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Update 24 Dec 2010 - Christmas and Redundancy
15 years ago
Hi everyone - RipRoarRex making one of his rare appearances on his own FA account.
Well, that's that - as of yesterday, I have officially been made redundant.
For anyone who is unaware, I've been working as a Marketing Executive promoting the services of a small local company for the past year or so. It's never really been a job that I truly wanted to do, but it has been my first full-time job and was probably the best I could hope for having graduated in the middle of the worst unemployment slump for 20 years.
It started out well enough - my work was clear, it was as per my job description, and sometimes I actually enjoyed it. Then came this summer, and increasingly I was finding my marketing role shifting into a bog-standard sales role. I'm not a salesman, nor is sales a career I wish to embark upon. Suffice to say that by August, I was already getting a hunch that, one way or the other, I wasn't going to be at that company much longer.
November rolls around and my manager calls me into the office at 4:30 one afternoon for 'a quick chat'. I knew what was coming - he basically outlined to me that since I was brought in back in 2009, the needs of the company have changed and they need something more akin to a sales rep, out on the road doing face-to-face business and closing deals. We both recognised that this wasn't the job I applied for, nor did I have the relevant experience or skills to really perform in that role. I came in for marketing and promotions, and that's not what the company needs now. Inevitably therefore, being a small company, they don't have the resources to keep me on and bring someone new in, so they've had to make me redundant. Thankfully, my boss is a cracking bloke, and had the good grace to agree this with me in November yet decide that I should stay on till Christmas, giving everyone a bit of time to sort things out before they let me go. Yesterday was therefore my final day - got my Christmas present with a little something extra as a leaving gift, and walked out for good.
It's for the best for everyone really - they need something that I can't give them, and truthfully, I'd had about enough of that job anyway. The people were great, the place was local and easy to get to, but at the end of the day, the work was of no real interest to me after a while. That being said, I've gained some experience, earned some wages, broke out of my cosy university routine, learned a lot about the working world and business operation in general, and made some friends along the way. We've all parted on good terms - not like I was fired or anything - and I can still keep touch as well as getting a good reference from my manager.
The crux of it though, is that now I am unemployed.
Now before anyone gets excited saying "ooh, you have time now! Draw! Animate! Get on MSN! Blah-blah-blah", I should make it clear that the RipRoarRex that once had very few responsibilities and spent days on the internet goofing around is gone. He went when I graduated from University. Yes, I will have more time on my hands for a while - an indefinite period as it stands, given that I don't have another job on the horizon - but that doesn't mean I'll be messing around. If nothing else, I do have a lot of voluntary commitments - I'm still the editor of a football website in my spare time, and I do voluntary proofreading for a national charity, so I have plenty to keep me occupied. More than anything else though, I have no intentions in bumming around for any great length of time. I'm seeing this as an opportunity to escape from the doldrums and actually start chasing a job that I want. Whether that will happen seems unlikely to me at the moment, but I can only try. And try I will once Christmas is out of the way.
For now though, this is my situation. I thought it would be best to let everyone know - you might indeed see a bit more of me in the weeks to come, though possibly not over Christmas (given that I'm otherwise occupied and my brother has come to stay for two weeks). If anyone's curious however, I do have absolute hoards of work in the pipeline. Ideas are not the problem - finishing them is.
Here's a bit of a sense of what I've got:
* The continuation of 'Rexar & Mike - First Time' - this is now the big farce of my gallery having gone on for over 18 months without an update. My best intentions are there but I'm rapidly losing the will to pick it up again. Suffice to say though that there is still a deep-rooted desire to see it out, so I may finally have a go at Page 4 if the mood takes me. But please, guys, don't keep asking me about this. To be blunt, I find it really annoying. If it gets finished, hurray. If not, them's the breaks.
* A crush comic involving Cassie and some snails - pretty much says everything you need it to. Panel 1 has reached the colouring stage but nothing else has been drawn, so this could well take a while.
* King Koopa foot-worship animation - spoken about this many times before and this is still very much in my thoughts. I started it in February 2010 but have only been able to work on it in a very piecemeal way - a couple of frames maybe once every 2 months. It's not getting anywhere fast. Perhaps I will have a little more time for it now but we'll see. I still very much want to get this finished though.
* An animation involving Brian and Stewie Griffin - I won't divulge too much at this stage but it has already been started and may get finished, if I can be bothered and if I can find the time.
* Numerous other unfinished works - there's a couple of gift pictures in there for some folks, a macro-micro picture involving Rocky and Mike, that TMNT comic that has been on hold for absolute yonks, a Hux crush animation that has been on hold for almost as long... the list goes on.
Other things I should note:
* NEW CHARACTERS - people may be interested to know that at least two new regular characters are planned to be added to my little gang in 2011. They are very different and will both add something new to my gallery. Pictures involving both are already well underway - one nearing completion - and they will hopefully be making their debuts in the weeks to come. Given that I plan to use them as regular characters, I do have lots of further ideas for them at present.
* REQUESTS - guys, as I've said on previous occasions (example), I am not taking requests anymore. Anyone who requested something and hasn't had a bean for over two years now will know precisely why I've stopped taking them. If I can't finish my own picture ideas, what's the odds of me ever getting through a request list. There are a couple of old requests submitted to me in that time that I genuinely do still intend to take up - if indeed they aren't amongst those that I've started already - but these will be very ad hoc. If I'm doing your picture, you'll know. Please don't come to me asking me if I'm working on your idea, and for goodness' sake, don't come to me asking for me to do something for you, because I can't, and I've told you I can't. I'm being blunt, guys, because it does my head in.
* NEW IDEAS - one of the reasons I get very tired of people submitting suggestions to me is because, frankly, I have far too many ideas of my own. I do - there's always a whole host of smuttery going on in my head and really, it's just a case of waiting for the right mood to take over me on any given weekend when I feel the urge to get it down on paper. It's slow going though, as the past year has shown, and I can never ever hope to draw even a fraction of the ideas I come up with. So no, bar a very small minority of suggestions that might just click with me, I can't keep taking more on. And to be honest, generally a lot of the suggestions I receive are so incredibly bland; "hey, Rex, can you draw more of Rocky please, thanks" (as if I'd never thought of that) or "hi, can you draw my character with your character doing something you've drawn umpteen times before but it's different this time cos it's my character". Guys, please - you can see how little artwork I do these days. I can't fulfil every single person's desire to see their character with mine. It will not happen. Hate to be an arse, but that's how it is.
Anyway, there's my update, a good 8 months in coming. If you're wondering, folks, I rarely login to FA anymore - it used to be a several-times-a-day affair when I was at university, as indeed was every other website that I visit. But now, save for Eccentricities, none of my accounts are used with that much regularity. So if you send me a note or a comment or whatever, don't expect a quick reply. It'll be a case of 'when I get round to it' these days. Until recently, I had a buildup of nearly 2000 messages (comments, faves, shouts etc) on this account - checking through all of those is an insurmountable task which I don't have the time for, so I may not be able to reply to everything that is said. For that, I can ony offer my deepest apologies and assure you that it's not because it isn't appreciated. That goes for emails as well - my Gmail account is now up to 636 unread emails. Hell, even my everyday personal email address is up to 784 unread messages, and that's the one I check every day! I never used to be like this, but if anyone were to see my bedroom, they'd see how disorganised my life has become since I took that job over a year ago. Now I might just be able to settle down and get things cleared up a bit...
(Yeah, that'll be the day... )
Enough of my Scrooge impression - here's wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Best wishes,
RRRex
Well, that's that - as of yesterday, I have officially been made redundant.
For anyone who is unaware, I've been working as a Marketing Executive promoting the services of a small local company for the past year or so. It's never really been a job that I truly wanted to do, but it has been my first full-time job and was probably the best I could hope for having graduated in the middle of the worst unemployment slump for 20 years.
It started out well enough - my work was clear, it was as per my job description, and sometimes I actually enjoyed it. Then came this summer, and increasingly I was finding my marketing role shifting into a bog-standard sales role. I'm not a salesman, nor is sales a career I wish to embark upon. Suffice to say that by August, I was already getting a hunch that, one way or the other, I wasn't going to be at that company much longer.
November rolls around and my manager calls me into the office at 4:30 one afternoon for 'a quick chat'. I knew what was coming - he basically outlined to me that since I was brought in back in 2009, the needs of the company have changed and they need something more akin to a sales rep, out on the road doing face-to-face business and closing deals. We both recognised that this wasn't the job I applied for, nor did I have the relevant experience or skills to really perform in that role. I came in for marketing and promotions, and that's not what the company needs now. Inevitably therefore, being a small company, they don't have the resources to keep me on and bring someone new in, so they've had to make me redundant. Thankfully, my boss is a cracking bloke, and had the good grace to agree this with me in November yet decide that I should stay on till Christmas, giving everyone a bit of time to sort things out before they let me go. Yesterday was therefore my final day - got my Christmas present with a little something extra as a leaving gift, and walked out for good.
It's for the best for everyone really - they need something that I can't give them, and truthfully, I'd had about enough of that job anyway. The people were great, the place was local and easy to get to, but at the end of the day, the work was of no real interest to me after a while. That being said, I've gained some experience, earned some wages, broke out of my cosy university routine, learned a lot about the working world and business operation in general, and made some friends along the way. We've all parted on good terms - not like I was fired or anything - and I can still keep touch as well as getting a good reference from my manager.
The crux of it though, is that now I am unemployed.
Now before anyone gets excited saying "ooh, you have time now! Draw! Animate! Get on MSN! Blah-blah-blah", I should make it clear that the RipRoarRex that once had very few responsibilities and spent days on the internet goofing around is gone. He went when I graduated from University. Yes, I will have more time on my hands for a while - an indefinite period as it stands, given that I don't have another job on the horizon - but that doesn't mean I'll be messing around. If nothing else, I do have a lot of voluntary commitments - I'm still the editor of a football website in my spare time, and I do voluntary proofreading for a national charity, so I have plenty to keep me occupied. More than anything else though, I have no intentions in bumming around for any great length of time. I'm seeing this as an opportunity to escape from the doldrums and actually start chasing a job that I want. Whether that will happen seems unlikely to me at the moment, but I can only try. And try I will once Christmas is out of the way.
For now though, this is my situation. I thought it would be best to let everyone know - you might indeed see a bit more of me in the weeks to come, though possibly not over Christmas (given that I'm otherwise occupied and my brother has come to stay for two weeks). If anyone's curious however, I do have absolute hoards of work in the pipeline. Ideas are not the problem - finishing them is.
Here's a bit of a sense of what I've got:
* The continuation of 'Rexar & Mike - First Time' - this is now the big farce of my gallery having gone on for over 18 months without an update. My best intentions are there but I'm rapidly losing the will to pick it up again. Suffice to say though that there is still a deep-rooted desire to see it out, so I may finally have a go at Page 4 if the mood takes me. But please, guys, don't keep asking me about this. To be blunt, I find it really annoying. If it gets finished, hurray. If not, them's the breaks.
* A crush comic involving Cassie and some snails - pretty much says everything you need it to. Panel 1 has reached the colouring stage but nothing else has been drawn, so this could well take a while.
* King Koopa foot-worship animation - spoken about this many times before and this is still very much in my thoughts. I started it in February 2010 but have only been able to work on it in a very piecemeal way - a couple of frames maybe once every 2 months. It's not getting anywhere fast. Perhaps I will have a little more time for it now but we'll see. I still very much want to get this finished though.
* An animation involving Brian and Stewie Griffin - I won't divulge too much at this stage but it has already been started and may get finished, if I can be bothered and if I can find the time.
* Numerous other unfinished works - there's a couple of gift pictures in there for some folks, a macro-micro picture involving Rocky and Mike, that TMNT comic that has been on hold for absolute yonks, a Hux crush animation that has been on hold for almost as long... the list goes on.
Other things I should note:
* NEW CHARACTERS - people may be interested to know that at least two new regular characters are planned to be added to my little gang in 2011. They are very different and will both add something new to my gallery. Pictures involving both are already well underway - one nearing completion - and they will hopefully be making their debuts in the weeks to come. Given that I plan to use them as regular characters, I do have lots of further ideas for them at present.
* REQUESTS - guys, as I've said on previous occasions (example), I am not taking requests anymore. Anyone who requested something and hasn't had a bean for over two years now will know precisely why I've stopped taking them. If I can't finish my own picture ideas, what's the odds of me ever getting through a request list. There are a couple of old requests submitted to me in that time that I genuinely do still intend to take up - if indeed they aren't amongst those that I've started already - but these will be very ad hoc. If I'm doing your picture, you'll know. Please don't come to me asking me if I'm working on your idea, and for goodness' sake, don't come to me asking for me to do something for you, because I can't, and I've told you I can't. I'm being blunt, guys, because it does my head in.
* NEW IDEAS - one of the reasons I get very tired of people submitting suggestions to me is because, frankly, I have far too many ideas of my own. I do - there's always a whole host of smuttery going on in my head and really, it's just a case of waiting for the right mood to take over me on any given weekend when I feel the urge to get it down on paper. It's slow going though, as the past year has shown, and I can never ever hope to draw even a fraction of the ideas I come up with. So no, bar a very small minority of suggestions that might just click with me, I can't keep taking more on. And to be honest, generally a lot of the suggestions I receive are so incredibly bland; "hey, Rex, can you draw more of Rocky please, thanks" (as if I'd never thought of that) or "hi, can you draw my character with your character doing something you've drawn umpteen times before but it's different this time cos it's my character". Guys, please - you can see how little artwork I do these days. I can't fulfil every single person's desire to see their character with mine. It will not happen. Hate to be an arse, but that's how it is.
Anyway, there's my update, a good 8 months in coming. If you're wondering, folks, I rarely login to FA anymore - it used to be a several-times-a-day affair when I was at university, as indeed was every other website that I visit. But now, save for Eccentricities, none of my accounts are used with that much regularity. So if you send me a note or a comment or whatever, don't expect a quick reply. It'll be a case of 'when I get round to it' these days. Until recently, I had a buildup of nearly 2000 messages (comments, faves, shouts etc) on this account - checking through all of those is an insurmountable task which I don't have the time for, so I may not be able to reply to everything that is said. For that, I can ony offer my deepest apologies and assure you that it's not because it isn't appreciated. That goes for emails as well - my Gmail account is now up to 636 unread emails. Hell, even my everyday personal email address is up to 784 unread messages, and that's the one I check every day! I never used to be like this, but if anyone were to see my bedroom, they'd see how disorganised my life has become since I took that job over a year ago. Now I might just be able to settle down and get things cleared up a bit...
(Yeah, that'll be the day... )
Enough of my Scrooge impression - here's wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Best wishes,
RRRex
SP