Club CLib Raising of the Dead Breakfast
A couple of months ago, my paying employer Novell had a RIF. My team of five people was reduced to two of us. Today, four of us got together again for breakfast.
RIFs are hard for everybody. The people who were directly affected are not out in the marketplace looking for work and trying to polish skills that might not have been used in a long time. While those of us left find ourselves suddenly doing the work of two people and missing our friends that were laid off. We have continued to keep in touch and feel for our friends as they go through the mess of trying to find a job.
So this morning our team of two got back together with the two that were RIF'd (the dead) to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, exchange gifts and discuss what has been going on. Russ keeps people informed nicely with his blog, but John struggles to even answer emails these days as he's too busy with home! So it was fun to sit down and get caught up on the latest. Russ is starting his next job on Monday and is worried about the career advancement. John has just recently started looking for a position in earnest and has not fallen into one yet, but is really getting going. One of the things Russ pointed out to us was that the computer world isn't looking for our skills but rather wants different skillsets out there.
It's been interesting seeing what they have found while searching for work. People out in the world are not just looking for employees, but they are interested in whether the fit into the new team is a good one. One of the interviews Russ went on lasted hours in length. This interview included a long time with his potential team discussing the work environment, and they had all read his blog to get to know him more. That really got me thinking that the world we live in and how this "culture of open source" has permeated our society. Not only are wikis available and used everywhere, but blogging is prominent, instant messaging, text messaging and email are used seamlessly by most people involved today. The new generation coming up does this seamlessly and doesn't stop to think of it as a new method of communications, they just roll with it...this is an interesting thought this culture of open source.
RIFs are hard for everybody. The people who were directly affected are not out in the marketplace looking for work and trying to polish skills that might not have been used in a long time. While those of us left find ourselves suddenly doing the work of two people and missing our friends that were laid off. We have continued to keep in touch and feel for our friends as they go through the mess of trying to find a job.
So this morning our team of two got back together with the two that were RIF'd (the dead) to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, exchange gifts and discuss what has been going on. Russ keeps people informed nicely with his blog, but John struggles to even answer emails these days as he's too busy with home! So it was fun to sit down and get caught up on the latest. Russ is starting his next job on Monday and is worried about the career advancement. John has just recently started looking for a position in earnest and has not fallen into one yet, but is really getting going. One of the things Russ pointed out to us was that the computer world isn't looking for our skills but rather wants different skillsets out there.
It's been interesting seeing what they have found while searching for work. People out in the world are not just looking for employees, but they are interested in whether the fit into the new team is a good one. One of the interviews Russ went on lasted hours in length. This interview included a long time with his potential team discussing the work environment, and they had all read his blog to get to know him more. That really got me thinking that the world we live in and how this "culture of open source" has permeated our society. Not only are wikis available and used everywhere, but blogging is prominent, instant messaging, text messaging and email are used seamlessly by most people involved today. The new generation coming up does this seamlessly and doesn't stop to think of it as a new method of communications, they just roll with it...this is an interesting thought this culture of open source.
posted by Pastor Tom at 9:41 AM
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