Cutbacks and purges in Melbourne Diaries

What's happening at work is becoming clearer day by day, and it's not a pretty picture. The axe won't fall on me (if at all) until around June, but it's emerged that the changes are more than the usual 'restructuring' that happens when there's a new government. What's going on is a vindictive purge of the legal area I work in. And it's largely down to one person.

Last year, a new general counsel was appointed who was a controversial selection, leaving in her wake allegations of bullying and harrassment of other staff (in support of a husband and work colleague who was turfed out for sexual harrassment) from her previous job at a private law firm. Sadly, her Pol Pot-like interpersonal skills were not considered a hindrance to her recruitment. Things were quiet, until several disagreements with the six most senior staff, upon which she declared to all and sundry that, barring one favourite of hers, they were all totally 'useless', and is now in the process of pushing out an entire suite of executives who have worked for around ten years from their jobs. What is taking place is not the cutback it was advertised to be, but rather a purge so this one person can remake the legal area in her own image. That she's being allowed to do so is symptomatic of the fear and hesitation among still within the Australian public service. Nobody could have gotten away with this one year ago. The atmosphere in Canberra, which I am mercifully distanced from, is appalling, like that of a defeated army. The worst is my own supervisor, a fiergenuinely nice woman with four kids (most of whom have some serious illness) who is now contemplating a 'voluntary' redundancy.

What this means for me is entirely unclear. I am no favourite of theperson concerned, but nor am I her enemy (oddly enough, our few interactions have been fairly pleasant). However, yesterday she decided to 'takeover' a major contractual negotiation that she is completely incapable of handling, effectively sidelining everyone I work for, and disregarding good commercial relations that have been over two years in the making. The CEO of our agency, who I get on very well with (so much so that some staff were whispering that I was sleeping with her at one stage - I'm not, by the way) was very upset, for the first time seeing the writing on the wall for years of work. Yet this could be her undoing, as her inexperience may come to light should she attempt to negotiation with our stakeholders in the way she negotiates with her own staff, jeopardising millions (billions) of contract payments.

I'm trying to pre-empt my own future 'reselection' or outright sacking by applying for jobs across Australia. The job market is very uncertain, but I do have some advantages. I'm very independent for a government lawyer, have a visually impressive work record, and can even legitimately call myself as 'Dr Herzog' in job correspondence, ressurrecting my old PhD. Most people in Canberra feel that their careers have been destroyed, but I'm not in Canberra and the stigma attached to a my job generally (which now looks like a Pompeii of politically destroyed programs and projects) doesn't apply elsewhere in the country. Moreover, I can live practically anywhere in Australia. It's not yet the end of my career as such (never that spectacular anyway), rather a nasty hurdle. This paragraph could either be justifiable optimism, or arrogant naivety.

But it'll be a very stressful time. In fact, it's stressful now. I've been quite ill in the past fortnight, and with several bad leg injuries have lost fitness in recent months. Plans for the usual overseas holiday (which I really need this year) have been shelved, and relations with my parents are fairly strained.

It's a nasty surprise, perhaps the worst thing I'll encounter within my working life, but I'm not seeing it as an end just yet.