Ron Gordon – Leaving the service and joining Civvy Street

When I was at the end of my time, so that was 32 years, they gave me an extension because nobody could fill the job.

I was in a brilliant job, another great job. The last six years I was at Submarine School in HMS Dolphin, and I was Procurement Officer in there. I was responsible for all the training equipment in the School, maintaining it, so the team maintained it and the building, and also I was responsible for procuring new equipment, so I could go across to America, to Information Technology Conferences and where of all these new equipment’s were, so I had a brilliant time there, and then last year, they couldn’t find anyone to take my place, so they said, “Would you mind an extension?”

So, I said, “Yeah, ok.” It couldn’t have been better timing. Then at the end of that year, I phoned up and said, “Could you give me an extension until I’m 55?” you know so then that would be good. Then I could think about retiring.

They said, “No Ron, we’ve got somebody to replace you.” I said, “Well you’ve given extensions to other guys that are on the same course as me.” “No Ron, we can’t do it.” He said, “We can give you another year’s extension.” I said, “No, that’s just putting off the inevitable about leaving and getting into civvy street” so I told them no.

As soon as I put the phone down, I thought oh, what have I let myself in for.

I’m giving this job up, another year of it, but it worked out right because two months later this young lady walked into my office and said, “Would you like to come and work for us?”

And that’s who I’ve worked with for the next 13 years. Facilities Management Company working in the Portsmouth area providing all the facilities for all the Naval Training Establishments. I’ve stuck here so it’s good.

Simon: So what’s that … using your organisation skills to make sure …

Yeah and recruiting people to take over Navy jobs with the authority … you know it’s cheaper to provide civilians to do that work, you know like Unit Personnel Offices where you’re organising pay, Chefs, Instructors, all jobs that didn’t require the specialist knowledge of a Navy guy. And that was a decision that was made at highest level across in Navy Command, that they would need to cut their shore-based costs so they could support the Fleet.

So, they provided the … you know they’ve changed massively the Training Establishments where it used to be all Navy people, it’s now mostly civilians, except for the specialist areas.