It hasn't been entirely easy, of course, and I can't say I've fully found my feet yet, but it is still exciting and I'm still enjoying it. I guess that is good enough in this present economic climate; there are some I fleetingly met here who are no longer with us.
Just a week after I joined, there was a full company meeting. (Oh, the joy of having so shallow a corporate structure that the CEO was in the same room as me.) The company had to make savings of such-n-such per month; suggestions for savings were being taken now (from anyone); redundancies were inevitable; we will consult with each and every one of you over the next two weeks; those who are ear-marked to leave us already know this.
I was, understandably nervous -- I only just got here, and one of the criteria was length of service. Well, I'll get my coat. But it turned out, I hadn't known it, so maybe I wasn't going, and this was confirmed (in a personal interview) soon after (approx. an hour later).
It transpires that the percentage cut in our (little) company was only just higher than that for my previous (humungous) company. About twenty from the new firm were let go. I shudder to think of the number in the old place. I guess the procedure was a little slicker here -- it was all over in two weeks, and everybody had a say. In the old place, I hear there was FUD (and blood) but that, thankfully for my old colleagues, not many casualties in the UK Lab.
All in all, I'm happy to have moved. Although my chances of being snuffed were (numerically, at least) higher here, I think I might have been a casualty (early retirement forced) and although I missed a redundancy offer, I'm happier to have jumped rather than being pushed. I feel so much better about this place having made the decision myself.
And they seem to want me.
All we gotta do is make money this year. Shouldn't be too hard :-)
