A Good News/Bad News Kind of Thing…

Why yes, I AM your typical blogger for disappearing for so long……but a lot has been going on since I got out of the hospital. 

First of all, in true corporate fashion that demands fewer and fewer people make more and more of the money, my company decided in its shortsighted wisdom that replacing my entire team with “global resources” would be the right thing to do.  Paying Mexican and Brazilian employees 25 cents on the dollar is the trend right now, even though a lot of knowledge and expertise goes out the door when you downsize the domestic talent.  I’m not saying that international employees don’t have a lot of talent, but the problem is the cuts generally go so deep and happen so quickly that nobody in upper management realizes exactly what they are losing when they replace 5yr-25yr employees with people who have zero knowledge of the company or processes.  Throw in the language and cultural differences, the pitfalls of everyone working remotely and relying on Skype or Voicepulse technology, and ultimately, any “savings” are a wash because of the learning curve and interim loss in quality. 

Anyway, it could have been a lot worse….we could have been out the door immediately, but we’ll have our jobs until the end of August, then a severance package along with medical benefits after that.  In the meantime, guess what?  We get to train our replacements!  And of course…. we’re all very eager to do that.  It’s going to be pretty interesting to see the hell that breaks loose between now and August, but the company covers itself…..you can do your job or leave immediately and lose severance.   Not all is lost, it’s still possible to sandbag and “do your job”, and I’ve got at least one lead on a new job…..the trick will be to work long enough to still get the severance payout and transition right into new work.  Ultimately, I think the change will be good, I would have stuck with this gig forever, but now I can start thinking about how to put my masters degree to work.  Speaking of which, the one bright spot in all of this is that since they’re laying us off they can’t ask anyone to pay back any tuition money they gave us like they could if we left on our own.  That’s a net savings of about 30K in my direction……they could have hired a shit-ton of global resources with that money.

So that’s the bad news……..

The GOOD news…..and this is pretty crazy good news (although not new for many of you)…….  it has been almost a year since first meeting the C.H.U.D. out in DC, and well over a year since we first “met” after I posted about my Sopranos dinner last year.  There has been a ton of travel between Richmond and Kansas City since then, and honestly, I just haven’t been as comfortable and happy with anyone else as I have with her.  It has been the kind of relationship that makes you ashamed of all of the past ones, but I guess all of those mistakes make you the person that you are.  When you are my age and have never been married, you have learned enough to know when you find the right person.

So with that said…… I’M GETTING MARRIED!   Yes, you have all been witnesses to the pre-surgery, the recovery, the ensuing learning curve and madness, the ramblings, the travels, the drinking, the major events, the courtship, and now…..the engagement.  Soon to be followed by….the marriage.  Since we’re from different parts of the country, we’re going to make it a destination wedding, a very small one.  Just my parents and a couple of family members and friends, and the same with her.   The event will happen in June in Savannah, Georgia, in one of those cool historic squares.  She’s got a great engagement ring, my wedding band is on the way, the square and hotel are booked, we’ll all have dinner at Paula Deen’s the night before the wedding….we’ve thought of it all!  We’ll be in Kansas City for my 40th birthday, and she’ll be moving up here at the beginning of August. 

Honestly, despite all the layoff headaches, I couldn’t be happier.  I’m looking forward to getting married to someone I truly love and who is a real partner.  And the fact that she puts up with my most demented humor is a plus.  We watched Gummo while I was in Richmond last week, and I have her quoting the junkyard scene…….so sweet.

More about all of this as time goes on….. I know this is a much shorter post than usual, but I was feeling bad about not sharing a couple of huge events.  Hell, I was in Richmond for over a week and didn’t even take the time to share about that…..but it WAS fun packing our wedding registries and shopping for my cool tungsten and carbon fiber wedding band. 

Anyway, as the office madness gets worse I’m sure I’ll come up with something to share.  Tonight, I will have the HONOR of attending the “Killers of Comedy” show at the Voodoo Lounge.  For those of you LOSERS who don’t worship at the altar of Howard Stern, it’s a comedy extravaganza featuring the genius of such people as The Reverend Bob Levy, Richard Christy, Sal Governale, Shuli, Beetlejuice and Yucko the Clown.  I know, between this and the marriage thing I’m just one lucky bastard……..