Do they really want to go back or do they go back because they need to? Having been laid off from my last three positions, I'm not 100% sure that I would want to go back to those companies.  Of course, two of them are out of business at this point, so there's no chance there and the one that's still in business I think that I'd be looking over my shoulder the entire time waiting for the ax to fall again. I doubt that they'd start me back at my old salary, give me my seniority, benefits, etc. back either, so really there wouldn't be a lot of incentive to go back for me.  Sure there may be a huge benefit and cost savings for them as they get someone who's essentially been with the company for 6 1/2 years already, but I'm at the point in my career where honestly I want to know what's in it for me too because if I don't see a clear path up the ladder then it really isn't worth it to me to spend my time there.

Spent a great summer evening at the ballpark tonight.  It was our Company Party.  We had great food before the game, a health fair, Peanuts and Cracker Jacks, an awesome game (which the Bees won), all of which was capped off with Fireworks. My family and I rode Trax to the game from the office, otherwise we would have stayed for the base run afterwards too, but it was really late and a school night so we had to get home.

At my last job, a couple of the employees attended some kind of disaster preparedness or recovery (I'm really not sure which) seminar.  Upon their return one of them knowing that I am heavily involved with Scouting said something to me about being CPR Trained and being the person in the office that knew it. I let them know that I was not CPR trained but if the company wanted to help pay for me to attend the training (it's less than $100), I'd be happy to take the time and get trained.  It's just not a requirement to be a Scout leader and it's not something that I've done yet. The reaction was kind of "Well when you get trained, let us know and we'll use you as our CPR person".  A few more times over the next several months the topic came up again, and my answer was always the same, "Help pay for it, and I'd be happy to do it".  I just wasn't going to go do it because they asked me to, at my expense so that they could claim that they had someone CPR trained in their office, seemed like that was a situation where they gained more than I did.  Of course, after being laid off and then being asked to other things at no cost, it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. Another thing that I suggested was that the office really should get an AED device.  There wasn't one there and in my opinion, there needed to be one.  I was literally laughed at and mocked for making such a suggestion, on several occasions. Now I realize that they aren't cheap, but I also know that they save lives.  I was told that everyone working there was young and in good shape and that such a device wasn't needed and even if someone did happen to have an issue that the Fire Department was just minutes away.  After that I told my wife that if I just happened to have a heart attack while working there and died, that she should look into her legal options. So while watching the news tonight I had a huge smile on my face when I saw thisreport.  I don't know the details of the ordinance, and this company isn't located in South Jordan (they are literally only a few blocks away though), but it's good to see that some people are taking things like this seriously. And for the record, my new company does have one and I know exactly where it is located just in case it's needed.  The funny thing is it's within 20 feet of the vending machines.

One of the things that I noticed last week while my wife and I were at Disneyland, was the attention to detail. Sure everything is really well done, that's pretty well known about Disney, but the things that really impressed me were the little things. Never did I see a light bulb that was burned out (trust me I looked for one), nor did I see any maintenance workers working on anything, repairing anything, or anything that appeared to be closed for maintenance reasons, though I'm sure that it existed, it just didn't appear to be that way. The other thing that kept going through my head was just the pure logistics that must go into keeping that place up and running everyday.  With all of the food that the serve up each day, never did I see vehicles driving through the either park delivering it, nor was I told that they were out of a particular item.  Figuring out and managing all of that has to fall to a staff of people somewhere. For a person that thinks in very logical patterns that would be a dream job and one that would also likely put me in the grave early, but I'd probably love every minute of it.

I started my new job today.  It's going to be great and I must say, I don't miss the old one at all. Everyone I met today seems great and I'm very excited to get my feet under me and move forward with everything.  It's going to be a whole new set of challenges, but I like that they are there to tackle and can't wait to get going.

Warning, I'm about to offer my opinion, if you don't want to hear my opinion stop reading now.  If you're offended by hearing others opinions, you really may want to stop reading now, especially if those opinions are sharp, pointed and rather one sided.  I'm serious, stop reading if you're easy to anger when someone points out things that may open wounds just a little. OK, you can't say that you haven't been warned. My response to this article is YES, they should, or at least they should allow employees the opportunity to help out where they can. For each of my last three jobs, I've left due to financial difficulties at the companies.  The first was because they were having trouble making payroll and I left voluntarily because another position became available, the second they were again having trouble making payroll and I left voluntarily after they hadn't paid me in 6 weeks, the third, the simply laid me off out of the blue. With the first company, the gathered all of us together in the conference room and told us that they were having difficulty and asked if we could accept some temporary pay cuts.  This was while I was still in college, I knew that I couldn't accept a very large pay cut but I wanted to help the company succeed so of course I would accept a temporary pay cut. I ended up leaving before the pay cut was over, but at least they were trying to stay a float.  I can't fault them for trying.  I look back at that company and while it was a rocky time, at least I felt as though they were looking out for the majority of the employees. The second company was a little different and I felt a bit taken advantage of, but it was also a bit of my own fault too.  Due my previous company having difficulty I asked direct questions during my interviews specifically about the current business plan and how business was going.  I was assured that things were going well enough.  It wasn't until about 8 months in to my employment that I was pulled into the conference room and told the my paycheck that I had been given that morning if cashed would in fact bounce.  It kind of upset me because my car had been in the shop and I had literally received my paycheck, gone to class (I was still in college), put my check in the bank, gone to pick up my car (which I paid for with a check) and driven back to work. From there on out it was a roller coaster ride of missed paydays and such for the next 10 months or so.  I blame myself because I stuck with it for so long, I should have removed myself from the situation much sooner than I did, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons about myself in the process, but honestly the stress that I was under probably wasn't worth it. Finally, the third position, I was almost completely blind sided.  I was lead to believe that everything was going well.  It wasn't until I was in the conference room (was it with those stupid conference rooms anyway?) that I was told of the difficulty that the company was currently under and of the steps that had been taken and had apparently failed to help keeps things going.  The next step was to lay off much of the work force. That was several weeks ago and I've had a lot of time to think since then and maybe hindsight really is 20/20, but if they had come to me before hand and asked me to help out I would have.  This is a company that I truly believed in and felt that I put my whole heart and soul into for 6 and a half years, to help them improve and become a better company. I believe that if companies do disclose that there are financial difficulties and ask the employees to help out, that if the employees do truly care about the company succeeding that they will help out.  If this company had asked me to take a temporary pay cut, I would have agreed to have done so.  If they had asked me to have take Mandatory Unpaid Time off, I would have also done that.  If they needed to have the Janitorial staff come in only once a week/month and needed me to vacuum my area and take out my own trash, no problem.  If they had cut out the bi-weekly grocery shopping and asked everyone to bring in their own snacks, I could have done that (I didn't eat much from the fridge there anyway). My point is be open and honest with your employees when it comes to financial matters like this and I promise you that they will surprise you.  Believe it or not, they actually care and want to see the company succeed just as much as those in management and/or the owners do.  In some cases it's those employees that are essentially putting food on your tables, paying for your large homes and fancy cars and helping to keep your business' doors open. Sure you're going to get those that bail out and they are going to bail out for all different reasons, but your company is only going to become stronger as it fights through the tough times, but by giving others reasons to go out and fight against your company because you've made them upset by keeping everything covered up until the very last moment is not a good idea in my book. If your company has talented people, do everything in your power to keep them around, because what are you saying about them otherwise "We think that you're extremely talented.  You are doing a fabulous job for us.  We can no longer afford to keep you around, so we think that you'd do a much better job for our competition".  Yeah, that's going to help your already financially strapped company.

In my recent job search, I've been contacted mostly by recruiters who want to talk to me so that they can help me find a job.  I appreciate their help, but I also understand that it's business for them.  It's how they get paid and how they ensure that they keep from being in the same position that they that I'm currently in. There's just something that I keep hearing from them that I'm just not sure if it's really what's going on or a ploy to get me to come in and speak with them.  Usually the conversation whether via email or phone goes something like this: Them: "I've got this position that I'd like to talk with you about.  Can you come in?" Me (with a glimmer of hope): "Sure" Them: "Great, why don't we meet on [they set a date and time]". Me: "Great, see you then" I then show up to the appointment and before we event go through all of the typical interview type items they drop the bombshell. Them: "Well, that position that I told you about previously is unfortunately [on hold/no longer available], but I've got several other positions that are coming up soon." And they will either list them out or not go into any detail and kind of drop it, then continue on with the standard interview items. It's happened a couple of different times which is kind of frustrating, so I'm trying to figure out if it's just coincidence, or the economy is really causing that much change that quickly these days, or that's just the way that business is done with recruiters (this is my first time working with them).

One nice thing is that I've had several ideas of things that I've been wanting to develop bouncing around in my head for the last several years.  I've just really never had the time or freedom to develop them.  Now I've got both and am thinking that maybe the time is right. Especially considering a lot of people are asking for code samples and I technically can't give them any because everything I've developed over the last 6+ years is owned by my former employer.  This would allow me to also provide them with some code samples. Now to only work up the energy to both search for a job AND do this at the same time.

I've been working on trying to get everything organized after being laid off on Wednesday.  There's so much to do and figure out I can't believe it.  The problem is that everything feels like it is hurry up and wait and every time I get something done it seems like there is something else that I need to do. So for all 2 of you out there reading this, if you've gone through this before and have any advice for me, I'd really appreciate it. So far I've:

• Updated my resume
• Updated my employment status on Facebook.
• Updated my employment history and status on LinkedIn.
• Posted my resume to Monster.com
• Posted my resume to Dice.com
• Emailed/TXTed all of my friends/family/etc informing them of what's going on and requesting that they keep an eye out for any positions for me.
• Sent my resume to all of my friends that requested a copy.
• Emailed my resume to a recruiter that my former employer claims was very anxious to speak with me (yeah, so far no response).
• Spoken with another recruiter and setup an appointment for Monday to go in for an interview and skills assessment.
• Applied for positions from all around the country.

What else do I need to be doing?

When I pulled into the parking lot at work this morning and saw cars of people who are never there "on time" I knew something was up. When those people and others were no where to be found and a specific office door was closed, I knew what was up, so I began cleaning out my desk.  Within the hour I got the proverbial "David, Can I talk with you for a minute". When I started there 6 and a half years ago, I heard a lot about how they had a great retention rate with their employees and that layoffs/firings was unheard off, well over the years that has slowly changed and today it was blown out of the water, which is really too bad because it really was a great job. I'm a bit numb at the moment, but I've had my moments of really believing that everything is going to be ok and I've have my fits of rage and feeling like I've been slapped in the face. Oh well, I guess life goes on and I'll just put them in my rear view mirror and see what happens.