Short-term careers

Ran into an old friend at work today. Our first words: "You're still here!", the Bank IT version of "How 'ya been?". His Web development work had also been sent offshore, and he was back to the mainframe. He's the only one in California, everyone else on his team is back East. And the direction, he's been told, is to hire from Jacksonville or Charlotte.

I'm not sure I can remember the last Bank IT person that felt secure in their job. People are realistic, surprisingly not downbeat, but painfully aware the amount of time they have left here is out of their hands. Most are great workers, and would gladly invest the rest of their careers at the Bank, given the opportunity.
But that's yesterday's reality.

Instead, most are content to only look forward over the short-term: say the coming six months. So "I seem OK for now" means "I don't see anything happening through year-end". Of course, things "seemed OK" for me as well - up till three weeks prior to my dismissal.

My family is "glad that's settled" and they can stop worrying about me for now. And I'm grateful the immediate crisis has been averted. But the only thing settled is: I'm OK for now.

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