I Got Laid Off
It happened a few weeks ago — three weeks to the day. The company I was working for laid off about a third of their employees. We were a wee startup of about 25 people, funded in part by Sequoia Capital. If you’ve followed tech news for the last couple of weeks, you know that Sequoia gathered up its active portfolio companies to deliver this sweet presentation with a some really cute images. Hey, I’ll show you one.
From Slide 3 of Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom:
Haha, yeah, the visuals really helped me to understand what was going on here because at first I was like, “layoffs?? HU???” But with this graphic I was like “Ohhh! Now I get it.”
Get it? Trim the fat? And I guess in this particular graphic I would be represented by the fat. The remaining employees at my company are the muscle, and the big knife is the layoff. It really captures the spirit of what’s happened here. Maybe I’ll be boiled and rendered into soap or candles.
There are a lot of little footnotes and labels I’d love to tack on to some selected images from the presentation, but I just got locked out of my Adobe licenses due to…um…getting laid off. So, I should have CS3 up and running later today, but in the meantime I’m reduced to PNG-based screencaps taken with my beloved Mac.
What Have You Been Doing The Last Few Weeks?
Hey, great question! I didn’t mean to sound quite so sour in this post. These last few weeks have actually been really good for me. Just prior to the layoff I was talking to my boyfriend about how I hadn’t had more than 5 consecutive days off in the last, I dunno…5 years. Basically since the last time the bubble burst and I wasn’t working in Tech. Frankly, bubbles bursting are about the only way to get a reasonable vacation in this industry — either that or quitting a job to start another one. In fact, so many people I know burnout on their current job because they can’t take a real vacation, so they just end up hating it and eventually quitting.
And for those lucky few Americans that do get reasonable vacation time, if they work in the Internet biz, they’re generally under social pressure at the office to not use their vacation time. You’re either reminded that by using vacation, you’re screwing over the next guy that has to cover the work for you, or (more commonly) you end up working double hours the week before and the week after so that the project you’re on don’t stall out while you’re gone. Because, you know, babies and puppies might die or at least get punched if that project doesn’t go live on time.
I Am Well-Versed in XHTML, CSS, RSI, and CT
That reminds me of a cool story. This one time, I was working for a company and I had been working really long hours. With all those long hours on the keyboard, I had started to show the signs of a repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel syndrome and even had a doctor’s diagnosis to that effect. During this particular week that I’m thinking of, by the time Thursday rolled around, I had already worked about 50 hrs. My wrist and thumb were so f’d up that I decided it’d be smart to take off Friday and let my hand rest, and being the responsible employee that I was, I made sure my project was in a reasonable state to do so. Even though I’d already put in way more than 40 hrs that week, and even though I was taking off due to an injury caused by working too much, I still had to use one of my (very few) vacation days to get the rest that I needed to recover. Welcome to America! :)
Fixpert, tell us one reason why America is f’d up
So glad you asked! If you’re American and this chart doesn’t piss you off, then there’s something wrong. This is from Average Number of Vacation Days Around the World Per Year but we all have figures close to these memorized by now.
Yup, there it is. That’s pretty close to what I had at the job in the aforementioned story — a had 15 days in fact, but that included any sick days that I took as well. So let’s say I ate something funny, was laid out and sick in bed for a week, then suddenly I only had 10 vacay days. That’s about enough time to deal with all of the random errands that need to happen during working hours through the course of a year. Stuff like doctor’s appointments, being at home when your landlord needs to get into your apartment, etc. And this isn’t unusual, this is pretty average based on my 9+ years of experience in the full-time working world.
That’s Why Being Self-Employed Rules
That’s not to say that it’s not hard work, but pulling extra hours, working late into the night, it’s all for me and it’s my choice. I can also chill for a week or two if that’s what I think is best for my mental, physical, and spiritual health.
Well, that’s all for now. I guess I was waiting to write this post until I had an official business site up that I could point you to, one that showed off my Illustration and Interaction Design work. But frankly, I’ve been too busy doing other things like making a sweet mini comic to give out this weekend at the Alternative Press Expo. I’ll post a link if/when a have a business site up and running. But in the meantime I’ll be off the keys and onto my drawing desk. Then it’s Halloween…APE…and fun times ahead! Toot! Toot!
October 31st, 2008 at 6:55 am
Balls, that sucks. Sorry to hear about getting laid off. Happened to me for the first time this year, and it’s craptastic. Good luck!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:57 am
That’s wild Sally. However, WELCOME BACK to the freelance/self-employed club.
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 am
Are you still looking for a job? Perhaps thinking about starting something? This is tall Mike from Bruton and from your early days of EXTEND (not to get too nerdy). Maybe I can help.