Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, I became one of the first shoes to drop at my old company, when I returned from "morning break" and walked straight into a layoff. A year later, a lot of other people are gone, and at the end of this month a former support team of four (myself included) will be reduced to two.

Which is OK, because there's about half as many employees to support now. Though their technical environment has only become more complex. There's also no more programming department, fewer people in all other areas, and in a fairly cynical move some of the people dumped have, in fact, been replaced by new hires who are younger and cheaper. But most have just been cast off.

I do hope what's left of the business succeeds, but preferably the process will derail the career of the ferretish-looking fellow who was the architect of the plan. Needless to say, I favored trying to repair the existing business for what it was worth. And I'm still a lot more bugged about all the other folks who lost their jobs than I am about myself. I expected my own job to go away, mainly for other political reasons having to do with the overall consolidation of the enterprise's IT groups. Within the org chart, I was an unneeded layer of management (technical skills don't appear in an org chart).

But as for those technical skills, they've served me well for years, and they're serving me well now. I think this company of mine is really turning the corner now. Between business I've signed and business I've got committed, I'm pretty solidly booked well into September, and there's more coming, it seems. I'll do it alone as long as I can (I have months of not earning money to make up for), but if the business flow seems to be consistent by the end of the year, I'll start seriously considering taking on help. I hope to have that decision to make.

So my life's looking up, despite the little blast I delivered above (I hope you read this someday, Ferret-man). I hope my ex-coworkers are getting their next acts together as well. And to the ones still riding it out: Keep the faith, y'all - it gets better. Holla holla.