It was 2009, I had worked at my local hospital for 42 years since I was 17. I was a senior manager in charge of 19 people responsible for implementing a new clinical computer system. We had been working at mapping existing processes within the hospital, logging all forms and recording all paper trails. The team included clinical, nursing and admin staff, so we knew what we were doing.

Thursday morning we were all called into a meeting room and told the team was to be disbanded, there were 11 jobs we could apply for but they were hiring contractors to do the “important” work. Total disrespect to me as the manager that I hadn’t even been given a heads up.

I had contacts in HR, the idea was that you could apply for any of the posts and if unsuccessful you would be offered jobs within the organisation, if you turned down three you would have been deemed to resigned, no redundancy payment.

There were no suitable jobs in the new set up so I would be offered senior manager jobs in areas in which I had no experience. I was also told in confidence that with 42 years service and senior manager pay there was no way they would give me redundancy pay.

One of the first tasks I got involved in in the IT job was to help install a radiology and PACS {digital imaging) system. Radiology had recently contacted me and asked if I was interested in a 3 day a week job looking after the systems, the previous manager had just retired. I had been umming and ahhing, I said I would have to give 3 months notice and had been told that was OK.

Because my job was now at risk I didn’t need to give notice. Friday morning I attended the interview that 48 hours earlier I wasn’t sure I was going to and was offered the job at lunchtime. I agreed to start on the Monday.

I was eligible to draw my pension, so that afternoon I contacted the payroll dept, told them what was happening, that I would need to start drawing my pension on monday. I also told most of my team what was happening, but not the 3 toadies.

I spent the weekend at work destroying all my notes and info I had gathered, deleting anything relevant from my hard disk and left a clean desk.

I learnt from my new boss, that my old boss thought I had been “disrespectful” for not telling her I was looking at other jobs. Disrespectful was not the word I used for “sacking” me with no notice after 42 years.

She ignored me from then on but had to request something about interfacing our systems with the new one. I had great pleasure in telling her what she was asking was not possible but I knew how it could be done.

My new part-time (3 days/week) job plus my pension was £21 less per year than my previous job. It was the best move I ever made.