others' lunch hour because, well she had to sleep in a little since she only just went to bed at 8am having stayed up to resolve a critical incident overnight, but still had to cover the rest of her day shift since her colleague "broke his leg getting out of bed", or something.

I was thinking to myself how, hopefully, at least these folks are, probably, recession proof. It's a hard life in the City, but, fortunately, wages are high. I was well paid for my job when I worked there, way more than other people doing the same thing elsewhere. Mind you, I was the least paid of all my colleagues, something I found out accidentally since it was forbidden to talk about ages to each other, which is probably why I was kept on during the 2008 financial crash. My team of 7-8 was reduced to just three of us. In hindsight we all probably just represented the best value for money, not that we were exceptional in anyway. We may have been exceptional but, in hindsight, they wouldn't have cared.

I'm not bashing anyone that works in the City. It's an amazing place to work for many people, especially if your job isn't as stressful and soulless like mine was, or if you work at Google or something, but walking through there reminded me of why I must never go back to that life. Sure, everyone was so well dressed and presented, and I was in my hoodie holding a bluetooth triggered selfie stick, thereby raising a few security guards' eyebrows, but the me of back then and the me of now are completely different people. I prefer the me of now, even though it comes with uncertainties.

Another thing I was reminded of was the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. It was a terrible time and we all thought it was over for the world back then. The property crash was monumental. Many companies, especially in the City, went bust! My company did well, profiting massively from the mortgage crisis I remember, and they gloated about it. Day in day out our CEO was on the news talking about how they didn't need any bailout money from the government, unlike other City firms. Crazy days. I did, however, do quite well myself during that crisis. Since I had a pretty good job, and was always diligent about money, I had a nice pot of saved up cash which I invested wisely. I did very well indeed. I was reminded that this recession too shall pass. There is nothing new under the sun.

Peace & Love,

Adé