Outsourced Odyssey

U.S. Blue-Chip Businesses Shift Hiring Abroad

2011-04-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Data from the U.S. Commerce Department reveal U.S. multinational companies increasingly are staffing their workforce from overseas. During the 2000s these businesses cut their U.S. Workforce by 2.9 million; hiring overseas increased by 2.4 million, as revealed this week in the Wall Street Journal.

The concern among some economists: the U.S.is not as competitive as overseas for staffing global companies. These large, premier companies--seen as "canaries in the coal mine" by economists due to their global footprints-- are an early warning that future quality employment here is at risk.

Clyde Prestowitz, a former trade negotiator and now a critic of US trade policy, listed what he felt is behind these trends:

"All the incentives in the global economy:

an overvalued US dollar
lower corporate taxes abroad
very aggressive investment incentives abroad
government pressure abroad versus not at home
... has been having, and will continue to have, a negative impact on US employment and wages."

A new job - and lessons learned

2007-07-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

My wife has landed a new job - YAY! Her unemployment had just recently expired, so this was great timing.

While it's fresh in our minds, here are a few lessons learned from her job search.

Be positive
A positive mental attitude will make all the difference. Don't reflect too much on the past, on the last job. What counts is the present. This could be an opportunity in disguise. Focus on the future - your next job - and make this a change for the better.

It's a marathon, not a sprint
You may be lucky and find something new quickly. But most likely, your job search will take a while. Most likely it will be months - not weeks - of effort to land your next job. Don't worry: it takes most people this long, not just you.

A job search requires new skills
You need to know where to look for job postings, the ins and outs of unemployment, how to write a resume, how to write a cover letter, interviewing techniques, etc. There are many resources online to help you. You also may have nonprofit job search organizations in your local area that give free classes on these topics. It's time well spent.

If feasible, upgrade you
This might be the time to take a few classes and upgrade your job skills. This need not be a long, costly endeavor. Selected computer classes at your local adult education facility can help qualify you for a better job.

Know thyself
What type of job do you want? Why? And what makes you qualified to get that job? Start your job search looking inward - not outward.

Online job postings are a great resource
Newspaper job listings guarantee lots of competition and focus on jobs where demand exceeds supply (think: nurses, tech hotshots). Small businesses are increasingly using resources like Craig's List, Monster and other job sites - they find them often cheaper, faster and easier than newspapers. For the job hunter, using searches to target specific jobs and locations is a godsend.

Tailor your resume and cover letter for each job
The employer often mentions specific job skills needed. If you have these skills, make sure they can't be missed by the person screening your resume. A little extra time can mean the difference between the interview pile and the reject pile.

Interviews are an acquired skill
Your early interviews may not go as well as you hoped. Don't worry: you'll get better as you go along. Better yet - have a few practice interviews with a friend before the real thing. After a few times you'll be a veteran, and possibly better at it that the person doing the interview!

Be yourself during the interview
Disregard advice that you must "perform" during the interview - this will only make you tense and unnatural. Of course be positive and professional. But be yourself. If they don't like the real you, why would you want to work there?

Put yourself in the employer's shoes
Have someone you trust look at your resume as a prospective employer would. Are there questions, or red flags you should be ready for? Gaps in employment, frequent job changes, etc. may be for good reasons. Make sure these questions aren't a surprise.

On the trail of a job opening

2007-05-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

It seemed today I had found an instance of a rare and endangered species: a technical opening in our office for a California associate.

I discovered it in a chat with a colleague. He was leaving the company, and wonder of wonders, it seemed his position was not going away. He would actually be replaced. This meant (gasp) a job opening.

It was a testing engineer position, not the most fascinating thing in the world. But it had some positives. The work closely involved the major database I have long worked with until last year. There was a local team leader, so management was on-site, and I knew a couple of other people on the team. Finally, the work would allow me to gain much deeper knowledge of our data structures for marketing. All in all, it seemed preferable to the position I've been slotted into.

Before getting too excited, I went over to learn more about it from the team leader. And a good thing I did. Unfortunately, it seems my colleague did not quite have it right.

The team currently is "in a state of flux" (like who isn't these days). The position would be on hold while things sort themselves out. It was unlikely the opening would be filled by an associate.

Instead, the position will be outsourced. In fact, outsourcing is the eventual direction for the whole testing function.

What's the title of that Beatles song again? Oh yeah.

I Should Have Known Better.

Layoff volunteers - the end of a humane option

2007-05-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Talking to an old colleague today, the subject naturally turned to recent layoffs in her unit. She's 62, and would welcome a severance package. However, during recent reductions, they laid off another man, a few years younger, highly capable, but not ready by any means for retirement. Yet both would have cost the same amount of severance dollars.

In other words, our company could have chosen a more humane layoff decision at no additional cost. She was ready and willing. She would have gladly gone. All they needed to do was ask for layoff volunteers. Why would they not do that?

My friend had the answer. Last year they were briefed by management and asked that very question. The reason? The Bank was sued. And lost. No more layoff volunteers.

Apparently the issue concerned "preference" and the bank could not prove objectivity. Reading between the lines, someone sued - and won - for not getting laid off. Is this a great country or what?

As I have written earlier, it's hard to see how this is a great victory for The Workers. People willing and able to be laid off are not. Others - for whom a layoff will be a great hardship - get sacked.

One lawyer and their client hit the Legal Lottery. But the business was not the only one on the losing end.

Forcible "integration"

2007-05-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have officially been "integrated" into the larger organization that swallowed up our "smaller" 1000 person division earlier this year. Although I've been at this place 29 years, this is something new for me. And that's saying something.

Don't get me wrong, reorganizations around here come fast and furious. Nothing new there. I've been through reorganizations where my team gets a new manager, the team is moved to some other organization, we get a new higher-level manager, etc. Any of these I've gone through numerous times (I'm on my sixth manager now in the last 12 months).

This time was different. The team I was on was broken apart by function, and each person sent to a different place in this new monster organization. A team of familiar faces is quite helpful in times of change - but that security blanket is not there this time. My old team no longer exists.

Instead, like the Army, I have been told to report to G, my new manager. My entire team is on the East Coast; I've never heard of them, and they've never heard of me. None of the team members has been an employee more than five years; my manager has been here eight months. Oh, and I'm the oldest on the team by at least 15 years.

Last year when I joined this team, I had to interview for the job - they chose me for the position. Although I was new, my new manager had heard good things about me, and I had a local West Coast teammate that I knew.

But in this situation, I was literally dumped on this team, apparently whether they liked it or not. No one had a choice, there was nothing voluntary about it. Hopefully it will all work out, assuming this is not simply a short way station before the vaunted "economies" of this integration are realized.

However, no matter which way I look at it, it's rather unsettling.

Our Outsourcing Continues

2007-05-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Three more senior-level programmers have been laid off from our West Coast offices. With this one move our organization let walk out the door 90+ years of specialized, highly valuable experience. Left behind in their place: two young, freshfaced Indians - and a number of their offshore compatriots - filled with several weeks of "knowledge transfer".

Our department a few years ago numbered 83. We ran the technical side of the organization's database marketing operation with great success. But now only 23 workers remain - a reduction of more than 70%.

Our workplace - so tightly packed at the peak that visitors needed to use cubicles of those out sick or on vacation - is now rather sparsely populated. Many aisles are deserted save for the window cubicle. Of the 36 available cubicles near me, all but two sit empty. I half expect to look up one day soon and see a tumbleweed blowing past.

Meanwhile the survivors soldier on. Why don't we just leave? Well, of course the younger and most marketable of us have moved on to greener pastures. Many of the remaining are over 50 and would prefer to put off the day when they put our open, diversity-loving society to the All Ages Are Equal test.

Unfortunately, that day has been coming all too soon for many of us lately.

Famous economist: 40 million jobs at risk

2007-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder says the current one million jobs lost from offshoring is the "tip of the iceberg". In a page 1 Wall Street Journal article this week, Blinder says as many as 40 million American jobs could be shipped overseas in the next decade or two.

"A New Industrial Revolution" is the scale of change this nation faces, analogous to when workers left farms en masse and migrated to cities. This change set off massive shifts in "how and where people lived, how they educated their children, the organization of businesses, the form and practices of governments."

The changes we face in the coming generation are of this scale. We must recognize the dimensions of the problem and begin to prepare ourselves for it.

He says the most important divide is not, as commonly argued, between jobs that require a lot of education and those that don't. It's not simply that skilled jobs stay in the US and lesser-skilled jobs go to India or China. The important distinction is between services that must be done in the U.S. and those that can -- or will someday -- be delivered electronically with little degradation in quality. The more personal work of divorce lawyers isn't likely to go overseas, for instance, while some of the work of tax lawyers could be. Civil engineers, who have to be on site, could be in great demand in the U.S.; computer engineers might not be.

Our educational system must adapt. A college degree will not offer a worker protection if they have worked hard only to master a skill that is easily outsourced offshore.

Bottom line: jobs with person-to-person contact will survive; many others will not. The janitor's job is safe. But all you computer programmers...oh, well.

Still standing

2007-03-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a long week. Just waiting for the East Coast head honcho to arrive, probably to lay people off. After all, she had said all "affected Associates" would be notified by end of February, and she was to be here the 27th and 28th. And with our unit being potentially redundant after the last internal organization, things weren't looking good.

But she has come and gone and I am still standing. I was sick yesterday and working from home, and spent the whole day checking voicemail every half hour. With each call I waited anxiously to see if a "summons" was on my voicemail; fortunately I always heard "no new messages" awaited me.

They have taken a new quiet policy and are not announcing layoffs, but I know something was supposed to happen yesterday. Of course word always gets around when people are let go, so our minds will not be eased just because a formal announcement is withheld.

Or maybe it's just not a big deal any longer. What a great topic for our internal corporate web site: "Click here for the latest layoff news!" "Check back often to see if your name is on the list."

Sometime ahead they will be analyzing in detail redundant positions after this reorganization is complete. That may be a hard exercise to survive. But for now I'm still here.

But each layoff round leaves one battered and bruised. How much can someone take without becoming perennially demotivated?

Think I'll skip the welcome mat

2007-02-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

I received an ominous e-mail this morning.

My manager’s boss is coming to town, for an in-person “all hands” meeting. We were told to reserve Tuesday, February 27th for a short meeting. Our manager said we shouldn’t worry, it’s likely just a “meet and greet” session.

Yeah, right. Managing 200+ employees, she’s going to drop everything, fly across the country from the East Coast, to have a “short meeting” with her 12 West Coast associates.

There can be only one reason for this trip: she will be laying off people. Per company protocol the news has to be delivered in person.

This is the same script from last year. The unexplained higher level East Coast manager visit. The advance note to make sure everyone is “available”. The promised “all hands” meeting as a cover.

The original performance was bad enough – was a sequel really necessary?

Rampant rumors

2007-02-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

A former colleague from Florida called a couple days ago with the grim news that he was amongst those laid off February 1st. We are in the same department, but he's on a different team. He had been expecting it, since he was the right hand communications man for the now-retired executive. Like a change of parties in Washington, formerly secure jobs quickly become insecure when the top boss goes.

The cutting is not done, and even heavier layoffs can be expected next month - according to him. Next month they will be letting go now-redundant workers as our organization is swallowed into a much larger one. That was not what I wanted to hear.

I had been hoping an optimistic rumor was true: our two organizations would operate independently for the remainder of the year. As we had been told by our leader only last week, "most of the layoffs" have already occurred. And if things would operate independently for a while, maybe I would be safe for the rest of the year.

Without the benefit of my rose-colored glasses, the heavier layoff rumor seems more probable.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, layoffs

Anatomy of a Layoff

2007-01-31T22:48:00.001-08:00

I should have seen the signs.

Kiddingly, my colleague yesterday had told our East Coast manager not to drop in on us without warning. Californians know that can mean only one thing: layoffs. Our boss had responded, "Don't worry. A lot of people are getting on planes, but I'm not one of them."

This morning it hit home. M, a close friend of mine at work, came by my desk early today. She was holding the infamous severance "package". Her East Coast boss's boss had given her the word only that morning.

Although she had been hoping to get a few more years in, her husband has a good job and her only son is now in college, so she thinks she'll be okay. Still, it's a shock. And she only gets two more weeks. Her last day is February 15th.

She also said: word is the local Hilton is swarming with East Coast managers here to do layoffs. And shortly after we received word that five people in our eastern colleagues department had also been laid off. So it was not an isolated incident - layoffs were happening in technology across the country.

At one o'clock came the obligatory all hands meeting to discuss what everyone already knew: layoffs had occurred. Business priorities had changed, market conditions were bad, and if you were associated with an initiative that had its funding pulled...oh well.

As to the question on everyone's mind: no, they are not done. Additional positions will be cut with the goal of everyone notified by March 31.

I feel like a soldier on the front. Today I survived. Not everyone made it, but I did. It's a relief.

Unfortunately, the war is far from over. And a new battle looms.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Corporate thoughtfulness

2007-01-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

Our "retiring" leader held a meeting this week to introduce the head of the organization we will be merged into. Our new leader had nothing definite to say at this time about what will happen, begging off that it was premature, and he wanted to approach the integration "thoughtfully".

Thoughtfully. Hmmm...that surely would require a few months, right?

Well, no. Apparently, 45 days will do the job. It's something "we have to do relatively quickly. It's a new year, and we have a plan to execute against."

Let's see. Forty-five days from now would be March 1st. Conveniently, anyone terminated on March 1st and given 30 days notice would be off the books for the start of second-quarter.

He obviously already has a target head count number. The sooner staff cuts are made, the better 2007 expense numbers will look (which of course determine bonuses, not that that's an issue in matters such as these).

During the next six weeks severance packages will be prepared for the March 1st mass termination. That's the real analysis that will be taking place.

Yes, come March 1st The Plan will be thoughtfully executed. Not to mention many of us "associates".

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

New year, old worries

2007-01-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, with less than 30 minutes notice, a quick meeting was called for an "org update". (Note to managers: this is a great way to guarantee full attendance at your meeting.) Sure enough, we received news of potential impact to everyone in the room: the Chief Information Officer in charge of our parent division was suddenly retiring.

Even worse: the CIO was not being replaced. Instead, our 1000 person division will be "integrated" into another technology division, and the official announcement from senior management cheerfully described the cost savings ahead.

Our group is part of a support organization serving the now-former CIO and the division. The larger division we are being consumed by already has its own support structure. Do they need duplicate support groups? Of course, anything can happen, and it may be premature to be overly worried. However, I can do the math, and many of us will probably be cost savings casualties.

This could be another interesting year.

Technorati Tags: layoffs

A New Year!!??

2007-01-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

I had to write my first "07" date yesterday, and as always, it's a very peculiar feeling. After having written (or, more likely, typed) hundreds of "06's", it's not easy to move on. Alas, these new years just happen - whether I like it or not!

A New Year always contains a mix of feelings and emotions for me. It's a fresh start in many ways, a honeymoon period sparked with hope and optimism: this will be the year some difficult obstacle is finally overcome.

At work, everyone is back and the long winding down to the holidays is replaced with a new energy. It can feel good to get back to normal again.

But January can also be a trying time emotionally. I remember growing up in Chicago, with all the early winter cold and snow so exciting, a prelude to the magic of Christmas. But then Christmas was here, and gone, and we were left with...January. Many weeks of cold and ice to go, with shoveling snow a poor substitute for Holiday glitter.

The weather in northern California does not match the never-ending summer image of our Southern California brethren - we do experience a change of seasons. But it's a "kinder, gentler" winter here with no snow and temperatures in the 40s/50s. Still, January is the gloomiest time of year even here, with lots of damp, foggy, rainy days.

So I guess that makes me...what? Gloomily positive? Hopeful in a dreary way?

Who knows. But if past experience is any judge, there is one difficult obstacle that will soon be overcome triumphantly.

I will be a master of the "07" dates in no time.

Will Smith (2): One Step at a Time

2006-12-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

More insights from the December Reader's Digest interview with Will Smith.

Smith shared some valuable lessons he learned from his father:

Smith: My father was in the military, so everything was really regimented.

RD: Was he a taskmaster?
Smith: Oh, yeah, he was very serious about things being a certain way. When my father got out of the Air Force, he started his own refrigeration business. I might have been 12 and my brother 9 when one day he decided he wanted a new front wall at his shop. He tore the old one down -- it was probably 16 feet high and 40 feet long. And he told us that this was going to be our gig over the summer. We were standing there thinking, There will never, ever, be a wall here again. We went brick by brick for the entire summer and into winter and then back into spring. One day there was a wall there again. I know my dad had been planning this for a long time. He said, "Now, don't you all ever tell me there's something you can't do." And he walked into the shop.

The thing I connect to is: I do not have to build a perfect wall today. I just have to lay a perfect brick. Just lay one brick, dude.

How often have I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of a huge project, or a period of time (like the holidays) when so much is going on. At these times, I need to remember Smith's example:

Slow down. Take a deep breath. Take it one step at a time.

(See an earlier post on tips for tackling tough projects.)

Will Smith's Secrets of Success

2006-12-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've always enjoyed Will Smith's movies - his characters are always worth the price of admission.
The December Reader's Digest has an interview with Will Smith that gave me some insights into his phenomenal success.

It's simple. Just blend a positive-thinking-to-the-max Dale Carnegie-type with a maniacal work ethic. Smith's take on himself: "I consider myself to be of basically average talent, right? What I have that other people do not have is a sick, obsessive, raw animal drive."

His philosophy is: "I can do it." Anything. Here's an example, in this exchange from the interview:

RD: So, you don't see any reason to go back to a formal education yourself?
Smith: I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.

RD: They put physics in a book, but I know I could never be a physicist.
Smith: The first step is you have to say that you can.

I'd have to agree. Some of the most important skills I've learned and used in my career have been self-taught. I taught myself to type one summer in high school. I taught myself programming from a reference manual during my first college job. Most of my Web development skills have been from books and references versus formal training.

Given the right mix of books, motivation, determination and discipline - you can learn anything.

Of course, becoming another Will Smith is a different story...

Technorati Tags: Will Smith, education

Out of a job

2006-12-07T21:44:00.000-08:00

My wife officially got the word today that her job with the accounting firm has come to an end: tomorrow will be her last day.

We've known this probably was coming for the last few weeks. She has still been doing some work for them, but it has been getting more irregular and scaled-down lately. As well, it's been a difficult place to work and keep in good spirits. She never was given regular duties and authority; instead, all she ever got was piecemeal work that would last a day or two. It was like being a permanent temporary worker.

This way she can file for unemployment and have some money coming in while she looks for something new. She's also been polishing her computer skills. She passed a proficiency test for both Microsoft Word and Excel for a city job she's applied for.

Being out of work is never fun, but even with that there's a bright side.

For the first time in years, she can spend Christmas vacation at home with the boys!

Technorati Tags: layoffs

Outsourcing ingenuity

2006-11-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

Another update from my old database area. Although many people had been affected by the outsourcing we went through earlier, one area was inviolate: the Database Administrators or DBAs. These technical specialists are the experts on the inner workings of the database. To do this, they are entrusted with "God IDs" that have security rights to do anything, including deleting entire databases. Because of information security policy, these positions have to be held by employees and can't be outsourced.

At least I thought so until today. I was chatting with a friend in the hall, and she was complaining about her "pseudo DBA" - someone that performed DBA-like functions for her, but wasn't a "real DBA".

In fact, her pseudo DBA was an Indian contractor. The powers that be have figured out that you can't outsource real DBAs, but all jobs don't require DBA high security authority. Therefore many DBA tasks can be outsourced, reducing the number of DBAs needed. Ingenious!

One minor nitpicking point: the pseudo DBAs are somewhat less than proficient in DBA expertise. In fact, my friend had to spoon feed them the coding instructions for setting up her tables. And she had to point out to them that they had included redundant data items that weren't needed (database design is a core DBA expertise).

But this must be a good deal. Expenses are down - numbers don't lie.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, layoffs

Education in head banging

2006-11-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have developed a job-related web site on the side to use as an R&D exercise. I'm trying to see what works and what doesn't in creating an income-producing web site.

So far, I'm getting a great education in the "what doesn't work" part. Decent Web traffic from these ultra-competitive search terms - jobs, resume, careers, etc. - is not going to happen. After several months of effort, and links from over 100 other sites, I'm still not on the radar screen in Google or Yahoo for the bread-and-butter searches.

Instead of continuing to bang my head against the wall, I'm shifting gears. Within the job search category, perhaps there are lesser-known niches where my site could be found. After all, my site is certainly out there in Google: if I search on certain terms on my homepage my site comes up as the #1 result.

My hope is a collection of tiny niches might add up to something worthwhile. Learning to identify, assess and exploit search terms that the big boys are ignoring seems the only way to go.

Are "Micro Niches" worthwhile? That's the $64 question, of course.

I will do my best to find out.

Technorati Tags: Web marketing, niche, seo

Wife's job OK? Think again

2006-11-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

Another twist in my wife's working situation.

When we last left her, she had found a relatively calm way station working in a small accounting firm, after narrowly escaping the workaholic Iranian dentist who had taken over the bankrupt practice of her former employer. (got that?)

It looked like her working perils were behind her for a while. She rapidly got up to speed with long-forgotten accounting terminology and principles, studying on her own time. The hours were flexible, the location convenient, and the people seemed nice - enough was good that she could overlook the Super Micro-Manager tendencies of her supervisor. They mapped out for her an education plan to train her in most aspects of the business.

However, as time has gone on, for whatever reason she has not been given a set of ongoing responsibilities. Instead, her boss only spoons out tasks that are one to two days long. If she runs into problems, the boss solves them "because it's faster", instead of providing a little training so my wife can handle it the next time. It's a very frustrating way to work for someone that's used to taking the ball and running with it.

Additionally, the working hours are sporadic: no more than 20 hours a week. For example, one week she was told not to come in because they needed her desk for a visiting CPA.

She had a talk with the head of the business Monday. He recognizes her capabilities, and also is frustrated that they are not able to utilize her better. However, it's a very small two-person practice, and most of the work requires an accounting degree-type of background. Without extensive accounting schooling, she can't take on the higher level of work. And what's left is not all that interesting.

That's a long way of saying she needs to look for another job - yet again. But probably better to cut her losses early than be unhappy for a long time. And although the hours are somewhat limited, she still has a job for now while she looks.

This time perhaps she'll find something that has a little less peril...and a little more reward.

Technorati Tags: small business, job search

More from the former team

2006-11-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Another update regarding my former team.

My former boss, P., had been given her walking papers last spring. In spite of a big push, she was not able to find another position, and is no longer at the company.

Her replacement, D., had been the team leader, and so could get up to speed rapidly. She knew all the issues and played a major role during the transition of the service center to India resources. However, she could see many problems, which she escalated to her management, hoping for resolution and a more streamlined operation.

Her reward? She was told she was being "too emotional" - no additional resources or needed changes would be forthcoming.

And now she also has been relieved of her duties and must find another position. The transition for outsourcing continues to be rocky; she was a convenient "fall guy".

Another co-worker recently returned from maternity leave, the only way she had avoided getting laid off earlier. All through the summer she tried to get an answer to the big question: would she have a job when she returned? No answers from management, despite repeated inquiries. Finally, she assumed she had a job, paid a nonrefundable one month's deposit for the corporate day care, and returned.

And the first day back she's laid off, like all the others. Only now she has to forfeit the month's daycare expense as well. Cute.

Meanwhile, what about the managers that instituted all this outsourcing? They are doing just fine, thank you. In fact, they will probably get nice bonuses for the good work.

That's life in Corporate America.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Wall Street Journal: voter unease a danger signal

2006-10-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

For two decades now, Corporate America has been engaging in an increasingly virulent practice of layoffs; initially for valid competitive reasons, outsourcing is the latest manifestation of business practices that put little or no value on the company's human capital. Amidst the worst of these practices there has been little in the way of public censure. Business has felt no check from society, no negative impact at all from its short-term, bottom-line-at-all-costs orientation.

But as Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray pointed out this Wednesday, something seems amiss. In the midst of a strong economy, historically low unemployment, and inflation under 3 percent majority of voters disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy.

...the economic backdrop for election 2006 should raise a warning flag about the future. Large numbers of Americans seem to have lost their belief in John F. Kennedy's famous aphorism that a rising tide lifts all boats. "They know the economy is white hot," says political analyst Charlie Cook, "but they also know they aren't in it....There's a feeling that some people are getting theirs, but we aren't getting ours."

Corporate America may be on the verge of discovering that their actions do indeed have consequences.

The danger for business is that the broad social support for pro-business and pro-market policies that has characterized American politics for a quarter century or more could be breaking down.

...A Democratic wise man told me recently that if he were asked what economic platform would offer a Democratic presidential contender the best chances of success in 2008, he would have to say it's an antitrade, antiglobalization, anti-immigration platform. For now, none of the best-known possible Democratic candidates -- Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore or, the latest fad, Barack Obama -- are taking that tack. But the problem here isn't Democratic leaders. It's Democratic followers. If the reservoir of dissatisfaction grows strong enough, it's only a matter of time before some candidate figures out how to tap in.

The election in 2008 could be the one where economic issues come back, and with an antibusiness vengeance.

Yes, layoffs and outsourcing may have temporarily looked good on the balance sheet. But how do those gains compare to the cost of destroying the pro-business environment that has existed in this country for a generation.

Unbridled layoffs, quite differently from being the bottom-line savior they are cracked up to be, might end up accomplishing something wholly different.

They may kill the golden goose.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Some things ain't what they used to be

2006-10-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

I was stopped by a friend outside my office the other day. I hadn't seen him in a few months (not uncommon in our 2000+ person complex). What is going on with the Web applications I used to support? he wanted to know. He was complaining of constant communications saying the applications were down again. "We never used to have these problems when you supported them."

Yes, it certainly saddens me to hear these things...ha. The latest problem occurred Monday, as the applications were down for several hours that morning. The crack India outsourcing team neglected to notice it was time to change the password on the master ID used for all the Web functions. Monday morning, when everyone tried to look up something on the Web, all they received was in error message saying "Password Has Expired". Oops.

I'm not naive enough to think anyone will be taken to task for all this. But there's a simple lesson to be learned here, if anyone would bother to look for it:

You get what you pay for.

Technorati Tags: outsource, layoffs

Not another one?!

2006-10-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

A favorite management-speak saying these days: "Change is a constant. Embrace it." Well, more change is coming my way. Yay.

My manager, it was announced this week, has landed a plum position; he'll be moving on November 15th. Pardon me if I refrain from too hardy a congratulations.

A change of manager is one of the most disruptive things, as many workers can attest. It's especially annoying in larger companies because odds are the new manager has no clue as to who you are or what you can do. Whatever you have accomplished in the past is history; you are back to square one now.

This will be my fifth manager this year. Even for our company (motto: Reorgs 'R Us) this is pretty dismal. And they wonder why associate satisfaction scores are not the best.

To top it off, these days no manager or a weak manager makes you more vulnerable to layoffs. I barely survived that scenario a few months back, and any chance of a repeat decidedly lacks appeal.

No replacement has yet been picked yet, the current manager is a short-timer, and none of us have a clue what's going on.

Change. You gotta love it.

Technorati Tags: workplace, new manager, layoffs

Preaching to the missing

2006-10-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a modest, unassuming kind of guy. What can I say, I'm from the Midwest. It goes without saying this is not the best recipe for success in today's corporate world.

Today, though, I was to have a chance to shine. The department manager's all hands meeting this week was going to do a "deep dive" into a couple of recent project successes. One of these projects was mine.

So I put together a beautiful PowerPoint presentation (cloned from someone else's beautiful PowerPoint deck, of course - does anyone know how to create a PowerPoint document from scratch?). I practiced and was ready for today.

One problem. The department manager would not be there: she's at a Leadership Retreat all week. Her replacement: another manager, this one a short timer who will be gone in a couple weeks. Oh, and it turns out my manager couldn't be there - important three-hour meeting.

Ultimately, about 12 of the 25 people showed. One of my other teammates didn't come, and the other one had to step out to take a call and missed the last one-third of the presentation.

Perhaps the Laws of the Universe would come undone if I were to succeed at some semblance of self-promotion. Fortunately for us all, that day was not today.

But everyone, even those that didn't attend, could agree on one thing.

It was a beautiful PowerPoint.

Technorati Tags: workplace, PowerPoint, presentation

Yoo-hoo!

2006-10-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm hitting the bottle again. Don't tell my wife.

Actually, she knows, and isn't too worried - although I've been drinking regularly for the last couple months. Fortunately for her (not to mention me) my drink of choice is a chocolate drink. It's called Yoo-hoo.

It started a couple months ago as we were returning from vacation. Our lunchtime restaurant was decorated with plaques from old advertising campaigns: Coca-Cola, Grape-Nuts, Squirt - and many long since faded away. But one sign caught my eye: Kayo chocolate drinks.

I used to love these when I was a kid. I'd come back from a summer hike in the Michigan sand dunes with my father, drenched with sweat, and be rescued by an ice cold bottle of Kayo. I hadn't seen any in years though.

I got on the Internet and searched. Turns out Kayo is still around and owned by Sara Lee, but they only make powdered hot chocolate now; no cold chocolate drinks. But in one of the forums, another person looking for Kayo was told to try Yoo-hoo. I had never heard of it.

But after several fruitless searches through local grocery stores, I discovered it at a Safeway near my parents. I love it - it's especially great ice cold. And my kids have been bringing the boxed drink version for lunches.

Hopefully Yoo-hoo will continue to thrive. If early indications are any sign, a local Safeway can testify to a clear spike in demand.

Read more about Yoo-hoo's history.

Technorati Tags: Yoo-hoo, chocolate drinks, kayo

Family weekend

2006-10-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

I had a special treat this weekend: my brother was in town.

He's an author, and he and his wife were here for a local book signing, so I took the day off Friday and spent the day with them and my folks. We went down the coast along Highway 1, stopped at the beaches and had lunch at the small town of Pescadero. Afterwards, we stopped by Butano State Park for a sampling of the quiet Redwood forest. It's an old favorite spot, and where my grandmother's ashes were scattered.

It's a special treat to see them because they live in the Minneapolis area, protected by the unfriendly skies of Northwest Airlines - which has a monopoly grip on the Twin Cities. Example: his schedule changed, and he had to fly from San Francisco to Detroit before heading back to Minneapolis. The Northwest charge for that flight: $1400! He then had a novel idea. How much would it cost for a round-trip flight between San Francisco and Detroit, stopping at Minneapolis on the return trip? Answer: $250. Minneapolis price gouging, pure and simple. So he booked that "round-trip", but will get off at Minneapolis and go home on the return leg.

Essentially, Northwest has erected a moat around Minneapolis. This not only makes it expensive for local citizens to take trips, it likewise makes it costly for visiting friends and relatives. As a result, we don't see each other as much as we'd like. In the long-term, I don't believe this monopoly is sustainable; but for now, it's a pain.

But we all had a great time this weekend, and that's the main thing. Everyone together around one table - my family, whole - that's priceless!

Technorati Tags: Northwest Air, family

Electrical envy

2006-10-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

I work in a large office complex and there's always some kind of infrastructure work going on. Maintenance workers are a common sight - so common it's easy to overlook them. The current project du jour is some kind of electrical upgrade on our floor, and the electricians have been bustling around making noise.

Yesterday, as I was passing one doing some work in the hall, I took notice of him. We share a lot in common: a technical-related career, veteran of many projects and well versed in the tools of the trade. But there was something he had that I lacked: job security.

Electrical wiring jobs are not going to be outsourced to India anytime soon. He does not need to fear an abrupt involuntary termination of his career prospects from someone halfway around the world working for 10 cents on the dollar. And he has the added protection of union membership.

Makes me wonder why I'm paying thousands and thousands of dollars in tuition so that my sons can be more than electricians. If our outsourcing continues unabated, at some point there'll either be a lot more clamoring to enter the electrical field or a lot of disgruntled college graduates and parents of college graduates.

Or maybe both.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, layoffs, career, tech

It ain't sexy, but it'll do

2006-10-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

My new position is more satisfying lately, which is a good feeling.

Initially, I was getting concerned, because there was little technical challenge to the job. I was getting assignments like creating a "bubble chart" in Excel, each bubble representing a project, showing visually when it would deploy and if it was green, yellow or red condition. These type of assignments make you get down on your knees and thank God for the iPod.

This last month has been better. A request for a new compliance report came in, a weekly report, and I needed to automate creation of the report as much as possible. I got to do a fair amount of database work (40 queries), and the chance to work with macros to handle the automation. It wasn't Web development, but it was challenging and satisfying work. I finished early, and got kudos from my boss for the job.

It's not sexy technical work: no Web development, nor large-scale database involvement. Mostly it's been Microsoft Access and Excel, which I've gained new respect for as I've seen what's beneath the surface. Still, it doesn't exactly produce a great resume.

However, at this point I'm working more for my family than myself. As long as I can "get some satisfaction" I think I'll be fine.

Technorati Tags: career, job satisfaction

Keep the day job

2006-09-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

While working at my primary Bank job, I've kept my hand in some Web projects on the side. I mentioned in an earlier post about developing a job-related site, intending to use it as a R&D exercise to learn what works and what doesn't for a sideline Web business.

My intent was to pick a popular area, and job-related sites certainly gather a lot of traffic. Put up a site that links to a lot of quality content, although not requiring in-depth content of its own. Then see what could be earned with some well-placed Google Ads from visitors. Essentially a "build it and they will come" approach.

Well, what I've learned so far: it ain't working. They don't come because no one knows it exists. And they don't know it's there because your site gets pitiful search engine rankings from Google and others. A lot of people are searching for your category, but no one is going to wade through 500 higher ranked sites to get to yours.

One way to get traffic is to be listed in some high-profile directories for your category. So I made an executive decision to pay to get my site listed in the Yahoo Directory a couple weeks ago. Not an easy decision, because it's a $299 annual fee! But I obviously needed to try something: the site had been earning an average of 15 cents per day.

For the first seven days, new directory entries in Yahoo are listed at the top of their category and marked "New". Last week was great: in seven days the site earned over $30 - it was exciting. How great was this: you do nothing and get paid for it!

Alas, the seven days were up Thursday, and my site has retreated to the bottom of the category list. Saturday I earned 8 cents (I'll try not to spend it all at once).

Guess for now I better keep my day job.

Technorati Tags: Google ads, moonlighting

My wife learns her fate

2006-09-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

For several weeks now, my wife has continued to work part-time at the small, two-person accounting firm. It was a temporary trial: she was not an employee at that point, but an independent contractor. That was okay; she was content to be earning something for the moment.

However, as the weeks wore on with no word either way, she began to wonder if she was simply low-cost labor until they finished their September 15th fiscal year high workload. "We need to sit down and talk" was said frequently, but nothing ever came of it.

Monday that changed. The head of the firm was suddenly insistent that "they needed to talk". This was the first business day after September 15th - not a good sign. And the family's experiences this year with one-on-one talks with the boss have not ended well.

Well - surprise - they offered her a permanent position! Although the money could be better, the training opportunities seem very promising. They'll be putting her through the ropes with most of the accounting duties they do at the firm - she won't be just doing grunt work. And they are very flexible about working hours, which is one of the main things she needs, plus the central location is ideal.

And amazingly enough, she'll be working with highly educated professionals that seem organized and decent (no yelling/cursing, no constantly missed payrolls). True, her boss is the micromanager to end all micromanagers, and she does still have to deal with the DOS circa 1990 accounting software they use, but no job of my wife's is complete without its strange quirks.

For now, things seem to have worked out for the best. She's quite pleased!

Weekend getaway

2006-09-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

My wife and I got away on our own this weekend, "visiting" San Francisco. Although we live in the area, it's easy to take it for granted and see less of it than tourists. Plus it's great to get away as a couple sometimes. So several times a year, our kids stay with the grandparents for a day or two, and we "travel" somewhere in the Bay Area.

We're under a budget, so usually stay someplace nice but within reason. This has meant most of the nice San Francisco hotels located in the heart of the city have been outside our reach. However, this time we tried PriceLine for the first time, and scored the Grand Hyatt hotel on Union Square for $110, a sizable savings over the normal $220 rate.

We had a great time. I'm ashamed to say it had been over 20 years since I had last been to Union Square. Since that time San Francisco completely renovated it; it's now wonderfully open, teeming with people and host to constant special events. The Union Square I remember was a magnet for the homeless and you walked through it quickly to get on your way.

We also stopped by the Cheesecake Factory at Macy's, which was packed. I'm not a cheesecake fan, but this is not normal cheesecake: the taste is out of this world! We brought back some White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake for my folks and the boys - it was divine.

Wall Street Journal: Layoffs = bad stock?

2006-09-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Interesting MarketWatch column in today's Journal: "Why investors may do well with firms that avoid layoffs". The spur: Wall Street's negative reaction to this week's announcement from Intel of a less-than-expected 10,000 layoffs. This is all too typical of the market, cheering on more bloodletting. But investors, as opposed to short-term traders, might be wise to view mass layoffs suspiciously. They are rarely an example of wise management.

In fact, some studies have shown that big layoffs have no long-term impact on a company's stock. As the article notes:

Maybe that is because, cost-cutting, for the sake of cost-cutting to appease Wall Street, is also the result of companies scrambling to show a profit or to continue to show a profit. It also suggests mismanagement by companies as they try to reignite their growth.

The sad truth is that as was the case for IBM, these layoffs signal the end of Intel's great run. Its monopoly grip is loosening, and its leaders and circumstances behind its early growth are gone... That is nothing for investors to cheer about.

One day perhaps, the perception that layoffs are bad news, not good news, will be common knowledge on Wall Street. Nothing could do more to sober up Corporate America from its current layoff addiction.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Outsourcing alive and well

2006-09-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

While I've been preoccupied with my new position, that doesn't mean the IT landscape at the bank has been getting any safer. Our large technology organization has announced a new Indian organization has been awarded a long-term contract for production support work (ongoing maintenance of existing application systems). Apparently this is great news, as the new vendor presented a "compelling business case", "nearshore (Uruguay) capabilities" and a "strong and proven knowledge transfer process".

Transition work will begin by early October. The knowledge transfer will shift work from both existing employees and current outsourcing contractors. New development work (for now) will remain in-house.

This may affect my web applications that were outsourced last quarter. My Indian IT contact is not a member of the blessed outsourcing firm, so it could be all that knowledge transfer work was in vain. He seems to be floundering by the way, not sure he can manage to meet a deadline for an upcoming server conversion. What a mess if someone even more clueless takes over.

I'm hoping I will slide under the radar screen for now; my work is more ad hoc and not part of a formal application system. But then I thought the same thing about my prior position - my fortuneteller reputation is not untarnished!u

Just another day on the outsourcing frontlines.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

An Assassin's Tale

2006-09-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

Something a little different. No, this is not Corporate America's latest devious scheme for reducing headcount! It refers to a science-fiction short story my college son wrote recently. He posted it to fan fiction site, where it received a good reception, so I thought I would share it here.

Mercy - An Assassin's Tale focuses on Misao, on her coming to grips with the nature of her profession, which is that of an assassin.

Come to think of it, it does look like outsourcing (of a more permanent nature) would be right up her alley...HR people, no ideas please.

Technorati Tags: science-fiction, fan fiction, guild wars

Attack of the network gods

2006-08-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

I've been a longtime user and believer in voice recognition software, particularly the NaturallySpeaking product. It's great for getting things done while taking some of the pressure off computer-fatigued limbs. However, it's quirky, and occasionally just stops working; then it needs the software equivalent of a good kick: the Windows "repair" facility, which does a mass refresh of the software.

Yesterday, sure enough, it stopped cooperating so I started to do a repair. Started to, because I immediately received an error message that I did not have the appropriate permissions to modify the registry. Just to be sure, I double-clicked on the time - alas, I didn't even have permission to change the time. The network gods had stripped me of Administrator rights to my workstation.

I've always had Administrator rights, which lets you install software and make configuration changes to your computer. Because technical support envisions all manner of evil things that users could put on their computer, Administrator rights are reserved for developers. Although I've been a developer for 29 years, the network gods, seeing that my job title no longer looks like a developer, summarily removed my rights.

To get back to where I was, I need a waiver approved by not necessarily God, but pretty close. Even then it's not permanent and has to be renewed every year. Since our almost-God executive has better things to do almost every day of the year than sign waivers (as the network gods well know) it may be a while before I get my access back.

Fortunately, probably again via bureaucratic mistake, I have a second computer, a laptop. For now, I remain an Administrator on this machine. So I've pressed it into duty for now, and the voice recognition still works OK there. However, at any time they could automatically take Administrator rights away from this one as well.

Apparently the rights get taken away when you log on. Hmmmm. The challenge: how long can I go without logging out? The plan: when I'm done for the day, I only lock the laptop (not log out), remove it, and bring it home - all on battery power. Then I plug it in at home to make sure the battery doesn't die. (And it's a Dell laptop, so I need to find a place where an overnight battery fire won't consume the house...sheesh!) In the morning I bring the laptop back, plop it into the docking station, and unlock it. Wahlah - no log ins!

Not sure how long I can keep this up - NaturallySpeaking also enjoys forcing reboots. I'm like a fugitive, furtively keeping to the shadows. Unfortunately, like most fugitives, it's only a matter of time. I can run but I can't hide.

The network gods always get their man in the end.

Cellular assimilation

2006-08-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

We have become a four cell phone family - our assimilation is complete.

Not that we haven't surrendered without difficulty. My wife had one first, mostly for emergency purposes, for several years. Then my oldest son needed one in high school to better coordinate the varying pickup times. But I drew the line there: I didn't see any need for myself or my youngest son.

But the youngest is now in high school, and even after one week it was apparent a cell phone was needed. With Verizon offering additional family lines for only $9.99/month, we got phones for him and even me. My wife has been after me for awhile now to get one. For some reason my driving around in my 1984 Toyota Corolla "Luxury Edition" without a cell concerns her (it didn't help my cause that I couldn't start it last week).

And I must admit the phone, a Motorola V325 (pictured above), is pretty cool: it has Mobile Web features so I can access my e-mail via phone. (Why I would really need to do this, I'm not sure, but it's cool nonetheless.)

How much I'll use the phone remains to be seen. But for better or for worse, we have all joined the cellular club.

Technorati Tags: cell phones

Haves vs. have-nots

2006-08-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a long day today, literally: 27 hours long, because I gained 3 hours traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast. It's about 10pm local time now, and I arose this morning at the equivalent of 2:30am Pacific time, so I'm starting to fade in and out.

It was a good trip. I met a lot of people in my new department, and spent a lot of time together with my new manager yesterday. Even short meetings face-to-face I've found can greatly spur business relationships; hopefully, that will be the case again here. The one-on-one face time with my manager was great - I know more about his background now, and feel we have forged some areas of common interest. It probably would've taken several months to accomplish the same over the phone.

I couldn't help but be struck by the differences I saw in Charlotte and here on the West Coast: it's like working at two different companies. Truly a haves vs. have-nots comparison. The offices were packed with people there, few cubicles were empty; in California, some areas have more empty cubicles than occupied ones. There the workforce is healthy and dynamic: a mix across all the age ranges and seniority levels, typical of a growing environment; in contrast, California has an abundance of veteran tech workers, but nothing else. Hiring has virtually stopped amongst the West Coast technology workforce, so there’s not many younger workers, with one exception: our Indian contractors.

Discrimination by race, gender, etc. in employment is against the law. What isn't against the law is a geographic hiring bias, and our company has a strong Charlotte hiring preference. As a result, our West Coast tech workfers are gradually becoming an endangered species.

Technorati Tags: California technology, employment

Charlotte trip

2006-08-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

I will be in Charlotte, NC for several days this week for an all-hands offsite. It's a chance to meet some of my new teammates in person, and build relationships.

When you work on the other side of the country from most of your team, a face-to-face meeting is a rare priviledge. In my last assignment, I was quite close to many of my team, having worked with them day in and out for several years. Yet, I might go two years between actually seeing them. So it was always nice when those few chances came. This is a little different; I'm just beginning to know my new team, so this will put faces to names and kickstart some relationships.

It will also be interesting to finally visit Charlotte, the main headquarters city. Of course us old West Coasters remember all too well that San Francisco was "World Headquarters", and it's hard not to feel resentful about the stolen moniker (not to mention the thousands of jobs that go with a major company's HQ city). But that battle was lost years ago, alas.

Still, I am glad business travel is not a common occurrence for me. I hate being away from my family, even for a few days. At best it's a necessary evil. And even with these few days away, I will be missing my son's first days in high school.

I'm afraid I'd make a lousy "road warrior" with this attitude.

Blast from the past

2006-08-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

My wife is back in the workforce - uh oh.

To put it kindly, she has not had the best of luck when it comes to employers. What she's doing now is temporary work, on a 1099 independent contractor basis, for the accounting firm that was used by the dentist she last worked for. This seemed very safe: large professional office building, established accounting practice over 15 years old, two mature accountants. Even for her, this had to be a slam dunk decent assignment.

Her main job at this point is to do data entry of time the accountant spent with the client for billing purposes. The unusual thing is these hours are for Jan 2006: they've never completed the recording of their hours in their system. In fact, they first record the hours manually, and then type them into the computer later; she had to roll her eyes at that process. What had they been doing in the meantime for revenue? Hopefully they billed somebody somewhere along the line before now.

But it gets better. The computer software for recording the hours is a DOS program! How it even runs is a mystery under today's Windows: it must be over 15 years old. Obviously, this accounting practice is a little hesitant about technology. But entrusting the recording of your practice's billable hours to 15-year-old obsolete DOS software gives new meaning to technology-challenged.

I doubt this will do much for her resume credentials. But then, this is my wife's world of employment; what can you expect. At least no one is yelling or throwing fits, and they're paying her. The bar is not very high here.

Technorati Tags: small business, working environment

A nice break

2006-08-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

That was nice.

What with all the outsourcing drama the first half of this year, this was a much-needed vacation. We rented a vacation home in Irish Beach, a small Northern California coastal community. It's very quiet and a great place to unwind; coincidentally, it's where we honeymooned 25 years ago, so the timing was appropriate.

We have returned many times here, but never in August, because it's typically cold and foggy. But the weather cooperated for the most part and was in the low 70s most of the time. When we had fog there was still good visibility, so we had no problem seeing the ocean. We rented the Arena Vista home, which was up on a hill, with a good view looking down the coast.

I like this area because it reminds me of rural Michigan where we had a summer cottage when I was growing up. Change comes slowly, if at all, here; like Michigan, the countryside is much how it was 25 years ago. In that respect it's very un-California-like, where our empty lots sprout houses, not weeds. It's also remote: groceries come from a small general store 10 miles south in the town of Manchester, population 462 I think - the sign has not been changed in the last 25 years.

Many of our friends and family would not be excited about a vacation in these parts: "There's nothing to do!". And if you're looking for urban excitement, this is not the place. But if you don't mind time spent walking along the ocean, communing with nature, or curling up with a good book - you can't pick a better spot. What it lacks in nightlife it makes up for in the raw beauty of the ocean, and a quiet calm that settles over your whole being.

Boring? For some, yes. But for us it was just right.

Technorati Tags: vacation, California, Manchester

California's North Coast

2006-08-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

See more California watercolors

We'll be on vacation this coming week in one of our favorite places: the northern coast of California, south of the town of Mendocino. Here's a watercolor "postcard" for you from there...see you in one week!

Technorati Tags: vacation, California, Mendocino

Project process is for wimps

2006-08-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

I currently work in a small team that prepares reports for senior Technology managers on the health (or lack thereof) of major tech projects. With a project portfolio of over $100 million, it's worth paying attention to what's going on.

These projects follow a very standardized process, overseen by project managers responsible for making sure everything gets done according to plan on time, and on budget. Projects move through well-defined phases from initial definition, through design, development and implementation. We report on "adherence": a measure of the percentage of "misses" or deviations from the expected results. Forgetting to make certain inputs in the project tracking system can put the poor project manager suddenly into yellow, or worse, red status on their projects: not a desirable state of affairs.

Yet our organization, the project management police, ironically have no such structure on our internal projects. Our reporting team never sees well thought out business specifications for what's to be done. We get passing conversations, e-mail asides and the like that pass for our "specs". There is no standard process; in fact, there is no process all! And whoever made up "change is a constant" certainly had our group in mind.

This week we were doing some upgrades to our early-project process as the 2007 budget cycle begins to gear up. I needed to do some pie charts to better visualize the data, completed this Monday, and thought I was done. But Tuesday morning, in a dreaded feedback e-mail, the manager had a new idea: let's add two charts to the original four charts, and do them all for each department. Since there are six departments, the simple upgrade had gone from four charts to over 30!

Still, these changes keep us busy, and my kids in school, so I can't complain. As my teammate likes to say: I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.

As I say: it sure beats the alternative.

Technorati Tags: project management

A Big Anniversary

2006-08-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today is my 25th wedding anniversary. There must be some mistake.

In some ways our wedding feels like a lifetime ago - so many things have changed. But some details of the day remain burned into my mind; remembering them it seems like just last week. A little thing: the day over, the two of us ironically the last to leave the reception, heading back to my car, both shocked to realize we did it, we are married and together. But we were truly on our own, no safety net and no guarantees of the future. Thrilling and scary simultaneously.

My wife's sister asked if we were going to renew our vows. This is common in the Filipino culture, and not too unusual amongst long-married couples. Neither of us really see the point though. We are married, said the vows then and have lived them for a quarter-century now. It seems "renewing your vows" is a little negative, as if they are shaky and need shoring up. My parents have been married 50+ years, and somehow have managed fine without being renewed along the way.

Although our anniversary is a cherished time, the number of years we've been married is less relevant. What counts is today and tomorrow: how you feel about each other now. If your marriage has survived, but the love has not, is that really an accomplishment? The past is the past; we live in the present. For myself, my feelings are simple: I love her. She is my life. I'd be lost without her.

With our oldest son heading to college, and our youngest to high school, I guess the 25 year thing is no mistake. But that's OK. We might be 25 years older, but our love remains fresh. And in the end that might be a pretty good trade.

Technorati Tags: wedding anniversary, love

Their favorite pastime (but not mine)

2006-07-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Early yesterday morning my Jacksonville manager pulled together myself and two of my teammates for an impromptu meeting. Well. Early morning cross-country impromptu meetings are not for good news. Sure enough. It was time for the favorite pastime of large organizations: a reorg.

My Jacksonville manager that I had been nicely building a relationship with was now my ex-manager. Our small reporting team of three people would now be reporting to Charlotte, to someone none of us knew or had spoken to before. But that was par for the course.

Perhaps I'm a curse: before I arrived my Jacksonville manager had overseen this management reporting function for more than 2 1/2 years, a bastion of stability these days. I'm there three weeks and she's off to a new function. My new manager will be my 3rd manager in the last 30 days!

And no small irony - he's from India. At least he's a bank employee and not part of the outsourcing legions. He's experienced with managing onshore/offshore outsourcers however; he had seven of them in his prior team.

Still, his whole team has been moved under another manager as part of this reorganization. So us three are all that's standing between him and being an ex-manager (or worse). At least there's some disincentives to getting rid of us for now.

No one likes this type of change, least of all me. But as one of my colleagues put it: at least our names are still on the organization chart.

Technorati Tags: large organizations, reorg

Heat besieged

2006-07-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

What a summer. We've lived in our Northern California home over 20 years, and this July is the hottest thing I can remember. Typically it's in the '80s or low 90s, with occasional spikes for a day or two up to 100 degrees. But nearly every day has been over 100 for the last few weeks: Saturday it was 115 - it's been boiling.

The last few days of the worst: we've felt under siege by the heat. Saturday and Sunday the power went out for most of the afternoon. It's amazing how quick the temperature climbs with no air-conditioning; in no time it was 85 degrees in the house. No fans. No lights. No computer! With one stroke we were plunged back 100 years to pre-electricity days. The romance of the good ol' days was quickly lost on me.

To add insult to injury, a power surge Monday killed our air-conditioner. Tuesday it was 105 degrees , and we spent the whole day without a/c, the inside temperature rising to 94. That morning my youngest son had his four wisdom teeth extracted, so he was horribly uncomfortable on top of the pain and Vicodin-induced nausea.

Tuesday certainly was the worst day because we were without air the whole day. Still, mentally we were better prepared. We were hot and sweaty, but we were fighting it less and accepting it more. We drove in the car to cool off, stopped by a Dairy Queen in the evening for a lo-o-o-ng, cool dessert, stayed outside waiting for the house to cool. There was more coping and less complaining. We managed to muddle through somehow.

Note: if your air-conditioner is going to fail, it's far better to lose it at the beginning of the heat wave vs. the end. By the time ours went out every air-conditioner business in the area was booked, often for several weeks. Lucky for us, an acquaintance of my wife is in the air-conditioner business, and her husband fit us in this afternoon. A quick 30 minute repair and we were able to rejoin civilization.

We are cool again and loving it - at least until we get the electric bill.

Technorati Tags: heatwave, power outage

My wife resigns

2006-07-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

Last week my wife had the chance to fulfill the dream of every frustrated worker. Namely, dear boss: take this job and shove it!

She blew it.

Thursday she gave her notice at the dental office. She was polite and professional, diplomatic, and nary a word about the negatives. Her leaving was for family reasons, which was true: she put up with much worse for several years after last job. The ongoing long hours, however, no longer make it worth it. For the same hours, she could be commuting into the city and making way more money. She chooses not to do that: she would rather trade money for family time.

Her boss, the outgoing dentist, was very understanding. He called a staff meeting, announced her leaving, and told her: "You saved my life". She has really turned around that office in the past year.

The new dentist was shocked she was leaving. It's probably too much to ask that she might ponder her actions and consider whether this step could have been avoided.

Meanwhile, my wife is counting the days until she is free. And she already has a lead for a possible new job.

Technorati Tags: small business, working environment

Small ain't beautiful

2006-07-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

While my work situation has been gradually on the mend, the same could not be said for my wife. For the last six years she has worked for small businesses; unfortunately, a less than favorable work environment is not unique to large companies. In fact, her tales could out-blog mine every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

She's worked for a dentist for the past year. It seemed great: nice pay increase, knew the dentist from our kids, professional environment, health-care field - ideal. But the practice, in fact, was literally bankrupt: the workers race each other to cash their check; last to the bank bounces. Some of the workers were downright hostile and very difficult to deal with. Some days she braced for the sheriff's arrival to repossess all the equipment.

Yet lately things had seemed to be improving. After many months, the practice had been sold. The new dentist promised a fresh start, my wife would be working full-time with a nice pay increase again, and a new hire in the front brought someone pleasant to talk to.

But first impressions were misleading. The new dentist needed every miniscule detail done her way; any variance brought a torrent of abuse. The dentist is single and a workaholic: suddenly the workday was extending till 7:30 at night, with Saturdays soon to come. And the new worker was assimilated, joining the Hostile Side.

My wife was no longer herself, drained of energy by the time she straggled home, sleepless nights thinking of work, borderline depressed. She made up her mind today: she'll give her notice Friday.

Even if it takes a while to find something, life is too short for every day to be a struggle. And the best thing: the decision wiped away her depression - she was her old self again.

Tonight was a nice family night, for the first time in a while. And that's worth a lot.

Technorati Tags: small business, working environment

Short-term careers

2006-07-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

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.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Outsourcing Growth Slows: Wall Street Journal

2006-07-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

The bloom is off the outsourcing rose, according to a July 11th story in the Wall Street Journal: Some Outsourcing Might Ease Amid Errors, Disappointments (alas, subscription required).

A survey by DiamondCluster International, found 64% of the buyers of offshore outsourcing services plan to increase the services in the next 12 months. However, this number is down 13.5% from the year before.

Terminating offshore contracts, something in 2004 no survey respondents planned, was now cited by 8% of the survey respondents, up 60% from 2005.

"This waning enthusiasm partly reflects mistakes companies have made or unrealistic expectations they have had in earlier outsourcing efforts, says Tom Weakland, managing partner of global sourcing practice at DiamondCluster. Others feel they have outsourced as much as they could.

Some companies feel expected savings from outsourcing never materialized. "They're not getting the 40%, 50%, 60% cost reductions they thought they would get," Mr. Weakland says."

Of course, outsourcing's serious human impact does not come up among the reasons for the decline. One can only hope that the bottom-line benefits peter out before our engineering base has eroded beyond repair.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Your feedback is requested

2006-07-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

Received an e-mail at work the other day, inviting me to complete a "Staffing Specialist Survey". Not again, I thought. Is there no place to hide from the ubiquitous Web Survey these days? Apparently not - even the workplace is not safe.

However, feeling a sense of obligation toward the staffing specialist who, in some very slight degree, worked with me in obtaining this job, I began the survey. One problem: the only clue which position was being surveyed was a long 10 digit position number; which is not much help. So just to be sure, I found the original posting for my position: it was different. This survey was for something else.

The staffing specialists didn't really want my opinion for the other positions I applied for. Theirs was not the most stellar performance in my experience. But they asked...

The most amusing part were several questions regarding communications I had received from the staffing specialist. At what point did I receive communications? Of what quality were the communications? How satisfied was I with the communications? Reading between the lines, the bank apparently assumed communications were taking place.

This was a bad assumption, at least in my case. Quite simply there were no communications. I never received any feedback, acknowledgment or even answers to direct questions from our team of crack staffing specialists.

Still, in retrospect, I do owe my current position to the staffing specialists. Thanks to their communication expertise, they never bothered to inform my current manager that the posting had expired. So she assumed the posting was out there, but no one had applied. Fortunately for me, no one had applied because the posting had been unposted. By the time all this got cleared up, I was alerted to the position, applied and got it.

Perhaps my survey ratings should have been a tad higher. After all, I never could have done it without their help.

Technorati Tags: job search, surveys

No grand plan

2006-07-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

I had always assumed a layoff notice was the end of your career at the Bank. Strike one, you're out. The Bank is Judge, jury and executioner - what chance do you have? So when I received my notice, I just knew that was it. In fact, at the beginning I was taking more time researching possible at-home businesses. That seemed at least a constructive use of my time.

I was wrong, however. My layoff notice was strike one - but I still had a couple strikes left.

I assumed that my layoff was a verdict of "The Bank". It was nothing of the kind. One department, in a little bit of money trouble, laid off 20 people: and I was caught up in this. But smart decision or stupid decision, it had no larger meaning. It was no Bank-wide grand decision - that would probably be giving the Bank too much credit.

In large corporations, personnel decisions seem analogous to chaos theory: everything is unplanned, random and spontaneous. While I think this is truly bad business, it does mean you have another chance. So with my layoff, I had been made a "free agent" and could negotiate with other "teams" inside or outside of the company. The layoff notice did not close off this negotiation option; in that way, it was far from The Verdict. Find another team that wants you, and with a couple computer keystrokes you are again a regular employee.

If it happens again, I should remember The Godfather's advice: it's not personal, it's business. There's no grand plan: just find a new team.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Corporate Inspiration

2006-07-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

This morning I started my new position with the bank. Waiting for me in my e-mail was the formal "offer letter" confirming my acceptance: "Congratulations on your new position! This letter will confirm our offer and your acceptance to join our Team..."

Sounded great. However, it kept going: "This letter does not constitute an employment contract...but rather your employment is on an at-will basis. That is, you or the Bank may end the employment relationship with or without notice or cause."

Nothing like a warm, secure relationship with your employer to inspire one to greater heights.

I am inspired to keep alive and foster my side web ventures.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Character builder

2006-07-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this from my California backyard. It's a beautiful early evening, 82 degrees and a slight breeze; should be good weather for fireworks later. It looks like my bank laptop is not going to be snatched away, so I might as well put it to good use. I guess I'm also going to have to invest the time to figure out why it won't connect to my wireless network. Previously, I could tell myself the laptop wasn't worth the trouble since I'd be turning it in soon.

I've had several days now of feeling normal. I had almost forgotten how nice it is! I took Monday off (my first day off this year) for a long weekend, which I really needed. It's been like a little mini-vacation, and the stress just melted away.

Of course, there's always a chance the stars were not aligned this weekend, and the bank's computers accidentally terminated me again. I could find out by attempting to do a remote connection; but,nah...I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Although it's been a rough three months, I'm not sure I would change anything if I could. If "everything happens for a reason", then this outsourcing was a "character builder" (as my father always insists) par excellence. I'm proud, ultimately, of the way I handled it. It took me awhile to fight through the anger and disbelief, but I did, and moved on constructively. This blog, and the support of family and friends, was a great help.

I do intend to continue this blog. The focus may change somewhat, but I am on the front lines of the ongoing outsourcing conflict. Believe me, there's never a shortage of interesting material.
And I now have a deeper appreciation for the little-recognized cost layoffs and outsourcing our exacting on so many.

I'm no expert.

But this blog is one small thing I can do to help.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, job search, outsourcing

Happy birthday to me!

2006-06-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

"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

2006-06-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-06-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-06-14T21:16:00.001-07:00

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

2006-06-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-06-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

The new regime

2006-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

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

Internal job postings

2006-05-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today, finally, I regained access to our internal jobs web site. I've been locked out for all of May, thanks to the April 30th premature termination fiasco. But now I can once again apply for Bank jobs.

With great enthusiasm I whizzed through a number of openings and applied for two. There are still a number more job postings I need to review, and no one can say there's not plenty of openings.

However, it's upsetting that here I am facing termination in 30 days, yet the Bank has dozens and dozens of technical open positions. Does this make sense?

Also, there was a time when those facing imminent layoff had first priority on any open position they were qualified for. Those were the good old days (although not as good as when we had a "no layoff" policy!). Personnel distributed a list that hiring managers could review as part of the posting process. Unfortunately, these days you are on your own, and "welcome to apply to any open position". But you have no priority over Joe Smith that is not facing job loss, and no hiring manager knows of your availability. It's hard not to feel you're just a number.

To add insult to injury, my friend back East told me that everyone she knows that found a new position lately did it the old-fashioned way: they knew somebody. You can't put a price on having an "in" - you gain credibility from a trusted referral, and the hiring manager sees you as lower risk.

So it's good to be able to apply online again. It's better than where I've been all month. But applying blindly to new positions across the country - where they know nothing of me or my track record - it's still far from ideal.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Asok finds it cuts both ways

2006-05-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

A couple leads

2006-05-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

A couple internal job leads surfaced today. One area is building a new Web prototype, and contacted me because my current applications are affected. They have no employee developers - all are India contractors, mostly offshore (the brave new tech world). The manager is pulling her hair out just trying to get all the security access to enable web development from overseas. "If I just had someone like you on the team it could have been done in three weeks. Instead, we've barely started."

I gave her some other options for her project as we were discussing it. She must have liked what she heard, because she said "I would be a terrific member of the team". However, although this would be ideal (I'd still be involved with web development) there is one small difficulty: she does not yet have any real openings. They are in the process of trying to get funding approval for this new project (hopefully by mid-June). The other negative: they are in the same organization I'm in now, so Mr. Outsource, who laid me off, is the final approver.

I am finding my revised resume, courtesy of EZ Resume, is at least drawing leads. Thanks to the person whose reply gave me the lead. I've found great links to resume writing tips, sample resumes, resume templates, etc on EZ Resume - it did help.

Another new area, the "Testing Center of Excellence", may end up with a couple openings. (Hint: the more exotic the name, the more pedestrian the work.) The manager has a couple openings on the org chart, but needs to get them approved and requisitions opened. She did say she would contact me when it gets to that point. These jobs would be all-testing all-the-time; not the most exciting thing in the world. But not eating seems even less exciting...

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Disposable Americans

2006-05-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Getting laid off brings home the full meaning of "employment at will". Your job security is totally and irrevocably in the hands of your employer. As I found out, the firing manager is your judge, jury and executioner. You can present no evidence in your defense, get no trial and have no appeal. You are on your own. How did we get this way?

As Louis Uchitelle so astutely points out in The Disposable American, until relatively recently, layoffs were avoided by corporations as

"a sign of corporate failure and a violation of acceptable business behavior. Over the years, however, the permanent separation of people from their jobs, abruptly and against their wishes, gradually became standard management practice, and in the late 1990s we finally acquiesced. Acquiescence means giving up, seeing no alternative; we bowed to layoffs as the way things have to be. Now we justify them as an unfortunate necessity."

The sad thing: today in America there is no

"loyal opposition" to unfettered layoffs. Politicians from both parties ignore the problem, while society meekly accepts current practices. Uchitelle writes: "I set out to tell the story of our acquiescence and in doing so ran into a festering national crisis. Until we recognize it, an effective opposition cannot form."

Read Uchitelle's book. We have all become "disposable Americans" - this is a "festering national crisis".

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Keeping productive

2006-05-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

I started the day downbeat after yesterday's disappointing news of the gone-then-there-now-gone-again position I was hoping for. It's looking dim at this point. The stock market and my Bank prospects have a lot in common: both are unpredictable and fluctuate wildly.

However, rather than sit around worrying, I'm developing a small web site on the side. It's part of my "Plan B", looking for ways to bring in some side income. My Web skills may not lend themselves to the high-end Java-based monolithic software so in demand, but they are perfectly suited for small-business or Internet applications. The Web is ideal for small investment "proof of concept" trials: if something looks promising you can develop and grow it; if not, just shut it down and move on to something else.

It seems better to be productive and moving forward than to become paralyzed with all that's going on. Even if it washes out, I've learned something. Ala Edison, it's not failure, but learning what doesn't work. (But hopefully it doesn't require 10,000 Edison-like "non-failures" before something works.)

Meanwhile, with luck, starting tomorrow I'll be able to access the Bank's internal career search system for the first time since April 30th.

Change for the worse

2006-05-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

Disappointing setback today. The two Business Analyst positions that we were told had been approved for our team are mysteriously gone - put on hold, done away with, or something of that ilk. My manager advised me to look for other internal positions ASAP; she's not sure she'll get the positions back.

I just heard about this. It hasn't sunk in yet. I was confident this would work out - for a week or so I've been able to pretend it all wasn't happening, I was going to be rescued. Now it seems my lifeboat had a few holes.

A personal thirty-day extension past June 30th? It depends upon how the India people assess how the transition status. My experience with them: the status is always rosy and everything is doable whenever you want it. (Salesmen exist in all cultures.) The reality: don't count on the end product being all that great, or even serviceable, if you gave them unrealistic deadlines. The laws of the physical universe remain intact, especially at Wal-Mart prices. In any case, admit June 30th is not doable? Highly unlikely. And any problems down the line won't help me now.

My current status: not good.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

The Titanic loses another one

2006-05-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

A friend I've worked with for the last six years gave her notice yesterday. She will be going to another large bank, working for our former boss. Although she probably could have found something here, I'm sure she was burned-out from all the recent drama. I can't blame her.

Given our current Titanic-derived "people strategy", her leaving may mean there's room in the lifeboat for one more (me?).

After all, our team has only myself and another colleague remaining from our original team of seven. Hey, I represent 50 percent of our knowledge base; surely, that's worth keeping (hint, hint).

I also heard a rumor today: maybe they would extend me another 30 days to the end of July. I would much rather secure something permanent, but I certainly wouldn't turn down an extension - beggars can't be choosers. But this didn't come from my boss, so it may be nothing. Can only wait and see.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

A World without Children

2006-05-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Parents have rites of passage paralleling and shadowing their children's. We're going through two big ones at the same time: eighth-grade and high school graduations. Each of these is spawning some graduations of another kind for us as parents.

Our eighth-grader will graduate in a couple weeks. Thursday night he played guitar at the school's annual music recital, where all the kids attending school-related music lessons play for the parents. Forty-three children, ranging from first to eighth graders, gave short performances on their instrument. He did great, playing "Time of Your Life" by Green Day; his teacher called the next day admiring the "passion" he played with.

We had fun, but it was quickly over - maybe too quickly. Significantly, this was our final elementary school program. As we walked through the doors, we were leaving behind the World of Children.

Our son of course left it behind a while ago, but since his school is K-8, we still had some vestige little kid exposure from time to time. At school programs watching the little ones, we could remember our years with young kids: hard work but immensely fulfilling. They are so cute, so innocent, so into the moment; and you have lots of time: it will be years until they grow up.

But bit-by-bit they grow, and as parents we're continually shedding the mini-worlds they leave behind: baby stuff; preschool things; Scouts; Little League. Recently I was home on a weekday and was surprised to see "Sesame Street" early in the morning on TV: it's still around! The preschool world still exists, something I forget since we have long since moved on. Like Star Trek we all operate in parallel universes: coexisting but not really aware of life over there.

At least with two kids you get a second chance with the youngest child. When the door closes for the older child, it opens for the younger one: you can be consoled that you are not totally through, there's a little more left. So with our youngest we can savor everything one last time before moving on, this time for good. This adds a certain poignancy to his activities for us: each time he's done, we're done as well.

Perhaps one day future grandchildren will again open this realm to us. But until then, after 18 years, it's farewell to the world of children. Ours have moved on...and we must follow.

Technorati Tags: family, graduation

Limbo Land

2006-05-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

Getting un-outsourced by my outsourcers - I should have guessed this would not be easy. But my manager had said on Monday she should know if I had a spot by Tuesday or Wednesday. No word still, so I called her today.

Sounds like everything is up in the air. Approval ultimately has to come from the guy that laid me off, which is not a good sign: he's convinced our Data Warehouse Service Center does easy stuff. Neither my current manager, or her immediate predecessor, has had much luck explaining the complexity of the work. And she first has to get the "transition manager" on her side, who will then get approval from Mr. Layoff. She hasn't passed square one yet.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and I still cannot apply for other internal positions. My access to our "career search tool" is still screwed up from my premature April 30th "termination" (the tool doesn't know I'm an employee). It was supposed to be fixed Wednesday, but it still doesn't work. The Personnel Center put in another "change" when I called, but it won't take effect until next Friday.

Apply for outside positions? A little risky at the moment. If my current area decides to offer me a job any potential severance vanishes. So if I found another job, accepted it, and then the Bank finally offers me something, I could no longer leave with a severance package. If I'm going to leave the bank at this point, I want to take something with me - I don't want them to get off scot-free!

For now...I'm in limbo.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

One Last Morning

2006-05-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

For over 10 years our family has had a very pleasant morning ritual: we are all together in the same car to begin our day. My wife and I are in the front, our two sons in the back, and that 25 minutes of togetherness as we drop the kids off to school is special. Now granted our cognitive abilities vary greatly from morning to morning; but even half awake it's a comforting feeling to be surrounded by those you love.

We would talk with the kids about the upcoming day: any tests, anything unusual going on, or just get clued in to today's classes. When they were younger we'd help quiz them on their spelling words or science tests. Bad traffic, horrible weather, straining to be on-time - all was made better by tackling it together.

We would arrive at the grammar school first and drop him off, next the high schooler, whose school starts 15 minutes later, then myself at the Bank. My wife would keep the car with her, so she could pick the boys up mid-afternoon from school. Fortunately we were all within 15 minutes of each other, making this carpool arrangement feasible.

But I was reminded today that even the longest and most pleasant journeys reach a destination and their natural end. Our eldest graduates from high school Sunday; today he had his last final. A small matter in the scheme of things - but significant to Mom and Dad - he has graduated from our morning ritual. College and beyond beckons, and that can't happen from the family back seat!

We had been told by others that this four years of high school zooms by at lightspeed: before you know it he's graduating. Four years seems like a long time when it's in front of you; and I've been doing my best to keep my head planted in the sand so as to ignore the days rushing by. But fending off change is inevitably doomed to failure, and of course I am grateful for these last four years. Still...this isn't easy.

September will be here before we know it, and with it a new school year. This time a new high school student will be front and center. But with our eldest doing his college thing, and me perhaps in a job located farther away, our family morning ritual will be no more. And dear God, I miss it already.

Technorati Tags: family, high school, graduation

California salaries

2006-05-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

No news yet - hoping a permanent position might be offered. My main concern: my "California salary" might prove too high for the Charlotte decision makers.

The North Carolina and Florida managers must blanch whenever looking at California salaries. From their vantage point we must be in hog heaven pulling in this kind of money. I wish.

A good part of the salary differential simply goes to taxes. You need to lop off 20% from just about any California salary to account for state and sales taxes. To get a rough idea of the cost of living factor, a San Francisco resident needs to earn $90,000 to match the $40,000 of the Charlotte employee.

Unfortunately for us, the accounting practice is cost-of-living-blind. On a company's books salary dollars are salary dollars; naturally you then hire from where the salaries are the lowest - so sorry, California and the Northeast. (Of course, with outsourcing, it's so sorry America).

So I'm still waiting. But I already know who to blame if I don't get the job - the "Golden" State.

After all, who wouldn't want me?

Technorati Tags: salaries, California, economy

Another Possibility

2006-05-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Had a one-on-one with my manager this morning. Among other things, I wanted to learn more from her about the post-outsourced status of the Service Center. It's definitely true, she said; there will be a "core team" of Bank associates running the Service Center, supplemented by offshore resources. Although they discussed my Web applications, the decision was still to outsource all that work (arg!). However, the core team will include herself, a team lead (also an existing staff member) and two business analysts. She heard this was approved by senior management Friday.

The current state of the team was a concern for her. She was hoping I could help out with HelpDesk work today; they were so short staffed she sounded pretty desperate. With outgoing transfers, anyone that takes a day off leaves them totally swamped.

Sensing opportunity, I told her I'd be interested in one of the two business analyst positions. She had not approached me about them, because she assumed I'd be looking for a technical opening. However, it would be ideal for her since I'm one of the few experienced team members left, and they would still have someone to cover the after-East Coast hours. Possibly I could be their interface to the offshore technical support as well. She's going to run it by her boss and get back to me in the next couple days.

So we'll see. Since most of the work would be handling HelpDesk problems, this would not be ideal. But I would stay in the Bank, keep my current salary and benefits, and still be able to move on to something else eventually. Stay tuned.

First Interview

2006-05-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

Amazingly enough, I had an interview today, and I'm probably a strong candidate. I had heard about the position through a friend, and have even worked with one of the people on the project, which gives me an edge. Only one problem: I would hate the job.

For one thing it's back to the large-scale bank applications world. This application, part of Corporate Treasury, disseminates deposit and loan rates to all the banking centers in the country, so it's very important. Typical of large applications, it has a web of interfaces to various deposit and loan systems. No change is small: coordinating testing with all the other systems is an immense task. It certainly would be swimming in a bigger pond. I'm more a small pond kind of guy, though. I'd rather have more direct control over my work, and be able to accomplish things without UN treaties.

The work environment sounds like I'd be walking into a hornet's nest. "Highly demanding" was the universal description for Marilyn, the main business partner. She is never satisfied, needs everything ASAP (they had to waive a five-day DBA delay rule because it was too much time), and verbally berates programmers for any mistake. The woman that interviewed me worked 70 hours last week and looked stressed out. On long conference calls with Marilyn she has to use a speakerphone; the user acts up if she tries to use a headset.

Their boss's boss is new as of March, is highly into metrics, and sounds like on top of all the staff. Only certain people are allowed to work remotely, since in the short time he's been there he already feels the productivity is not the same for some. My former colleague knows he needs to stay on top of things when he's remote "or it will be taken away".

MBNA merger initiatives will fill the next few months. They have a delivery deadline of August, even though they don't yet know what changes are needed, because their work is a prerequisite for all the other systems. In the midst of big changes they continue to be bombarded with ASAP smaller projects needed yesterday that prove highly disruptive.

A new environment requires a learning curve while getting up to speed. I question, in this environment, whether you would be judged prematurely and found wanting. Then of course you could be dismissed for "cause" without a lick of severance.

Ironically, they described the work itself as "tedious", manually poring through hairy code to insert a particular comment, or change a certain font. Just because it's technical work, that doesn't mean it's analytical; and it's the problem solving part I enjoy. Ideally I like scope in my work, a mix of the technical and business sides of the equation; this, on the other hand, is all technical, all the time.

Finally, as this is the Corporate Treasury area, there are disclosure rules regarding your financial holdings. You must declare all stocks you own. Any stock trades must be approved before you can go ahead. Your holdings must be even with certain "preferred brokers" (probably those they can monitor). I don't day trade, but the loss of privacy in this area seems like the last straw.

I hate to turn down a position that would let me stay with the Bank. But I would be miserable here. I'm not asking for a lot, but I am asking for more than this.

A termination in time costs nine

2006-05-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'm discovering more ramifications from my April 30th "termination".

I had thought everything was cleared up and I was only waiting for the premature April 30th "accrued but unused" vacation pay to be reversed. But late yesterday I received an e-mail from Fidelity: "Your online confirmation is available". Fidelity runs our pension, 401(k) and stock option plans. Odd. I had not performed any transactions.

Turns out I was 1/3 vested in some stock options. The rules are if you are terminated, an extra 1/3 will vest. You lose anything remaining (in my case, the last 1/3 of the options). When I was "terminated" April 30th, Fidelity dutifully cashed out 1/3 of the remaining options and the rest vanished. If I actually end up being laid off Jun. 30th, all I will lose is the stock appreciation in those 60 days. But if I find another position in the bank and don't leave, they should not have taken that extra 1/3 (worth about $3000).

And there's more. I noticed my online timesheet was no longer working. When I go to enter time, it says: "No employees found" (nothing good can come of error messages like this). So I called the help desk. They told me that it takes eight business days for the "changes" (that I really am an employee) to reach Fidelity. "The problem is", he went on, "I'm not sure what will happen to your May 15th pay with no timesheet entries". In other words: no timesheet, no pay. That's just great.

The only saving grace in all this: the HR guy that could have prevented all this - and didn't - is going to have a lot of work to do.

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Oops

2006-05-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

The outsourcing of our data warehouse service center has hit some bumps in the road. As I mentioned a few posts ago, our staffing levels are way down through transfers and job changes, while help desk volume has continued or increased. This is why I was extended 30 more days.

It gets better. After meetings last week, Charlotte management has reversed course; instead of everything being outsourced, most functions will be kept in-house and offshore resources will be used as a supplement.

In other words: "Oops. Never mind."

Everyone should end up OK. Those that transferred or found new jobs are fine; those that didn't probably will be able to continue working in the service center. Never mind that their lives were turned upside down and inside out.

Everyone is OK except one person - me. My Web applications are still being outsourced; it's too late to change directions. I really didn't need another "if only" to ponder, but had they fixed on this direction from the beginning, I doubt I would be facing unemployment now.

For the paranoid this has all the earmarks of an elaborate corporate conspiracy - aimed squarely at me. Hmmm, wonder where I can find a good thriller writer...

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Priorities

2006-05-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

My wife and I were leaving the grocery store recently, just in time to see a mom she knows drive off in her sparkling new BMW. "They also have a huge SUV", she commented. Sitting in our 100,000 mile Camry, there was a bit of a contrast. "Good thing we've renounced materialism", I replied. She laughed: "What's to renounce?"

She does have a point. We've lived in the same house since 1984, my car is 20+ years old, and it's a special occasion when the family dines out. You could say we're "thrifty"; alright, cheap; but actually that's not true. We have had a couple of ambitious priorities for our family - priorities hard to achieve these days - and these required a few sacrifices.

Our first priority was for her to be home with the kids; full-time initially and at the end of the school day for the last few years by working part-time. A quality education was our second priority. This was difficult because priority #1 put a home in a good school district out of reach. Private school was the only solution, and an expensive solution it is. But it's really been worth it for the kids.

The timing of this layoff is not great but it could have been a lot worse had it come when the kids were younger. We managed to get my older son through high school and my younger son through eighth grade. All under the care of their Mom. That's an achievement we're really proud of.

Our accomplishments aren't in our driveway, gleaming in the sun; in fact, few can see them. But look carefully at our kids. They shine.

Technorati Tags: family, materialism

The New Assembly Line

2006-05-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Data warehouse IT experts abound at the Bay Area office of the Bank I work in. Traditionally they have been organized in teams of several people supporting a business application. Many have deep knowledge of the complex application programs in their area; often they are Bank systems veterans of 10+ years. The work is challenging and interesting as they shepherd technical projects from initial problem statements through design, coding, testing, and finally, implementation.

A major reorganization hit our office this week (excluding me, I report to another department). The whole group was moved to the Consumer Bank, which is heavy into outsourcing. This was no simple reorg - it was also a functional reorganization. The programmers were given functional assignments: initiative work (new projects); production support; or testing.

Gone is the challenge of having project responsibility from start to finish. Instead, production support people will only do break/fix support; testing people will only write testing scripts for the offshore testers; initiative people will take projects through the initial stages, but not do any testing. It's the Henry Ford assembly line model for the computer field.

It's also a recipe for taking the joy out of work. I know another programmer that was reorganized into the production support model a couple months ago. Although a Java expert and someone that knows his application backwards and forwards, he's not allowed to make any new enhancements. His job is restricted to fixing anything that breaks. Well, Web applications can be fairly well behaved, so he mostly sits around trying to figure out things to do.

I suspect though this won't last long. Production support and testing - these roles will not support California salaries. India will soon be here to put them out of their misery. Realigning by functional role merely prepares the calves for the slaughter.

Technorati Tags: work, outsourcing

A Bit of Luck

2006-05-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

Monday started the month of May, and with it my final month at the Bank. I suddenly realized that at this time next month I would not be here anymore. As the saying goes: "When a man is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates the mind wonderfully".

But then a small miracle - I received a 30 day stay of execution: my severance date has been extended to June 30th. Not a full pardon, but hey, I'll take it.

Although I mostly do Web development, I'm part of the Warehouse Service Center team that provides helpdesk functions to the data warehouse user community. All of the team is on the East Coast, so after their day completes I help out with urgent questions, since I'm in California. With the announcement that the Service Center was being outsourced in toto, several people have transferred out, and one has already been let go. Meanwhile the day-to-day problem ticket volume has kept strong; the result has been a big mess. Lots of tickets and no one to work them!

Since I'm one of the few people with Service Center experience, I've been asked to hang around and help. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but every bit helps.

So now my final day will be June 30th...my birthday.

The Twilight Zone

2006-05-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

I came in bright and early this morning. I signed in to one of our application systems: "ERROR - ID REVOKED. CONTACT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR." Great. Just what I need on a Monday morning. So I called support. Odd: they couldn't find my ID in the system to create a help ticket. I immediately knew the real problem - the Bank had terminated me 30 days early.

Sure enough, I called the Personnel Center and I had been "separated" as of April 30th. More checking showed my April 30th automatic payroll deposit was over twice normal size: final separation pay with unused vacation. I could not view my online pay receipt: I no longer had human resource access.

After a flurry of e-mails and phone calls, management is working to fix the situation.

In a nice gesture, my boss's boss called from Charlotte to assure me I had not been terminated (not yet, at least). However, it turns out they knew about this problem, both him and the human resources guy, last week and possibly earlier. But nothing was done to fix it in time.

So for now I'm in the twilight zone. I'm here but I'm not here. But there's some good news: I can't do any help desk work from the twilight zone.

Forbes: Outsourcing "here to stay"

2006-04-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

We've only just begun - to be outsourced, that is.

An article in the April 17th Forbes magazine makes this point. Not only is offshoring here to stay, its growth and scope is accelerating. Consider these points from the respected research firm Gartner:

• Offshore IT spending will triple in six years, and near $60 billion by 2010
• Engineering Design "will be the next big wave of global sourcing options"
• Spending on outsourced R&D and engineering will grow 10x in the same period

The reason? Cheap labor. $10,000 can hire an educated India worker vs. $40,000 for an entry-level U.S. worker.

Initially confined to data entry and call center work, the expansion of scope is not limited to software development. Some corporations outsource entire functions: IT, accounting or other backoffice work. More sophisticated services are now targeted: designing chips, auto parts and aircraft wings. SPI Technologies in the Philippines is doing legal analysis for a large U.S. legal research firm.

The article is free, and available to nonsubscribers:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0417/074.html

Technorati Tags: layoffs, outsourcing

Back to the Future

2006-04-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

I want to better understand what I like and what I'm good at. To do this I'm going "Back to the Future" courtesy of some old journals kept from some prior career crossroads. I've learned that the things I'm best at, what I like to do, stays fairly constant. My strengths now are the same as when I was young. I think this is true for most people - my brother loved to write in 8th grade, and 30 years later he's an author writing books for readers in 15 countries.

I was a systems manager for 5+ years earlier in my career, loving it for the first three years, then gradually growing disenchanted as the job changed. Eventually I left management and returned to the technical side, which was a difficult decision at the time. Looking through the journals I kept then, it brought back a lot of things I had forgotten. It's an amazing thing to be able to go back in time and see what the 20-years-ago-you was thinking. My personal time capsule.

Here's some notes from that time that should help me focus down my job search in the present:

Likes:
Problem Analysis - solving tough problems
Intellectual challenges - mastering a body of knowledge and then applying it to some end
People style - a positive, helping approach
Macro-level technology / business problem solving
Direct people management / team building (small team)

Dislikes:
Organizing / process (nothing to solve or figure out)
Competing with others / Interpersonal confrontation / aggressive behavior (not my style)
Resolving people conflict
Handling minor details
Performing in hostile environment (need positive environment)

"Like dealing with technical solutions to business issues. Dealing with 60% what, 40% how."

"Like getting a task can "get my teeth into". Ideal is something I have complete responsibility for an ownership of. I can make the decisions as how best to do it (vs. having the solution dictated)."

"Like role of Systems Analyst, mixing business / technical solutions."

"I really loved having different situations to analyze, problems to figure out."

"Technology may be less important than working on something important that I believe in."

Resume Redo

2006-04-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

I need a new resume. It's not bad actually, and it accurately details my positions and accomplishments. The problem? It's a great resume for a Web developer, but I'm at a competitive disadvantage for that type of job. I need to focus on the job opportunities I'd be best at, and my resume better reflect that.

Since I've done Web development for the last six years, you'd think that would be the natural thing to shoot for. But the Microsoft technology I'm best at, Active Server Pages (ASP), is no longer current web technology - ASP.NET is its replacement - and I haven't worked with that. I could land ASP jobs if they existed, which apparently they don't (at least I couldn't find any in this area on dice.com). Large-scale web development, the advertised kind, seems a reach at this point.

However, niche opportunities in web development might still be possible. Individual business units, internal intranet applications, small-business applications - in these cases a solution could be crafted from scratch and ASP technology might be a good fit. (I also know PHP, the dominant scripting language on the Internet.) So in some cases there might be a match.

But obviously my current resume needs refining. I need to determine the niches I'm most competitive for and have my resume reflect that, even if I need different versions slanted toward each niche.

Just Another Day

2006-04-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

I was busy today. The routines we use for employee authentication, supplied by another bank unit, needed upgrading to a new release. Program changes were necessary, including to our most sensitive access request process. I did my final testing, rolled the changes into production and then had to wait for the Web server conversion at midnight Eastern time. Just finished testing, and it looks like the conversion went well and everything is back up.

It all felt good. It felt like a normal day - and it was - but it was my last normal day.

From this point forward, to aid in the transition, I'm pretty much freezing my application code. I'll try not to make any changes, unless it's really vital. And in a week or two, they'll be taking over responsibility for the program maintenance.

It hasn't totally registered yet. These Web applications are my babies: created by me, maintained by me; I have lived and breathed them for five years. Not being part of all that is still hard to fathom. I was respected, expert in these applications, and enjoyed that position. It was challenging work, and work that helped others at the same time.

I am so going to miss this.

Helpful Inspiration

2006-04-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

My wife made a big mistake today: she read my blog. She arrived at work early, and decided to catch up on my new blog entries before the day started. "That's the last time I do that - I was depressed the whole day!" (She was laughing when she said it, so it couldn't be that bad.) Her new resolution is to only read it at the end of the day.

It always inspires a writer to get a heartfelt reaction from his readers...

Apparently my parents were similarly inspired, because my father turned around and wrote me a three page letter to cheer me up. It was a beautiful letter, so maybe I need to continue on the Dark Side to get some more! My father mentioned some words that have always inspired him, and I thought they might inspire others as well, so here's what he wrote:

"I want to give you some pointers that will help your mental outlook. These are on a little card that I have carried in my wallet for over 40 years. They were written by Henry C. Link, a practical psychologist and one of my favorites. Here's what it says on my little card...

Practice Thought Control:
When you catch yourself starting a stress emotion, stop it and substitute a healthy positive thought. Example: "I'm going to keep my attitude and thinking calm and cheerful - right now!

Change Your Thoughts:
Equanimity (Let's stay calm)
Resignation (Let's accept this setback gracefully)
Courage (I can handle this - and more.)
Determination (I can turn this setback into victory)
Cheerfulness (Bowed but not broken )
Pleasantness (I'll keep my attitude pleasant)

I hope this helps you as it has helped me."

Thanks, Dad, it did; maybe it will help someone else as well.

Better to Accept?

2006-04-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

My impending layoff from the Bank has been a brutal shock. I've been using this blog to examine the human side - the all-too-natural anger, betrayal and sorrow - that is a byproduct of modern corporate economics. I'll of course continue to examine this human side going forward; but from a personal standpoint, there are other considerations I haven't touched on.

I'm not the most spiritual person in the world, but maybe, for whatever reason, I was not meant to spend the rest of my working life at the Bank. Losing one's job is certainly an effective, if crude, means for forcing one to move on. And moving on is maybe the whole point: it's time to do something else, time to help somewhere else.

What if I simply accept what's happened? A radical idea, that. But accepting - not fighting, not railing against fate - could be a lot healthier. Maybe I should spend less time worrying; instead, trust that, for me, it's for the best. For reasons that are ineffable my path lies elsewhere; my job is to figure out which fork to take. Standing still on the trail - getting upset about the fate that has placed the fork before me -is not going to get me anywhere.