Tuesday, January 17, 2006

That Lame Duck Feeling ...

Today was the first day back at work following the layoff announcement. There were a few items to take care of, but the day seemed to go by rather quickly ... a blessing, in and of itself, I guess. I told my fiancee, who does a three-day breast cancer fundraiser walk in KC, that I feel a little like she must have felt when she finished the walk: "tired, exhausted, and wondering 'what next'?".

The insurance industry is a very tightly competitive market these days, and while my company has put up a good fight, it simply doesn't have what it takes in financial resources, nor is it taking in what it should in revenues, to compete with the larger companies. I suspect that it's only a matter of time before a major chunk of my soon to be former department coworkers are eventually let go when the systems they support are eventually outsourced ... you can see the signs already.

In retrospect, perhaps it's good that I'm being cut loose now. I suspect that the troubles for my soon to be former company are just beginning; despite the company's stock price being 20 points above where it was when I first started here, the belt tightening has continued for the last few years and will probably continue long after I'm gone in terms of consolidations and staff reductions. For me, I hope that I can simply find a job that I enjoy, where I can use my skills to their fullest, and where I don't have to take a cut in income.