Blog /Suddenly Unemployed

November 03, 2010 20:03 +0000  |  Moving Unemployment Work [at] Play 3

Nearly ten years ago, after a gruelling week of work and late nights trying to get a product out the door, my colleagues and I came into work, bleary eyed, but proud of the site we'd been able to finish on-time and to-spec. We were met with a group meeting, in which roughly two thirds of us were informed that we no longer had a job. It was devastating to most of us, but we all recovered, and learnt from all of this an important lesson: that the business world can be cold, and it's best to be prepared for the worst.

I've managed to benefit from that lesson a few times now. Working in IT, you get used to the often temporary nature of your work, and sometimes that of your employer. You make preparations for an abrupt exodus, establish connections within the community, and find ways to make the transition easier. It's never easy, but over the years it's become less-difficult.

Unfortunately, I've had to deal with such a situation today. My (now former) employer, Work at Play gave me the pink slip this morning, along with another coworker. They're restructuring, position is redundant, etc. etc. The end result is that I'm out of work, just two months before my planned exit and relocation to Somewhere in Europe. To their credit though, the process was respectful and not at all like my exit from Moshpit Entertainment so long ago.

I've already started branching out, looking for ways to cover bills and do some more saving before my exit, and I've been considering bumping up my timetable if that seems to work for everyone. Having never done a move of this magnitude, I'm unsure of which decisions to make on all of these new fronts. I do have some promising leads for some short-term contract work though, so money may not be a problem. We'll see.

Comments

Jeremy Lim
3 Nov 2010, 8:11 p.m.  | 

Open to contract work in the meantime? On occasion, I get asked for development. I'd be happy to send them your way!

Daniel
3 Nov 2010, 8:50 p.m.  | 

Hey Jeremy! I'd love to do some short-term stuff. Just email me details if something comes up, and thanks for thinking of me :-)

Val
3 Nov 2010, 11:43 p.m.  | 

Europe? I must have missed a post along the way. Sounds lovely! But too bad you had to leave the job before you wanted to. I'll keep an ear out for any consulting gigs.

Also - my login doesn't seem to work since you redesigned your site. Would you mind resetting it?

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