The Economy Hits Home

The fear and dreaded anticipation are over. The axe fell today and I was among those released into free-agency. I was shocked to hear some of the names that came before me, and I suppose I would be shocked to hear the names of those that came after. Good people and trusted colleagues. This is a major restructuring and the cuts appear to be severe. Not even the veterans with all the product history in their heads are immune.

It never occurred to me before today what to do in the afternoon if you are hit by layoffs in the morning. I was given a resource package. I spent a little time going through it, but the reality is, the work environment is so dynamic, charged, and intense that it's really hard to simply stop like flipping a switch. I was giving a pass-down to my supervisor as he watched me clean out my desk and walked me to the parking lot. He's a good guy. I like and respect him and I want to make cleaning up the pieces easier. I like pretty much everyone who I interfaced with on that job, and I still care about how the pieces fall. I still care about service and response to the customers.

I still have action items on my mind. This one is almost done except for three things. I just asked the factory to collect some data last night. Where will it go? What about that qualification I have been involved with forever? What about that failure analysis job I just submitted? I am--was--involved in so many simultaneous urgent projects/incidents that I'll probably be thinking of them for weeks, even months. It's very difficult to simply turn it off.

I'm not sure where I go from here. I need time for my thoughts to settle.