A very good friend of mine has been laid off from the company we both work for. He is actually the friend who introduced me to blogging and opened my eyes to many other internet technologies. To be sure the layoff sucks most for him and his family during this time of uncertainty. At the same time it also sucks for those of us left behind who keep looking over our shoulders and wonder when the layoff bullet will finally hit us.
My friend, we will call him Sparky, has a valuable skill set that I think is really needed in the company so why then did the layoff hammer hit him? Like so many it is all about where you are in the company and not about your skills or value to the company. If you organization can save the company tons of money by shipping labor over seas to China or India or Costa Rica or even Canada then your organization will do that. Corporate America does not care that the average family income continues to drop year after year, they only care about cutting out the cost of labor as much as possible. Of course this does not extend to off-shoring our CEO's or Vice-Presidents.
I want to ask Sparky how the job hunt is going but I also don't want to rub salt in the wound since I am still employed. I want to tell him how much his friendship means to me but guys usually don't speak about such things. I want to apologize for not being a very good friend most of the time. Most of all though I want him to know how much I have appreciated his willingness to put up with me and open my eyes to so much in the world of technology.
I hope we can still see each other at Starbucks once in awhile Sparky.
Sincerely,
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment