Rough Day - Dec 16

Sometimes, events in life must play out in full before I can comment on them. So, please forgive the delay in the timing of this post.

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For you “bottom line” people, here was my day:

1) AM - I’m not moving to Jakarta in January.
2) Afternoon – Laid someone off
3) PM – not on the org chart

For you details people:

AM

My day started with a phone call from my boss – I hadn’t even left the house. “There is a problem with your relocation”, he started. “Because we let go 75 nationals last week, the Indonesia government is not happy with the idea of adding an expat (foreigner) head count. We need to delay your relocation until April. How does that impact you?”

Not wanting to go into the details of how I have to now unravel the intricate relocation quilt I weaved – father-in-law moving into my “soon to be vacant” house on 12/31; mother-in-law flying down to catch our flight to Indonesia (which I have already paid for); re-enrolling Gabi in swimming, Gymboree, etc; cancelling the movers; explaining to everyone why I’m still around in February after I’ve already had a “going away” party; delisting my cars for sale; resigned from my position on the board for the Mesa Parks and Recreation; resigned as President of AZ Chapter of the Society for Information Management; etc…. I simply responded: “Other than determining how much I can get for my non-refundable ticket for my mother-in-law, no impact.” Total financial impact to me is about $352, so not too big (I believe they will reimburse this).

Afternoon

Shortly after I arrived at work, I got another call informing me that the layoffs I was supposed to do Wed AM I now needed to do this afternoon. I had a final demo scheduled with our CIO in the afternoon. Instead of attending and leading the demo, I had to attend via phone because immediately after the meeting I had to inform my staff of their new status.

This is the third time in my career I’ve had to go through the process of identifying and informing staff of a layoff, and it doesn’t get any easier with practice. Terminations are easy – I think. You are getting rid of someone who deserves it. Layoffs are tough. How do you answer “why me” when you have a team of people who all perform? “Experience and business value” – our company line to that question – just seems so impersonal…though I delivered it with as much sincerity as I could muster.

The recession in 2001 hit a lot of people I knew in technology. For the most part, though, they shouldn’t have been in technology, so it was really a good house-cleaning for our industry. This time, that isn’t the case. Good people are out of work. Hopefully, the contact I referred one of my “former” employees to (you know who you are….) can set him up with a job. This individual’s son started his first semester at Yale this fall. It would be a shame for him to have to enroll elsewhere (no pressure!).

PM

After that meeting – and performing all my “termination” tasks: collecting badges, turning off computer access, etc – I went downtown to discuss with my boss the impact of not moving until April. I have already transitioned my current responsibilities to the new “temporary” manager. I’m also not on the org chart we’re sharing with everyone tomorrow (when the rest of the layoffs complete). So where is my home? The answer is, I’m an “uber-project manager”, available to assist our new Director (current one transitioned out) and the “temporary” manager until I depart. Precarious position, at best, but I understand the circumstances, and I just need to focus on what the company needs me to do until I can successfully relocate.


This was one of those days where I end up asking myself: “Why do I work for a company I don’t own?”

Then I remember the answer: “Because you haven’t finished anything you’ve started to write, you haven’t marketed your game, you haven’t bought any of the businesses you considered buying, you’re not independently wealthy, you need the money, and you haven’t yet found anyone to pay you for your good looks and sardonic wit.”

On the plus side – I like who I work for, who I work with (mostly), and what I do. Sometimes, that’s enough.