Whoa! Didja get the numbers off that truck?!?

August 29, 2001 - 3:46 p.m.

I got the boot

The rumors came true today. My colleague and I sat nervously after we read the letter from Fearless Leader announcing the impending hatchet job. Soon enough my boss asked me to walk to his office with him. This was a hard thing for him to do, his voice quivered as his spouted the required language. He had hired me just seven months ago. I signed the form and tossed my ID and office key on the table. He asked me if I needed a box. On my way in from the parking lot this morning, I�d seen some people carrying in a big stack of them and I instinctively knew why.

In seven months, all I had to take home fit nicely in my briefcase.

My colleague got it too. He started packing his stuff, he had more than I did. We walked out of that office for the last time and turned out the light.

I�m still stunned. I haven�t been unemployed since 1993. I jumped from the last place because I could see my career drying up there, and apparently landed in the wrong place.

I went to file for unemployment insurance this afternoon, and saw a former employee there filling out forms too. His whole department, probably a dozen people, all got the boot. He knew more about it than I did, naming names of people I didn�t know.

Time to network.

the last one -*- the next one