Goin' into early retirement....

[neebelung]

(temporary retirement, that is)...

Welp, I got laid off yesterday. We had our 4th (maybe even 5th... I've lost count) round of layoffs in the last few months, and after 8 years, 8 presidents, a Lean initiaitve, plant downsizing and I can't even COUNT how many previous layoffs we've been through over the years, I finally fell victim.

I'm not as freaked out about it as I thought I'd be. While it still felt like a kick to the gut at the moment it happened, it wasn't a total surprise. In the last 10 months, our Engineering Department has gone from 4, to 3, to 2... and now there is 1 (other departments have been cut even futher). In truth, the only part of the company that HASN'T seen any cuts are the upper managers/Directors... right now, there's literally about a 1:1 ratio of Managers to Staff.

So I've got a decent severance package, and I know I'll get at least 3 glowing letters of recommendation... right now I'm just going to take a little bit of time and figure out what I want to do. I'd been with the company for so long, and in different positions, that I really just morphed and moved where the company needed me to be and took on as much training as they'd throw my way. Now I just need to see where I can put what I've learned to the best use.

In the meantime, I'm gonna go visit my parents later this week (first thing my Dad said when I called them was "If I send you a plane ticket, will you come out for a few days?" so I figured this is as good a time as any.. though I'd imagine West Texas is blasted hot this time of year )

So to my early (albeit temporary) retirement.