Lots of Change and to Spare, Part II

In Part I I wrote about shifting more focus into writing and continuing to open up more to evolving relationships, though it might not have been clear that was what I was writing about. I was working myself up to larger ideas to explore by starting with the smaller ones and ran out of time. I was at work, after all, as I am now, where it is often easiest to grab some quiet alone-time. At home there are multiple projects and chores and humans to manage and only a few hours available, whereas (here) at work I can goof off for hours and no one will know so long as I meet my deadlines and look busy to passersby. (And I wonder why I don't get promotions.)

I haven't been paying much attention so I doubt any of my friends and readers have either, but my employer of two decades, IMC (Infamous Megamultinational Corporation), is in trouble. The division I was in for seven years and that laid me off last summer will probably cease to exist before long, as the company never managed to create the kick-ass mobile processor that would sell to the first-tier customers (e.g. Apple, Samsung) and can't seem to come up with a voice-data modem either. The business segment that my current temporary position supports and is the company cash cow has trouble brewing for it too, what with a major customer cozying up to a major competitor. If we loose Google, we probably lose the business (not until after a fight, but I dunno, this place doesn't seem to have the sand it used to). Most of my colleagues who were also laid off last summer have gone into the SSD division, which I guess is doing well, but storage solutions are BORING and besides the place reminds me of the old chipset division I left a decade ago, in that it is highly profit-driven hence productivity-focused hence a goddam sweatshop. Whenever I run into my friends who've gone over there, they look tired and stressed.

So here I am in a temp position that will end in a month (if not sooner), following which I have some very welcome "redeployment" time in which they pay me to look for a job. My hope and intention is that before that ends and they come to pull me off the corporate teat I shall have had time to refresh and train up on some dormant skills, as well as networked both inside and out, and thus be in a new internal position (if the experience hasn't beaten me flat, which is an equal possibility).

People ask sometimes if I have a pension, the idea being this might be a good time to retire and get some writin' done. Well, there's no pension. I think the theory was that by the time you're my age your stock holdings and options will have been worth more than any pension could have been. That may have been a sound theory in another era. Back when that era was ending, some of my smarter colleagues bailed on private industry and went to work for the State, this being the capital city and all. Well, all those state workers are fine. They're not rich, but they will have regular meals and health care for the rest of their days. Not so sure in that regard about yours truly.

So that's the Change heading my way: Some form of professional reinvention as I slide towards my 58th birthday in hopes of remaining competitively employed for as many years as possible. From out there it might look a cinch but in here, surrounded by energetic young geniuses and the industry's elder statesmen and the politically-savvy managers who connect the pieces, well, not so much.

That being whined, this is actually a great opportunity to go find a job away from here. Get out of IMC. Find a small company. Make stuff. Have fun. EXPERIENCE MORE CHANGE. Augh. Challenge. Stress. WHO NEEDS IT?

(This post was started in a much more sanguine mood than prevailed the day it was finished. Well, who wants an inorganic blog anyway?)