I saw par's thread here and started to ruminate upon my day. While nowhere near as immediate an gut-wrenching as par's experience, this is still a bit of a low point.

I discovered today, during a training course, that the next government here in the UK (almost inevitably the Tories) are planning to do away with my civil service department. Their plan would essentially place my role in the hands of another state organisation that would eliminate the vast majority of people in my role. My superiors, probably fearing for themselves, haven't chosen to share this.

When I got home, I was greeted by my wife. She is a civil servant in another department. She received an email from her assistant today informing her that a role was being created above her. She is on maternity leave, and planning to go part time. The new role is full time, and the job description for it inolves most of her duties. Not only is she essentially being demoted from being her section manager, but it looks like her job may disappear entirely. She could apply for the new job, but she would lose the chance to go part time and spend more time with our daughter. Her department is restructuring at present, and she had been told what was happening with her section, but those plans have now been put oj hold, essentially leaving her section in no-man's land.

6 months ago, we were doing really well; Mrs J was pregnant, we were looking to sell our house at a healthy profit, and we had good jobs. Now, the bottom has dropped out of the housing market, we are starting to struggle financially as the cost of living has risen so sharply, and our jobs are under threat. We both took these jobs for the sake of stability when we started a family, and now that we are at that stage, the stability is disappearing.

Sorry, all a bit depressing. On the bright side, we have a beautiful baby girl!