Happy birthday to me!

What a change a day makes. Yesterday could have gone either way, and if bad, today would have been my last day at the bank. Talk about ironic - not to mention the lousiest of birthday presents.

But as it is I've got a new lease on life. A fresh start. There could be no better birthday present!

I was welcomed by my new manager to the team, and several new teammates sent me welcome notes as well. My manager called to talk with me, asked if I was taking any days off next week, and then invited me to a meeting to help me get up to speed. A little thing that call, but it's little things that show a manager actually cares. I've heard good things about her; this is probably why.

I like the people I've talked to already; they'll be good to work with. Funny how change seems so scary, and it's easy to envision dozens of horrible scenarios. Yet the more likely case, that things work out well - that's rarely dwelled on.

I called HR to doublecheck on my status. The woman from the call center said there was no longer any severance data on my records. Of course, the big test comes next week. If I can log in when I get back I'll know I'm good!

My family, and even my parents who are driving the 60 miles over here, are going out for dinner. My parents' visit originally was to offset Black Birthday, to lift my spirits. How sweet to be able to celebrate instead.

Technorati Tags: birthday, job search, layoffs

Success!

"Welcome to the team."

And with that, my outsourcing sentence was commuted - I was back to having a normal job again - the day before my severance date. Ironically, still with the bank, albeit with a new department.

The interview with S.D., the boss of the Jacksonville manager I interviewed with Wednesday, went extremely well. She had been briefed, and already knew I was qualified for the job. So she focused on assessing how good a fit I'd be: were my expectations in line with what the job had to offer? Perhaps she was concerned that it was less glamorous than the web development I had been doing. But my answers seemed to allay her concerns: I was genuinely excited about the opportunity. She ended our session by welcoming me to the team.

And what a wonderful feeling: I had a job! The specter of being laid off - hanging over me, never far off - finally gone. What a relief. I probably had a grin on my face the rest of the day, and a delightfully silly grin it was.

Immediately after the interview, the Jacksonville manager contacted my current boss with the news. They had already talked earlier, and my boss immediately went to work with HR to reinstate me and remove the June 30th termination date. Somehow my HR Angel, the transition specialist that got me the severance package, was involved and personally handled things on the other end. She said July 1st "would be a non-event", so I'm optimistic I won't have to go through the burdensome process of being completely rehired.

Tonight our family celebrated. My wife and kids had all felt the stress of a drastically reduced lifestyle looming around the corner. No longer - we are back amongst the gainfully employed.

Now that's what I call a birthday present!

Technorati Tags: layoffs, job search, outsourcing

Brain:1 Sleep:0

I can never sleep at night when I'm scheduled to take an early morning cross-country flight. We're talking early-early: often 3 AM, but still I would like those 4-5 hours if I could get them. But no, I toss all night, my brain convinced I will sleep through that alarm otherwise.

So it was last night, although this time the cause was my early morning interview today. Somehow my brain saw through my outward calm, perceived that with three days left we had reached the football equivalent of the last play "Hail Mary" desperation pass, and figured therefore a night of weird analysis was called for. (Never mind a good night's sleep might actually improve performance in an interview.) One factoid that cost me some sleep: remember to bring my Bank laptop back to work so I could turn it in Friday, my last day. This kept repeating ad nauseam - finally I got up during the night and carried the laptop from our bedroom to place it next my things so it would be impossible to forget. At least the brain then moved on to something else.

But I was OK during my 8:30 interview with A. K., the Jacksonville manager for the position. Thank God for adrenaline. Actually it went very well. I had been worried the position would be unchallenging. But it will involve building a reporting dashboard for senior IT management, and may even involve some Web work if I'm lucky.

The next step will be an interview with her boss tomorrow. Hopefully the sleep gods will cooperate for that one tonight.

Meanwhile, the infamous "Rick position" (here-today-gone-tomorrow-here-again-today) suffered another setback. As you'll recall, the position was reorganized under a new manager and was to be staffed by a developer and a DBA. I was called today by the new manager, who said he'd love to work with me on finding something. One problem: he had no openings. He had inherited the new applications, but no openings to go with them! (Can you say "outsourced"?)

So that other interview is pretty important tomorrow. Just don't tell my brain.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, job search, outsourcing

Likely options

My options are becoming clearer. There are two possible positions that may emerge this week, although at this point nothing is for certain. Neither is a choice without drawbacks, and under different circumstances I probably would not be looking at either. However, this is the real world, and continued employment is the goal.

I have an interview Wednesday at 8:30 for position #1. It would report to Jacksonville and center around gathering and reporting technical statistics on the status of projects. I'm heavy on the database/query position requirements, and probably light on the Excel/PowerPoint part.

Positives (need confirmation):
• Small team of business professionals
• Likely a fair degree of independence as the only purely technical resource
• Manager has a favorable impression of me
• Mix of database and reporting work
• May report to California team leader (in person management!)

Concerns (need confirmation):
• How challenging is the work?
• May not have any large-scale database work required
• Buys time, but might be a career dead-end

Position #2, which surfaced Friday as a possible Business Analyst, actually is the former "Rick position", a developer position. That position is being reorganized under a new manager, and the DBA portion will be stripped out. There would be two people supporting the function, which would help with support and provide backup. I know more about this position, as I have had some conversations with my friend.

Positives:
• Challenging work
• Improve large-scale database skills

Concerns:
• Heavy mainframe component
• Nightly production support
• Seems ripe for outsourcing (just another data mart)

I need to learn more about both before making a final decision. And if only one is offered it will make for an easy choice! And if none are offered...well, let's not go there.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, job search, outsourcing

Good news and bad news

Lots going on. The new lead I learned about yesterday, reporting to Jacksonville, is progressing. The recruiter sent me an e-mail to call him. He had learned I was having trouble posting for the position and had actually done the posting for me! (I definitely need this recruiter cloned several times and scattered amongst the various HR areas.) We talked about my background, and I loved his question: "And why are you leaving your current area?". Learning my plight, he said he would work with the manager, and that she might want to "escalate the process". It sounds like the Jacksonville/Charlotte location restriction might not be a problem. I'm crossing my fingers on this one.

On the downside, the Web developer position looks out of the running in the near term. The "timing is wrong" as far as my situation: it will be at least 2-3 weeks before they are ready to justify anything. My California contact was even more negative, thinking it could be longer (she gave the initial presentation in April!). It sounds like one of those "nice to have" projects that's never urgent enough to initiate.

Later I was eating lunch and received a call from a past colleague that's in the data warehouse organization: "This is going to sound like a question out of the blue, but what's your severance date?". Apparently she's seeing if an opening could be found for me. And the goal would be to do something before June 30th to alleviate the administrative hassles (if I don't start in a new area by June 30th, I need to be rehired from scratch, going through Staffing and everything). I have no idea how this came about, but it seems coincidental coming the day after my severance package was pried loose. Had I been simply forgotten?

Hope is still alive, at least, with one week to go.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

A new lead

A new lead. A manager here clued me in that her Jacksonville boss is looking for someone to handle project-related reporting and analysis. She asked if I might be interested (at this point it's hard to be picky). I said yes, and apparently the Jacksonville manager knows of me.

Here's what she said about me (forwarded by my contact): "She says she knows you and likes you. She's going to see about the location exception because she agrees you'd be a good fit." That's a nice complement considering I really haven't dealt with her that much.

The one gotcha: the position posting says "This position may be located in Jacksonville FL or Charlotte NC". If I was to be considered, a "location exception" is needed. I've never heard of such thing, or was aware a position's location may be cast in concrete. I thought the location was pretty much at the manager's discretion; in fact, we were urged to apply to any Charlotte opening. Perhaps this is why my position postings have met with little success thus far.

Meanwhile, my severance package is being FedEx'd to me and should arrive tomorrow. It looks like the Corporate Transition Team woman managed to shake things up a bit - miracles do exist!

On a side note, I was inspired by comments made by Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat basketball champions. He was discussing his comeback from a potentially fatal kidney disorder that required a kidney transplant:

"I read this book a while ago and in it there's this quote from Frederick Douglass, saying that the road to success as many obstacles, and you go through adversity. I've gone through my share of it throughout my life. You know what? The good thing about going through those things is it made me a stronger man. It's made me more determined not to succumb but to overcome."

Technorati Tags: job search, outsourcing, layoffs, Alonzo Mourning

The short-timer

Time is winding down, and I'm feeling more and more like a short-timer. My last day is a week from Friday, and just like any assignment, my Last Project is to tie up all the logistical loose ends of leaving. Hoping to avoid the ignominious plight of hauling all my belongings in a sad Last Day trek across the campus, I'm gradually day by day removing my personal effects. I'm collecting the names of whom I want to send my Farewell Note, trying not to forget anyone important. A poignant finalcy characterizes the Last Project.

One of the most important loose ends is the infamous Severance Package, supposedly due two weeks prior to my last day, but naturally nowhere to be seen. How classic that the terminated employee himself has to grovel to find out the details of his dismissal. Of course in a perfect world HR would assist you at every point of the way, trying to find another position, and, if failing that, at least providing a compassionate end to your employment. In the real world, I e-mailed my HR guy Monday about this problem and have yet to receive a response.

Fortunately, I saved the number of the "Transition Team" woman that helped me with my premature April dismissal. She was plainly taken aback that after all this time I had not received any severance materials whatsoever. They will be following up tomorrow; hopefully I'll get something FedExed to me shortly.

I suspect that my severance pay is conditioned on signing their paperwork, so this is not a trivial exercise.


Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Bad vibes

No word from Rick's manager. Sent Rick an e-mail, asking if he'd heard anything. His reply: "I've heard very little myself, but I'm not feeling any positive vibes." Hmm. That doesn't sound good.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to hear more this week on the possible Web developer position. The Jacksonville manager will be giving a presentation to his Charlotte boss, asking for funding of an additional employee position for his dashboard project. If this is approved, I'd be a leading candidate. However, the only immediate news would probably be bad: a no can be delivered immediately; a yes requires additional approvals and might take awhile. But knowing if it's been squelched, or has been tentatively allowed to go forward, would be progress.

I'm also still looking at postings, and sending out e-mails to people I've known and worked with. The latter seems much more efficient in generating leads, ironically, than the formal postings (from which I've received no replies, even from the recruiter handling the postings).

Have to keep plugging; but it's starting to look like a long shot for finding something before my 6/30 end date.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Novel: tip on tackling tough projects

I'm reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that focuses on life in a small, declining Maine town. It's the type of story I love: rich characters and emotions coming from ordinary individuals - the human drama of daily living.

Ironically, embedded in the story was the secret for success of the richest woman in town, a secret that makes even the most formidable task approachable. It's great project management advice, something everyone knows but is easily forgotten:

"After months of close observation, Grace finally discovered her great trick. Mrs. Whiting remained undaunted for the simple reason that she never, ever allowed herself to dwell on the magnitude of whatever task she was confronted with. What she possessed was the marvelous ability to divide the chore into smaller, more manageable tasks. Once this diminishment was accomplished, her will became positively tidal in its persistence. Each day Mrs. Whiting had a "To Do" list, and the brilliance of that list lay in the fact that she was careful never to include anything undoable. On those rare occasions when a task proved more complicated or difficult than she'd imagined, she simply subdivided it. In this fashion, the woman never encountered anything but success, and each day brought her inexorably closer to her goal. She might be delayed, but never deterred."

Unfortunately, Mrs. Whiting's daughter takes the polar opposite approach of her mother, with a corresponding lack of success.

"Her daughter, on the other hand, was forever being deterred. Temperamentally unable to master her mother's simple trick, Cindy Whiting immediately envisioned the entirety of what lay before her and was thus in one deft stroke overwhelmed and defeated by it..."

It's easy when looking for a job to be overwhelmed, like the daughter. Focusing on discrete, doable steps; being able to accomplish something every day: this should not only lead to a better result, but better mental health along the way.

Technorati Tags: project management, job search

Too much information?

Spent a good part of the day with Rick, watching him install a new release of the system. Interesting, but it was all Database Administrator (DBA) work; in fact, a lot of the activities he performs are DBA functions. I really wonder if his Charlotte manager understands everything he's doing - a DBA/developer, a dual skill set, is needed to fill the job as it now exists.

I sent his boss an e-mail to see if I could clear this up. Will it continue to be a dual skill set position, or primarily a developer role, with the DBA functions going back to the DBA team. An important point: if the former, I lack the background the position demands.

More scuttlebutt: Susan, his co-worker that's a business analyst on the team, is being yanked off the team (not of her choice). She mentioned there's a lot of new projects coming down the pike, but who's going to do them? With Rick's technical knowledge walking out the door, and Susan's business knowledge leaving, it's going to be a lot harder for a new guy to get up to speed. Meanwhile, a group of "high maintenance" traders are just about to roll on the system and will probably besiege the team with urgent questions.

The dreaded "O-word" was also being floated about this position. If the manager does decide to make this a traditional developer opening, what's to keep it from being outsourced to our India compatriots? In fact, this manager has another team under her consisting of 14 India developers.

Relative safety, ironically, was one of the attractive points about this position. Even though it was ugly technology, maybe it would be a safe haven for awhile.

Hopefully the picture will get clearer next week. But this week, after starting on a good note, has not ended on one.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Don't leave without your performance plan

Mostly wait-and-see mode today. Filled in the skills spreadsheet for Rick's position and forwarded it to his manager in Charlotte. Didn't hear anything back today, which made me feel a little uneasy. A number of the skills were of a Database Administrator caliber, which obviously I'm not, but neither does the position really mandate that type of skill level. (However, it doesn't help that Rick is a dba.)

Meanwhile, I was amused by a typical case of Corporate Reality Disconnect: my quarterly performance plan review session. I'm due to be terminated in two weeks, but nevermind that minor detail; after all, we must show 100 percent reviews completed.

OK, fine. Since I was notified April 3rd I would be laid off, it wasn't the most stellar 90 days of performance in my career. Of course I did "execute the transition" (or did it execute me?). That seemed to be enough for my soon-to-be ex-boss, who, to her credit, was pretty diplomatic about the whole thing.

Still, the whole thing was a bit unreal. I need a job, not this.


Technorati Tags: job search, layoffs

The least worst?

Rick formally gave notice today that he's leaving the bank; he'll start at our competitor in two weeks. His manager, whom I talked with last week, asked him if I seemed interested in the position; he said that I was meeting with him today, so it seemed that I did.

And I am interested, although it promises to be a rocky start attempting to get up to speed. However, after reviewing things the last couple days, it seems doable. But not much is written down, and once Rick is gone, the last of the technical knowledge base walks out the door. (This is the corporate payback for "lean and mean" staffing: risky transitions when your staff of 1 leaves.)

Naturally this means it's important to get some training from him before he goes. So I will try to sit with him for a bit and pick some things up. One minor detail: it's not my job. In fact, the manager had Rick prepare a list of skills needed; then I'm supposed to rate myself on each skill for her. And she probably does have time for a quickie posting of the job. It's too early to tell what will happen.

I am also not blind that this is not the greatest of options, and is probably something I would not look at except now, when I have a gun pointed at my head. It's a mainframe-based system, no Web aspect, and a daily 2:30 AM production support onus. Since I would be the only support person, Monday through Friday, every week of the year, I will go to bed not knowing if I will sleep through the night.

The other lead I'm pursuing is a Web development job, and I would learn .NET, an up-to-date technology my resume is lacking. However, it's not a funded position, the earliest I might know anything more is next week, and - the best part - it reports up to the guy that outsourced me. Job security here would be tenuous at best. Mr. Outsource's focus is architecture, and he has shown little interest in paying for Web developers when he could use those same positions for technical architects.

With Layoff Date looming June 30th, these are my choices.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Better on second glance

Rick, back from vacation, invited me to stop by for an overview of the application he supports (and that I had discussed with his Charlotte manager last week). I had thought it wouldn't be a good fit after my talk with her, but it made sense to not be hasty, so we took an hour and I got a closer look at things.

I'm glad I did. His take was that it was definitely something I could handle, although naturally a bit scary at the beginning. The SQL - very complex though it is - works, and I could get up to speed on it (Rick himself, begged off coding the app and they had a contractor do the initial work). But the code is well organized and nicely done at least. Changes are required as needs surface, but it's not a huge amount; I should have time to get acclimated.

The system does run on the mainframe, as I suspected. This is a big leap for my ancient, rusty mainframe expertise (talk about Back to the Future: these things haven't changed since I was 22!). But Rick emphasized that the jobs are all SQL, and you just need to learn the basic concepts of browsing, editing, checking jobs, etc. And (crossing fingers) the system is fairly stable.

So with Rick to lean on, it seems doable. Ah, but there's one other thing - the reason he initiated this: he's found a new job and will be leaving the Bank. As soon as two weeks from now. Talk about diving in and then learning to swim.

So I need to decide. Of course nothing has been offered formally; in fact, his manager doesn't even know he's leaving. But if I go for it, crisis can also mean opportunity. She won't even have time to post his open position before he's gone. So if "any port in a storm" holds true, I might be in the right place at the right time.

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

SF Chronicle on bank IT outsourcing

The San Francisco Chronicle's Business columnist, David Lazarus, had a great column Friday on the nation's second-largest bank's outsourcing policies: BofA: Train your replacement, or no severance pay for you.

Turns out, whether the bank's IT workers like it or not, they better train their Indian counterpart if they expect any severance at all. This was confirmed indirectly by the bank spokesperson:

"Shirley Norton, a BofA spokeswoman, confirmed that while workers aren't being explicitly told they have to train their replacements or risk losing severance pay, they are being instructed that severance pay is contingent on satisfactorily completing their jobs.

Completing their jobs, in turn, can include training replacements from India, she said.

"I know that's parsing things a bit," Norton acknowledged.

Strangely enough, with "bunches of Indians coming through" and jobs falling right and left, some are exhibiting disgruntled attitudes toward their Indian brethren.

But the bank has the answer for that also: India cultural sensitivity training.

"A "manager message map" for the presentation on India says that "all associates will be expected to participate in this learning experience" by the end of June.

Norton confirmed that nearly all of BofA's 200,000 workers are expected to sit through the presentation."

It appears my experiences with outsourcing are not unique in the financial services industry. Unfortunately, I have lots of company.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Misclassification consequences

The seeds for my outsourcing may have been laid earlier this year during a "role classification" process. As usual with these things, we received advanced PR regarding how wonderful this was: help with our career planning, grow into new roles, visibility to senior management, etc. etc. The reality: word suddenly came down that the whole process had to be completed in 2 1/2 days.

This was a little tough on our team since our manager was fairly new, only two months as our boss. Prior to that, we went over six months without a manager, our team caught in the middle of bureaucratic reshuffling. A little more time and thought in the process would have helped.

In any case, on short notice I met with my manager and received a "Technical Developer" classification. I was pleased with that, since the alternative was the non-technical "Business Analyst" role received by other team members. My manager implied I had received a typical classification; there was, in fact, also a "Senior Technical Developer" role; but I figured this was reserved for the few current Senior Consultant positions (only 1 in 100 technicians received).

Yesterday though, I received a shock when an organization chart was published showing everyone and their role. There were virtually no employee Technical Developer positions. This was confirmed by the Charlotte manager in an offhand remark, commenting on the "people strategy" to outsource most of the Technical Developer roles; however, "Senior Technical Developer" positions were safer.

This is borne out by the organization chart: of the 314 positions, there are only 6 Technical Developer employees. Any other Technical Developer is an Indian contractor. Most of the people I know were classified as Senior Technical Developer. But with my classification, I'm perceived as relatively junior, in the bottom tier.

I understand now why it's been tough to generate much interest in landing another position in my current area. Why waste time on a mere Technical Developer - they're a dime a dozen, just grab another Indian guy. If someone actually glances at my resume, they are probably puzzled at first glance that I actually have 28 years experience. But on the other hand, if after 28 years he's no more than a "Technical Developer"...

Crazy. Unjust. But the damage is done; all I can do is move on from here.


Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

A square peg

Turns out my friend Rick may be leaving his current Senior Developer position; that's why his manager called to talk with me today - Rick had sold her on my heavy SQL experience (the programming language for our database). He's a former Database Administrator, and put together a highly complex mortgage information system, requiring expert-level SQL knowledge. The system runs daily, undoubtedly via mainframe processes (although she was not sure).

My dilemma is that my background does not measure up to my friend's perception of it. I have been in niche roles during my data warehouse tenure; first in deploying tools to allow end-users to directly get information from the database, and the last several years developing Web front end applications. Both required solid SQL skills, but not near the level required by that mortgage system. And I haven't used the mainframe since 1993. Other than that, I'm good!

Could I pick it up eventually? Sure. And I might even be tempted if it was a fairly quiet system. But it's very active, lots of initiatives to be implemented this year: no time for a learning curve. I will talk some more with Rick about it next week when he returns, but unless my perceptions were totally off, this wouldn't be a good fit.

Another thing: my strengths may be liabilities at the bank. She was impressed that my background combined both business and technical skill sets: that was rare in her opinion. Unfortunately for me, most openings at the bank prize specialization, not skill diversity. Thus I have good business skills, but lack the line of business expertise required to be a "senior business analyst". I have good technical skills, but often not in the exact specialization needed.

I'm the square peg in a world of round holes.

Technorati Tags: job search, technology

A ray of humanity

In my email inbox this morning was a meeting invitation from a Charlotte-based manager:

David - I understand from Rick K that you may be looking for other opportunities in the bank. I met you briefly in CA during the knowledge channel broadcast - we talked about Cal Poly. Let's chat a little bit, if you are interested. Thanks.

I of course accepted her meeting invite for tomorrow. Regardless of what happens, I was touched by the humanity of her gesture. Here's someone I've only met once in my life, very casually, on the other side of the country from where she works. Although I'm sure she's as busy as everyone else, she was willing to reach out and chat about possibilities.

That's something I have not seen much amongst the management corps of my present area. There has been little or no response to my e-mail inquiries about opportunities. "Everyone is so busy", I'm told; but still, how hard would it be to at least hit the "Reply" button? Even if you have no openings, it would be a nice courtesy to acknowledge someone in need.

So this was a ray of sunshine today. I hope I can respond in kind when it's my turn to help someone - no matter how busy I may be.


Technorati Tags: job search, technology

Will the last approver please turn out the lights

A quiet day. Posted for a couple internal jobs, handled a few access process questions. My Indian contact acknowledged the server conversion could not be done in two weeks (big surprise, that). Pretty slow.

I also approved a few access requests. Starting last Friday, I, a soon-to-be terminated employee, am the primary access approver for two of our most important data warehouse suites of data. Does this make sense? But the only other two Bank associates left are swamped; so, it’s either me or the Indian contractors.

And when I go, the intent is to let the India people be the access approvers. So access approval would be handled offshore in these cases. I would be hesitant about letting any contractor handle access approval authority, but even more so offshore contractors. But then, if our team is responsible for certain access approvals, and almost everyone has been outsourced, I guess this is the natural end result.

Meanwhile, my time left must be getting shorter: my headache's back for the first time in several weeks.


Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Oh so true...

The new regime

As the dust begins to settle in our Data Warehouse Service Center area, my Web applications (actually, former applications, since they've been outsourced) are starting to come to life again. Several projects have arisen in the past week: a desired server conversion, a need to automate outage bulletins, server-distributed temporary passwords to satisfy audit concerns, and strategic privacy's need to track people with certain database access.

This will be an interesting test of the new regime. I find the onshore Indian contractor, the primary focal point, is overworked and overburdened: continually in meetings and fighting production problems from his other applications. Everything sounds great in meetings, he will be right on top of things, promises to get with me "tomorrow" to go over details - and then I never hear from him. And oh, by the way, starting mid-June he'll be in India for three weeks on vacation.

Meanwhile, received a call from the Strategic Privacy point person yesterday. There's a big meeting next week concerning our process for requesting access to data and the security thereof. He had some questions on the process, and I'm one of the few people that understands in detail the end-to-end security system. I detailed everything for him, step-by-step, and identified particular problem points.

Is all this knowledge and understanding also available from the new Indian support team, he wondered. Well, no. If the program goes down, they can fix it; but the detailed business knowledge accumulated over the years - you guys got rid of that...remember?

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Outsourcing etiquette, or lack thereof

Officially today the India people are the 100% support for my Web applications. I was invited to a meeting with my soon-to-be former boss and the Indian contractor (the onshore one) to discuss a new enhancement. My boss seemed satisfied with the meeting: the contractor did a good job asking questions and suggesting next steps so the project could move forward. I was there mostly as an "if needed" resource on the conference call, and wasn't called on for much input.

It's uncomfortable being the fifth wheel in anything, much less your sphere of expertise for the last six years. What's left of the team is "moving on", and wasn't I fortunate to be a witness to it all? Please. Where's the corporate Miss Manners when you need her?

Business transitions are normal and nothing new. Training your successor, and seeing things go forward can be a rewarding feeling. My longtime co-worker, whose last day is tomorrow, has been going through this herself. But there's a big difference between my situation and when you are leaving by choice.

I'm being let go, not because I screwed up, nor because the function is being eliminated - it's simply a cold dollars and cents calculation. OK, by this time I get it; but do I have to be the cheering section for my own funeral? It's like the ex-spouse, dumped in favor of someone new, having to stick around for 90 days to ease the transition for their replacement.

Spousal divorces never go this far. But my corporate divorce? Compassion is not its strong point.


Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing