Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

People?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

What are they all about?

Grrr!

Tim Ocsko

HBOS

A new day! 00.01GMT, Thursday 18th September.

If you were around to read this morning’s blog – you will know that on Wednesday 17thSeptember {just yesterday} I was walking with my good friend JS. We had a great day – more of that later today. The weather was warm and sunny – with the only clouds on my horizon arriving courtesy of Radio 4’s 1pm  GMT News Programme.

HBOS in advanced merger talks with Lloyds TSB.

You deserve an explanation. The career which I have referred to on a number of occasions over the last couple of weeks, the career I ended to embark on my oddyssey, the career I had cherished was… at HBOS.

I started as a clerk in a branch 23 years ago for the Leeds Permanaent Building Society in of all places Morecambe {well it always makes me laugh}. Through various promotions and mergers I eventually found myself as an IT Programme Director within HBOS. I met and worked with and for many great people. Sure there were some real twits too but hey! who’se perfect?

About 13 months ago {August 2007}, well in fact it was August 10th 2007 if you want to be precise – I started having some serious doubts about whether I needed to move on and whether the actions of some of those {and please be clear a very small minority} around me were honourable {you know who you are – no skulking at the back please! But you need to understand I have moved on, forgiven you and wish you very well in this troubled period}.

I worked through this over the next 6 months and came to the painful conclusion that it was time for me to move on – leaving in mid June earlier this year {2008}. It was a huge decision for me as I was very very work focussed {too much so – I keep promising to fill you in on this and will do soon} and was very ambitious {though Its only since I have left that I recognise this}. I don’t regret leaving for one nano second and when I did leave , I was prepared and made good financial arrangements for myself and my family.

I had choice. I exercised choice.

The people I dealt with when I left dealt with my departure with honour and integrity and I remain grateful to them. Since then I have been working through where I go next. My final email on that final day was titled ‘Will the real Tim Ocsko please stand up?’ I remain in pursuit of him.

So why sad? Why clouds on what was the best day of my life?

I was sad for all those ex colleagues of mine who must have felt in the dark throughout the last few days and probably felt concern, even fear, today for their future and the futures of their families.

I was sad for all those great people across various parts of HBOS like the ‘Halifax’, the ‘Bank of Scotland’ and ‘Birmingham Midshires’ who through the merger {takeover?} with Lloyds may well see their corporate identity disappear. Not that corporate identity is the be all and end all but in an age when so many of us hanker for a real sense of identity, I can understand those who find comfort in the identity of who they work for. I know about this because my identity was so closely linked to my workplace.

I was sad because these guys will have lost a lot of money. A lot of their savings. These aren’t fat cats – like the spivs and speculators which Alex Salmond rightly attacked today as partly responsible for the downfall of HBOS. These are people who have saved from their monthly wages in Company Sponsored Sharesave schemes, who have taken their bonus in shares rather than cash – actively investing in the company they were proud to be part of, Many of their hopes and dreams will be in ruins. And the threat of loosing their job will worsen their plight.

But most of all, most most most of all I was sad because it didn’t feel like they had any choice. Unlike me months earlier who had exercised mine – and in doing so had protected myself inadvertently from the current wave of pain.

There are positives! I know that there are still some great leaders left in HBOS who will do their level best to make this next phase of your evolution work. And you have such a great culture of getting things done. Ignore the twits – they will already be thinking who to grease upto in LLoyds. There will always be twits. Concentrate on endeavouring to make the new company a great place for people to work. A place of dignity and integrity.

Make good choices. Make today … the best day of your life.

My thoughts and very best wishes are with you.

Tim Ocsko

As promised…

I wrote that first short story. Finished. In the can {or whatever the writing equivalent is}.

It is about my dad, a journey he took and a journey he sent me on. It made me cry. Happy crying. My father died some years ago. I remain very proud of being his son. {Incidentally I am getting good at crying! I don’t think I ever cried enough in the past}. It’s a  great feeling having completed it because it reminded me of what a hero my dad was and I typed the final words really inspired to tackle this week head on. I know I have many bridges to cross to find me but at the very least..I am on my way.

I have had to send it now to be reviewed by the editor of Steve’s next book. It is due for release in January 2009 – the start of a new annual calendar journey which we all embark upon and the official launch of our new business – STORIES FROM THE STREET. What a journey that will be!  I am the only sane one amongst the lot of them!  You will read a lot more about the company launch, the first Stories from the Street publication and lots of exciting things you can get involved in by sticking to this blog. Watch this space!  I do hope that Steve, Sally, Dick, Dan and Anderson like it. But I hope even more that you like it when you get the chance to read it.  My wife proof read it just now and said it was great. But she is bias – and that’s why I married her.

Doesn’t life throw up some curious and funny symmetries. I spent the few hours prior to writing,  with one of my two beautiful daughters. She is stepping elegantly into womanhood. She is brave. Smart. Funny. Strong. She is finding herself before she looses herself in the world. She is doing everything right that I got wrong. Like my father she too is one of my heroes.

Tim Ocsko

Writer (?).

Every picture tells a story (4)

Secrets-Andy Crump

Andy is someone who has given himself to the wonder of the journey of life. Forsaking  a partnership in a large firm of Architects he prefers the freedom that comes from time spent in the things that matter to him. He rents a small flat in his home city of Leeds.