Today was my last day at my (now former) employer. Tomorrow is my first day as an employee of the outsourcing company. There's still no press release from either. In the earnings call this week the CFO said that my (now former) employer was outsourcing "some" IT services. In reality, they are only retaining some.

So my badge went from blue to yellow. I can't use the gym anymore (unless I pay). I can't get employee discounts. My unused PTO was paid out to me. The new employer does not accrue PTO, and has graciously granted me 2.5 days of PTO for the remainder of the year. Gee. Thanks.

I found out some news about where I fit in. I am something called a UNIX Integration Engineer or similar. My manager also went to the outsourcer, and I continue to report to him.

On Monday I am supposed to report to the same place, same time, and do the same thing I did today.

However, it will certainly be different.

So, I received an offer from the outsourcer, as I expected. Same salary, no job description in the offer. One of my colleagues is getting laid off. My manager is going to the outsourcer as well.

This week was hiring week, where a manager from the outsourcer inspected my hiring paperwork (which took, literally, 3 hours to fill out and double-check on my part). Then, I was walked over to some HR rep from the outsourcer who also inspected my paperwork. Finally, I was walked over to have a lock of my hair snipped for a drug test.

The whole process was rather impersonal, and still leaves us all wondering what our future is.

Anyway, next step in the process appears to be the transition between October 31 - Nov 1 where I will be terminated from my current employer, starting work at the outsourcer. Presumably, I will be doing the same thing I was always doing and reporting to the same manager. Some people have a more interesting situation where their manager was laid off (lots of managers were let go) and they have no idea who they report to.

Since it's on the local news, I might as well name the parties: Symantec outsources IT department to EDS.

So, this is the big week for my colleagues and I in regards to my employer's IT outsourcing activities. Several people were called into meetings where they were being informed that they were selected for "transition out of the company" - in other words, getting laid off.

Meanwhile someone found out that the offer letters for people "transitioning to the sourcing provider" are being sent via a shipping company rather than USPS. Another adventurous soul called the shipping company and was able to confirm that such a package was being sent to their home address, and even got the tracking number. That sparked a flurry of people doing the same, and thus most people found out what their fates are going to be, with both my employer and the outsourcer trying to do damage control (people were not supposed to find out this way). Evidently someone with some pull called the shipping company, because by the afternoon they had started refusing to answer questions.

I will be receiving a package from the sourcing provider, to be delivered to my home on Monday. Not that it means anything, because it will likely be a term of employment, not a permanent position. If I meet certain "transition milestones" I will qualify to receive my severance package at the end of the term.

However, I can think of several ways I can get screwed here. Given how this whole process has carried out thus far, I can't image *not* getting screwed. Anyway, here's the potential ways:

* My "transition milestones" might be made so difficult to accomplish so as to deny me my severance package.

* I may be offered a permanent position contingent upon moving. My inability to move (for several factors) might be taken as a voluntary termination and void my right to unemployment benefits.

Along the way, I lose all of my unvested options and RSU grants that I had planned on using to pay off my student loans. I doubt the new employer will offer me anything comparable, as they know we are a captive group of new employees without much choice.

At least I know something at this point.

Ants

Like Nizo in the past, our home has been invaded by sugar ants. We always had a low-level amount of ants that we controlled with baits, but they've recently come in force and are ignoring the baits. This new insurgence probably has to do with our 1-year-old daughter starting to eat things like cookies and crackers and such, bits of which have certainly made their way to places missed by the vacuum.

Since the little one crawls around, I am wary of placing baits in the open areas so I'm going to give some of the natural methods in the above-linked journal entry a shot. If anyone has anything additional to add, please comment away. I'm in the Pacific Northwest, in case there's tricks that work with ants in a particular region.

Outsourcing

As far as my employer's IT outsourcing process goes that I mentioned in my last entry, next week is the week where we are informed of our fates. The potential outcomes for any individual are: (1) Transitioned to the outsourcer - likely guaranteed for a limited term, (2) retained by the current employer, or (3) "transitioned out of the company".

Of course, my function is one that is slated to be outsourced, but I think there are reasons my current employer would want to retain me. However, I'm also at an office that is no longer a "strategic IT delivery location," so really I could be in any of the three categories.

I've polished up the resumé in any case. Have a few potential opportunities but nothing solid.

So, today I (among many) was informed that my job function will be outsourced to a well-known IT outsourcing firm. Along with that they also said the location where I am employed is not in the list of delivery locations for IT services in the future (the site has 1200 people, about 300 are IT). So, that's a great way to start a vacation. So it seems a slim chance that I have long-term employment at this time.

So, has anyone else who might be reading this gone through outsourcing? I'm especially interested in hearing from people who were not in a location preferred by their employer or the outsourcer, and what the outcome was. Anyone have luck finding employers who would allow them to work remotely? There are not many employers of UNIX systems administrators in the local area, my current employer being the largest. I mean, we are talking about potentially 50 qualified sysadmins exploring the local job market for about 2 open sysamdin jobs (based on searching Monster). I'll find out how I am affected as an individual sometime near the end of September.

The chief difficulty with this situation is that I can't just pick up and move. I bought a house a year ago right before the market "slump," which in my neighborhood is more aptly described as a crash. This guy down the street with a house of similar age, style, and only 150 square feet smaller just listed his place at $135,000. That's a hell of a lot less than I am paying for my place, so selling my house really just won't work right now. My wife also has a small business here in town with many years left on the lease.

So, basically I am seeking advice from anyone who has some to give. Mostly centered around a few questions and comments:

Has anyone else been through a similar situation? How did it turn out for you?

Should I seek an internal transfer in the company to another position, possibly outside of any technical role?

Both my employer and the outsourcer expect cooperation through the "transition" process, even if I know my job is short term (I don't know that, yet). Do they enforce this by blackmail with severance packages (if we don't feel you are cooperating, we'll take away your package)? Would you cooperate?

Any thoughts on some of the options I have thought about, assuming the worst case?

1. Go back to college for a Master's (my alma mater is local and I am pretty much guaranteed to get in and very likely to get a fellowship).

2. Try to find another job in my field locally.

3. Find another job in another industry (but what pays as well that I'd be qualified for?)

4. Sell my house at a loss, refinance the debt so the monthly payment is low, and just move.

5. Start a technology consulting company with some of the other ex-employees.

6. Start a different business entirely with some of the other ex-employees.

7. Look at the job market in the closest major city and put up with the 2+ hour commute every day.

8. Suggestions?

Finally: I am a UNIX Systems Administrator with expertise mainly in Solaris and Red Hat Linux. I am a Red Hat Certified Engineer. I can code in PHP, Perl, and (rusty) C, and probably anything else if I have enough time to learn. My best skill areas are server provisioning automation (custom Jumpstart/Kickstart), OS image management, scripting/common task automation, troubleshooting, and general Sr.-level administration, among others. I am also good with hardware. I am familiar with lights-out data center management. In fact, in 3 years at my current employer, I have never seen our primary data center that I do 90% of my work in. I have a B.S. in Computer Science and have taken a number of professional classes from Sun, Red Hat,
IBM, Veritas (Symantec), and others.

So, if you know someone looking for someone along those lines and there is a possibility of remote/telecommute employment (I don't mind travel to the office every now and then), please let me know.

If you still have a uterus and a vagina, you are not a "pregnant man" no matter how many times you appear on Oprah.

Now, let's be real here: If I got breast implants and went running around in a dress saying I was the first woman with potent semen, I'd be called a fool and likely I'd have countless women's organizations crying foul. I doubt I'd be all over the the news as the first woman to get another woman pregnant using only what god gave her.

But, it doesn't matter. Every news outlet is saying "pregnant man"... thankfully my daughter is not old enough to need this one explained to her.

Maybe it's the superior child of an evolutionary psychiatrist who posted the first (of many) response in this thread.

I must be an unsophisticated low-brow child from a working-class family - I'm not superior enough to find the joke "not funny." At least, at the end of the day, nobody is calling me a douchebag.

So, the U.S. Olympic Trials are coming to Eugene, Oregon. It's creating quite a stir, and all kinds of fun is happening, including this . The volunteer "sensitivity training" part is true, and I don't know how much Fox News is exaggerating but...

Barbers? Soul food? "Black" churches? Speaking hip-hop?

Can we pull out any more racial stereotypes? How about we indicate where to find watermelons and crack, too?

This report is shameful and embarrassing. Thank God I moved out of Eugene.

Sad thing is, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Fox didn't exaggerate a single bit. Eugene has reached the point where "sensitivity" has gone so extreme that it is now the manifestation of the prejudiced thought that it sought to do away. I hope Fox is exaggerating, though, because the city-sponsored promotion of the trials starts off with a crowd chanting that "the whole world is watching." Indeed.

So, over the last few months Slashdot has introduced more AJAXy features. It's buggy crap, if you ask me, and lately it has only gotten worse.

Often, Firefox shoots to maximum CPU utilization and a few seconds later reports that a script on the page is still running, and asks if I want to kill it, which I do and then can no longer post comments and use other functionality.

Maybe I'm just becoming a Luddite when it comes to the web, but I happen to have *liked* having the web being just thing to read rather than what is becoming today: an interactive, buggy, often eye-torturing mess of "applications."

Thank God Javascript doesn't run in my Usenet news reader.

I passed my RHCE exam!

So, I am not going to jump on this bandwagon in the standard way. I'll instead just comment on why not...

1. Tell you why I befriended you.

Honestly, I can't remember why I befriended a lot of people. Might have been a sig, might have been a comment that caught my attention, might have been that you friended me first.

2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc..

I'm just not that artsy. I'll associate you with a color, though. Take the 24-bit CRC of your Slashdot user name and your current sig appended to it. Interpret as an RGB value.

3. Tell you something I like about you.

Well, I could probably come up with individual commentary here... but I won't unless you ask nicely.

4. Tell you a memory I have of you.

I'd have to dig through your journal entries.

5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

Not going to happen.

7. In return, you must post this in your Journal/Blog/whatever.

Consider it done. Sort of.

It seems that the tag "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" has become more common lately. It is a change that I welcome with open arms. Let's hope it becomes a pandemic of common sense.

From the you-have-got-to-be-shitting-me department:

The cover of IEEE Spectrum has a photo of CmdrTaco and the cover story is all about "The Slashdot Supremacy," "How a Michigan geek tamed the online masses."

Are you fucking kidding me? Of all the different things the "magazine of technology insiders" could have dreamed up to use as a cover story it's a story about Slashdot? Yeah, Slashdot is fun and all, but hardly worthy of cover story attention. Most of the engineers I know and/or work with don't read it, and they are some of the most brilliant people I know.

Slashdot is worthy of a story, but not worthy of a cover story in Spectrum, if you ask me..

(Funny enough, Slashdot is giving me 503 errors as I try to post this..)

Holy cow, in 4. Totally swept it!

Not only is the Curse dead, it looks like it's buried, too.