March 5, 2001

Tech Tank
   by stacy <pfftnet@stacy.pfft.net>

I'm starting to feel the pressure from the "economic slowdown" at work. Until now, I thought my company was doing pretty well compared to other tech/telecom outfits, and maybe it was, but even we shall not be spared. As our VP put it, "It's the same sort of thing we went through 10 years ago. The economy is slowing down so it can reorganize and get rid of inefficiencies." Swell. 10 years ago, the economy really sucked.

They told us this afternoon that we were under a hiring freeze and layoffs were being discussed. This is the first hiring freeze the company has had in a long time, probably several years. It will be very different, since in the past year that I've worked here, every Monday we had lots of new employees. Now they are even rescinding offers they had previously made, so there are 1 or 2 new employees scheduled to start each week for the next few months. I was supposed to give up my office for a new Director to have in our department, but even that might not happen (which is ok, I like my office. It's a double-wide with a window, and since there is the hiring freeze, they won't hire anyone else to get the other desk, heh heh). It also means we have a storage room full of new computers ready to hand out to people who aren't here. Time for a trade-in!

I don't think I'll feel the "tightening of the belt" too much. I'm certainly not worried about getting laid-off (watch this space for any change of heart), since the Unix workstations aren't going anywhere, and somebody's gotta take care of them. Without me, they'd be getting even more spam than they do now. They need me. That's a good feeling in a recession, to know that your job is relatively secure, and that your company is relatively secure. This place is profitable, and though they have said they won't get as much profit this quarter as last year, it's still profit. That means we won't be going down the tubes, I hope. But still, the idea of laying off any employees is hard to think about. We're a small company, and I'm not sure where there is much fat to trim.

Mostly, however, I'm just glad I graduated from college last year, just when the tech tank started but there were still lots of new jobs to be had, instead of this year, when things are looking a lot tighter. That was one twist of fate I'm most grateful for.

Published: March 5, 2001
Editor: stacy