How to tell if your company is going under
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
See my current blog for current information. If you're here for reading pleasure, please start at the beginning.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Update: Been doing a whole lotta nothing for the past two months. It's been a blast. Finished Ulysses, 100 Years of Solitude, some Yeats plays, a new TCL-backed photo website, went to Big Sur, started a contracting gig with a small operation in town, about to start working on a mini-ITX with PK.
None of my two former coworkers are employed as yet.
Friday, May 16, 2003
OK this is my last entry for real this time. GL turned me down for someone else who was far more qualified. I don't blame them. So now I'm truly free.
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
This will be my last entry, as today is my last day. We are lunching with T and the CEO and then we will receive our last paychecks and PTO checks. I told my boss and coworker that I would not be joining them with U-corp as it's too far for me to commute, and I feel like this is a good point for me to leave without feeling that I'm running out in mid-project. My boss took it very well. Right now I think I'll be happy whether GL hires me or not.
Turns out I had accumulated a total of 83 hours of PTO, which makes for a very nice present, almost like a real severance package.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
I'm torn. GL has an interest in me and due to the nature of the position they would want me to work right away, if I were selected (there are two other candidates). I am intrigued about travelling to Europe on a monthly basis, but the idea of doing pure software is less appealing (though Matlab and embedded GPS sounds fun). Would the tradeoff be worth it? How much time to myself would I have in Europe? Just the nights? Weekends? What if I was stuck in Paris or Madrid (hours from anywhere) the whole time? On the other hand, what if I end up in Geneve or Munchen or Wien or Milano, near the mountains, and had a weekend at my disposal (ie, fly out Friday, fly back Friday).
Either way I would accumulate frequent flier miles. AA requires 25k for inside US, 35k for Hawaii, 40k for Europe.
I would accumulate 12,000 miles per trip to Europe (SJC to CDG Paris); if flying once per month that would give me 144,000 miles per year or 3.5 trips to Europe. At $1000 per trip that's like being paid an extra $3500 on top of my salary. Not much really, so I shouldn't view the frequent flyer miles as being pivotal.
The problem is, if I take the job, and hate it, I can't get unemployment if I leave unless I can demonstrate "good cause" which might be hard to do, especially if GL were to offer me another job. Well, not hate. The only thing that would cause me to leave would be flying out to Europe and not having time to myself there.
Friday, May 09, 2003
As evidenced by my last post I had a pretty bad day at work on Tuesday. Mainly because I was asked to solder a bunch of stuff (which I always hate to do) and do other "real" work that, a month ago, would have been completely ordinary and acceptable. But this working in my severance period is really bugging me. I got all ansy and paced around the building and was holding my head in my hands, elbows on the desk, when my boss walks in and asks how things are going. "Great," I said, fixing my hair.
The next two days I took off, to spend time with a friend of Anna's (Sun) visiting from the east coast. On Wednesday Jason brought his new bike over and we went riding on West Cliff and I picked up Unbearable Lightness of Being from the library, then later in the evening we went to Trivia Night and then came back home and drank and were merry with Paul and Rajeev. Thursday we took Sun south to 17 mile drive near Carmel. It was my first time there and it was much like Point Reyes but not quite so rugged. I'll return with my bike next time.
Though I was having a good time I had bizarre dreams for three nights in a row. A few weeks ago I went drinking at the King's Head with my company friends I came away quite happy, finally having come to terms with losing my job and all the work I've done for the past two and a half years. I had this great dream where I was hiking in the woods, taking pictures. Since I love to do both of those things but haven't had time to indulge in photography since I started work, I felt this was a symbolic representation of my new freedom. I felt great in the morning. Now, my dreams are weird.
In the first dream, I was at this party. There was some leftover cake on the table and I went to cut a piece for myself, but as soon as the knife cut through to the plate, the piece I had just cut collapsed into itself, shrinking as if it were a delicate meringue that had lost all its lift. This happened again and again as I tried to cut a decent piece of cake. Then, my friend Paul was telling people at the party about our recent travelling excurisions last week. We had been to Hawaii, to Greece, and to some national parks in the US. The funny thing was, I couldn't remember having been travelling at all. In the dream, I had this idea that anxiety causes amnesia, and figured that I was so anxious (about what I didn't know) that I had forgotten the excitement of travelling around the world last week.
I don't remember what the second dream was, but I distinctly recall being aware, in my dream, that it was an anxiety dream.
Today my boss asked me to work through Wednesday of next week, which is the last day we get paid. Right now I'm happy to do that because I got a lot done at work today researching stuff for Jeff's company and fooling around with the Ericsson radio. But I'm worried that U-corp will actually buy us. My boss expressed concern that I would leave for another company (I got a call back today from Global Locate) and emphasized the need for us to stick together, as U-corp might not take us if one member of the team were to leave.
I would be a martyr if I stayed on, as I'm tired of Bluetooth and tired of working with just two other people. They're great people, and I doubt I'll ever be able to work so closely and informally with anyone, but there's only so much you can learn from two people. I need to get the cojones to tell my boss that, no matter what happens, I'll leave. Anna told me to say that I understand that if I leave I'm endangering their jobs, but if I stay on, I'll only be doing it for their sake, and I don't feel that's an authentic decision.
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Plantronics has a job opening for a firmware engineer, but I don't want to work right now! Do I call them and try to get the job, or what? I wish the 15th was today, so I could know if I'm going to be stuck here for another n months.
Plantronics contact info:
Joyce Shumizu: president of mobile communication division
Jack Reynolds: product manager for M1500 Bluetooth headset
I'm still working here, next door to where we used to be. It's still weird. Yesterday my boss convened a meeting in my cube and told us that the IP company is dropping all support for our radio. Which (I feel) doesn't really matter, but it was annoying to hear because had we known they would withdraw support, we would have chosen to use the Ericsson radio months ago. So then the VC walks in and we all have a chat in my cubicle, and he thanks us for working in these conditions, and asks my boss to talk with the CEO and try to see if we can get funding for continuing the project with the sole purpose of creating a product for U-corp. This is, I'm thinking, ridiculous because we won't have a product for the next 6 months and U-corp won't wait that long and Bluetooth is dead anyway, but the VC goes on about making money with our company and selling chips.
So today my boss said he had a talk with the CEO and they're going to go talk with U-corp and see if we can get funding from them, see how they'll take the idea of waiting another 6 months for a product that will be useless by then. And he keeps asking me to solder things and do real work, while I'm thinking "um, I'm working on a matlab simulation for my modulating frequency generator, can you ask me later?"
