Rif-Raff

On Monday, 3 days after my 44th service anniversary with the same company, I was advised that my job had been eliminated due to an overall reduction in force. I can't say that it was a shock because we had not been performing well against our plan and my work, except for projects, was becoming redundent to what others were doing. Still, I did feel a little lost for a couple of days until I absorbed the reality. I did get a very generous severance package-30 days paid notice, 1 years salary and 6 months COBRA as well as some other perks. I really can't complain. I know others that are much worse off in their situations.

I think I should be able to find another position fairly soon as there seem to be a lot of openings at various company's websites. Right now, I am just kicking back. I'm taking the wife and MIL to see the latest Harry Potter epic in a couple of hours and I plan to go fishing tomorrow. If worse comes to worse, we can scale back our lifestyle and I will take early retirement as my prior employer had a funded pension plan in which I am fully vested. I will really miss some of the people I worked with (others-not so much).

One thing that gives me a little comfort is that I was involved in a project that was a royal pain in the ass. Every time I thought it was complete, the project owners kept coming back, wanting to tweak things just a little more. This project was supposed to be complete 3/3/09. I have to smile a little when I thing of my boss, who I really like and respect, having to deal with these idiots to get this project complete. I have a feeling that he is going to burn some butts.