Sense and nonsense

My Uncommon Sense column in Human Resources Magazine is to become highly uncommon after next month as it's had the chop. This is one very good reason why I would never advise anyone to give up their day job without some deep thinking.

Charles Handy's freelance portfolio lifestyle can be an excellent way of making a living when times are good. But when budgets get squeezed as they are just now it is the outsiders whose bum cheeks are closest to those who wield the boot.

My own bum cheeks haven't stopped smarting for more than a year as a once healthy portfolio has been whittled away to a single monthly column in the FT, and who knows how long that might last? The wolf is not at the door anymore, he's making himself comfortable in my favourite armchair, pouring himself a gin and tonic and watching repeats of three little piggies - apart from the ending; he doesn't watch the last bit.

Meanwhile I have started a new book, not about work this time, but about the shape of things to come, although it will not be forecasting the end of the job, a theme I once explored in this old column. Funnily enough one of my sons is inventing computer games these days. Yes, times are hard in the Donkin household. I hope I'll be able to write a happy ending.