I've been hiding inside my headphones this morning.  Lots going on in the Office that I really cannot be bothered with today.  Another set of reshuffles is underway, trying to find the capacity for an additional 250 voluntary redundancies.  Lots of angry noises coming from the union at the moment 

By the time this is finished we'll have cut our staff by 1000, or 15%.  In some areas that isn't a big problem, like most other Irish banks we have a large 'sales force' who were involved in servicing the property market and other borrowers.  As a result  of the crash in that market, and the severe dowbturn in the Irish ecconomy,  the level of loan applications to be processed has fallen dramatically. 

Potential customers are in short supply and many of those who are applying fail credit checks on the basis of Stress Testing.  In other words they are applying for mortgages they can afford at current Interest Rates, but which they will quickly find impossible to manage when the inevitable Interest rate hikes start to appear.

So cuts in front line and loan support staff are easy to find, but for many other areas there has been no reduction in workload.  Indeed there are a number of growth areas.  Dealing with the financial regulators, or managing potential bad debt spring to mind.

Cuts are falling mainly in the Republic of Ireland, the Irish government and employers have been very good to themselves over the past few years.  There has been a government approved rate for pay increases applied to salaries year on year during the Celtic Tiger period.   The difference in settlements has been such that my equivalent in ROI is paid 20-30% more than me in real terms.   I suspect that trend will start to reverse itself in the next few years and Irish tax rates will again move way ahead of the UK,

Our workload has increased quite considerably in recent weeks.  Instead of us having to push for process reviews they are now being requested, but my line Manager has been transferred leaving all of his work behind him.  Including some of the dullest audio meetings known to man.  (The one i'm in at the moment isn't exactly thrilling)  Very shortly I'll be required to say 'no, we don't sell that sort of product' and that will be my full contribution for this month.

A busy few months ahead I suspect.

Giants 4, Blaze 5. 

Belfast Giants game on saturday was also showing the effect of the Credit Crunch.  A much smaller crowd than last season and a poor atmosphere.   It may be my imagination, but I suspect we are seeing a lower standard of play as well.  Players who last season were on 2nd lines have been promoted to first line status and not, I suspect, because they have improved.  The Giants have replaced their main sponsors and do not appear to have been able to afford the quality of overseas players they had last year.

Even with that they had to work hard to lose this game.  They seemed to be by the better team by a long way, more than double the number of shots than Coventry.  But they were lacklustre in defense and suffered badly for poor goal tending.  They were 4-1 down by the end of the first period with two of the Blaze goals coming from unlucky/silly goaltending errors.  It was only in the final period, when they were already well down, that the Giants came to life but Coventry held on for the win.  In the end the best thing about the evening was the Thai Red Curry I had on the way home.

House a bit of a mess at the moment.  After 90 years the pebbledash on the outside walls had started letting in water.  So its being replaced.  Never in the field of human building have two workmen drunk so much tea in so short a period.!