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Journal JWSmythe's Journal: Laid off 20

Journal by JWSmythe

Nice ways to say things, and nice ways to say things...

    I found, the day before thanksgiving, that I was laid off. I've been outsourced. Wheeee....

    Girlfriend is pregnant, we just bought a house, but we're recovering from the move, so finances are a wreck, and right before Christmas, I'm laid off. Sounds like a country song. :)

    Anyways, I'm off into the job hunting world. I'm rather frustrated right now. Because of the way they did it, I didn't know until after business hours on the day before Thanksgiving, so I couldn't start flinging resumes to every possibility in the world. I've done a few online, and am planning the rest. Of course, the computer the final draft of the resume is on is unplugged for the moment, so I'm a little stuck. :)

    In losing my job, they managed to break all my sites. Exactly how, I don't know. It *SEEMS* the servers are working, but I get blank content pages. Since I don't exactly have a lot of access any more, I don't know what was done.

    A friend of mine has her own network, which I've suppose to have been helping her with. It's needed some cleaning up and fixing. I spent yesterday fighting with a slightly annoying but powerful machine, to put my sites on. Now I'm setting up two new DNS machines and a mail machine for her.

    If I can do one thing, it's yank a magic network out of my ass. By morning, she'll have a fine tuned and well monitored network. I don't like my stuff sitting on anything less.

    That would be why the machine with my resume is unusable. I only have two monitors in my home office, so one I'm watching installs scroll by (oohh, and I'm so good at that too), while the other I'm writing this. I could copy the resume over to the other machine, but that would involve me plugging the monitor back in where it belongs, and I don't feel like it. :) I figure I can do all the "work" tonight (although unpaid), and I still have all day tomorrow to do resumes, and the HR folks still won't see them until sometime on Monday.

    So....

    I have a bit more time to lounge around on here, at least until another employer picks me up. Hi guys, long time no chat. :)

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  • Good luck finding a job.
    • Thanks.

      I'm really anxious, because I feel like I've been job hunting for days with no responses. Well, that's actually the way it is. I've been sending out resumes, and filling out online apps, but since no one is at work until Monday-ish, they probably won't even be looked at until Wednesday-ish.

      They couldn't have done it outside of the holiday chaos...

      At least I didn't feel obligated to do that whole day after thanksgiving shopping clusterfuck. :)
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Yup, it's a :)

      I'm looking at options, and getting anxious.

      I'm aiming high too. Well, not exclusively. The NSA has a very tempting ad. They don't say anything significant about their network, which is understandable. It's basically, "Play with the biggest freakin' network you've ever dreamed of" I can't help but try to get in there. The worst they can say is "no" :)

      Well, I guess the WORST they could do is think that I'm applying for a job beca
    • Even more classic is to give someone their walking papers at the close of business on the 23rd or 24th of December.

      I don't know what the fuck is going through the powers that be's minds but Christmas has become an all too popular time to lay off employees.

      Merry fucking Christmas and all that.


      •     Well, doing it before the end of the year means they got rid of someone before the beginning of the new year. I guess they wouldn't want (oh my gosh) to have someone on the books for a couple weeks of January too. Oh, the accounting nightmare. {sigh}


    • That's my biggest gripe..

      There are two higher ups in the company here in town, which is why I moved back here. EITHER ONE could have sat down with me, and laid out what was coming.

      But that's the running theme at that company. No organization, no planning, and no ... well, business sense.

      About a month ago, they were asking me to go to Europe to do a server install. A few weeks ago, they had me on standby to move another location, but someone else

      • Exactly. Think of it as an unplanned vacation. :-)

        Sorry about the lousy timing, though. Best of luck finding a good new job.

        Cheers,

        Ethelred

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ces ( 119879 )
        24/7 pager duty for 8 years is enough to drive someone crazy.

        I simply wouldn't agree to do it if there is any sort of page volume at all, especially if I was expected to respond at all times like I was awake, and near a computer with internet access. Also I damn well better be compensated for any on-call time both when responding and if I can't be away from the pager/phone/computer at all.
        • The problem was, it was something that grew around me.

          Back in the day, we were a small network, with not even a dozen machines. Then it grew.. and grew.. About 150 machines last time I count. They thought I was crazy asking for more staff. I showed them everything I could. The rough hiring guidelines are around 10-20 servers per admin, but being the profit of the business, it should have had 24/7 staff, so I shouldn't have received a page, unless there was something seriously wrong,
  • Well, at least your recent silence hasn't been caused by your electrocution with your HV project! :-)

    Bad luck on the layoff though. There's never a good time to be made redundant, but most companies always seem to have a way of finding the worst possible moment.
    • :)

      I had fun with the HV stuff. I was making too much EMI though, it was really upsetting the basic stamp. Oh well. While it was running, it didn't do what I needed anyways, so it was just fun to make sparks. :)

      I increased the surface area of my electrodes dramatically, with some carbon plates. They look like they'll do what I need. I just have to find something to space them close enough together without shorting. I found a suggested distance of 1mm, so when I have some

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alioth ( 221270 )
        You might be able to shield the microcontroller. Liberally scattering ceramic disc capacitors (particulary one at Vcc to gnd on the microcontroller, as close to the IC as possible, might help). I had a bit of trouble with noise from my switch mode power supply, but discovered I'd wired it wrongly. The problem went away when I constructed it correctly :-)

        • If it had done anything resembling what I wanted, I may have tried. :)

          The amperage was way (WAY) too low to do anything. Even though it was 45kv, it happily passed through the water with no electrolysis.

          At one point, I had one electrode deep in the water, and the other just above the surface. it was sparking to the water, but still no bubbles.

          I considered wrapping the basic stamp in foil or something (with an insulator, of course), but since whe
  • Was it the same company we used to work for? I remember Patrick mentioning how he wanted me to learn all the shit you did so he didn't need you. That fact that he wouldn't tell you up front about it made me very unconfortable. I figured he was just talking out his ass anyway (and seeing as how that was like 4 years ago he probably was). Good luck in out there, I hear the tech sector has taken a turn for the better since I last worked in it.

    • That's funny, since he seemed to be the one who wanted me to move out there to begin with.

      Oh well, knowing all the dirt that I know, I'm not terribly surprised.

      I guess about the time I started bringing a gun to work (at his request), they realized, "Oh, it's another crazy white boy with guns.", and changed their minds.

      Luckly I've never threatened to shoot anyone. :) Never needed to. Now that I'm laid off, I'm sure the place will fall apart. They

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by red5 ( 51324 )
        They never realize all the crap I do on a regular basis (i.e., constant),

        True dat. I wouldn't want to be them right about now.

        •     I'd bet in a month or two, they'll be calling me asking me to come back.. At which point, I'm sure I'll have another job, so that'd be out of the question. I've seen them do it with other people, so I know it's in their nature to try it.

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