It had to happen sometime, of course, only I hadn't counted on it happening so soon: 8 months after starting in my new job, I've fallen seriously out of love with it. For months, my manager had been telling me what a great job I'd been doing, and how glad she was to have me on board. Then, 4 weeks ago, she came over. The first thing she told me when we met up that Monday morning, was that she was no longer my manager; that, in fact, she'd handed over the responsibility to someone called Jessica about 2 months previously. After that, for the rest of her week long stay, I hardly saw her, except when she came to hug me before getting in the taxi to take her to the airport and back to California. Thursday, a week and a half ago, around 5:30pm, she called me out of the blue, to give me my first mid-year review...and in the space of 7 minutes over the phone, proceeded to let me know that my work has been, in her estimation, unsatisfactory on every level. She took me completely by surprise, and I just couldn't believe my ears. I'd thought I was doing okay; in fact, she'd told me on numerous occasions that I was doing great, so this review, in which I scored 1.63 on a scale of 1-5, upset me greatly. So much so, that I couldn't stop the tears from falling after she'd hung up. Honestly, I was in pieces. My co-workers, from the CFO to the HR manager, were as shocked as I was when I told them what had just happened, and the latter advised me to request a) examples of my work not being up to scratch, and b) for an action plan to be put together, so that I could try to improve on those areas before my next review in December (presuming I won't be sacked before then). Which I did...but a week has gone by, and I've not heard back from her; nor have I ever heard a peep out of this Jessica, to whom I'm supposed to report.

Meanwhile, the company's gone through a rebranding exercise - we're no longer called Network Hardware Resale, but Curvature. The old name had to go as we're shifting our position from primarily being a reseller of refurbished and legacy network hardware to a solution-based IT company that also buys and sells refurbished and legacy network hardware. My job, as Services Administrator, is to work on the solution side of things, i.e. our trump card, our lifetime warranty and professional services programme.

Anyway, last week at the launch party, I got talking to a few people and was reliably informed that in Europe, we've been falling behind the projected figures for the sales of this programme over the last 2 quarters; and I think my bad review may owe more to this fact than to my actual performance, or lack of it -- if the figures don't pick up, and soon, they might decide to ditch me when my contract expires on December 1st, or perhaps even sooner. The review then, could be a first step in building the case against me, necessary under Dutch employment law.

BTW, the new name, Curvature? They spent 18 months and countless millions working with a 'leading global rebranding marketing company in LA' to come up with it; all the while stressing that our major push over the next few years will be to break into the eastern European market. You would think then, that these global rebranding experts would have tested out the name in that geographical area, wouldn't you? But it transpired they only tested it out on a panel of 400 people in the US, who apparently like that it stands for 'a measurement of change'. Too bad, then, that when it's pronounced in a Slavic accent, that meaning changes to "Whore Tours"...