Fond farewells

It was a big day for one of the offices I work in - for eight people who have been made redundant left the building. It's very sad. This particular workplace has had five sets of redundancies in four years. I was made redundant in the second wave (I'm working for them freelance at the moment). It's one of the friendliest and most creative teams I've ever worked in. One of the managers highlighted the amount of decency the team displays, even in very tough times. She's right - we always look out for each other and will continue to do so. During the leaving drinks in the pub, people who worked in the team more than 15 years ago came along to toast the leavers.

We enjoyed an afternoon Christmas lunch, where we had a great laugh over various things. One of the production girls described a pop-up "Joy of Sex" book she'd spotted at a printers' fair. The mind boggles. During the dinner, Dragana received a call to say that she'd been offered a great job very near her home - hooray! Beth and Alex also have jobs lined up. These workplaces are very lucky to have such amazing people joining their teams. For those yet without a full-time job, freelance work calls. I wish them the very best of luck.

Dragana and Jack gave me their rodent desk mascots for me to look after. They have a good home and were happy to be blipped.