The Long Walk, The Talk, and The Letter

On a sunny Tuesday in southern California I received a canned speech, meaningful platitudes, and a packet from HR. I had been laid off. Another victim of the Great Depression II. Sure they've been using the term "economic downturn" but it's the Great Depression II.

The situation was simple. I worked for a dot com. A dot com based on advertising revenue. Less advertisers equals less money equals less staff. I joined a total layoff of about a third of the staff. Factoring in global layoffs and smaller layoffs and the number is more like half. I actually felt bad for my bosses. They had to axe dozens of people. I hear that my poker faced SVP was actually in tears by the end of the day.

The good news is that I was getting a good severance package and my layoff was fiscal. That means I was getting fired for being a fuck up. So I put on a brave face, shook hands, sent out a few good-bye emails then--left.

That was two weeks ago. To keep my sanity during this process I've decided to keep a blog. What does a Type-A guy do when he loses his job? We'll soon find out.