Pending Changes ...
Mar. 13th, 2006 03:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77I've felt for a long time that I needed to change jobs; well, this is about to become less of a fond wish and more of an urgent necessity:
My company's Seattle office hired me on about a year and a half ago, when they were contemplating a dramatic expansion. Unfortunately, things haven't really gone according to plan: the Seattle office never managed to attract the additional project work which was supposed to be a prerequisite for that expansion. In fact, they haven't generated enough work to fund my position. Consequently, I've had to spend a lot of time phoning and emailing people at the home office seeking additional work--preferably tasks billable to clients. I've generally been able to find more than enough to do, but it hasn't always been billable: instead, a fair amount of this work has been on proposals or has consisted of spillover work from over-budget projects. (I've gotten the impression that the home office prefers to give the billable project work to those who are physically present, there, and I've been getting the leavings. They've basically been operating under the assumption that the Seattle office should be keeping me busy.) Consequently, I've had to work some very long hours to make myself sufficiently billable--often from well before sunrise to well after sunset (and not just during the dead of winter).
This isn't exactly the way that I want to live my life. It doesn't exactly make sense from the company's point of view, either. Unfortunately, because I've been practically living in the office, I haven't had much time to investigate other options.
That's about to change, though: The company has decided that the Seattle office's expansion plans haven't worked out and that they can't support my position.
So I'm facing another layoff, although the terms are somewhat different, this time: I've been given about six weeks' notice, during which period I'm only expected to work sixty percent--in effect, they're offering me forty percent of my workday to look for another job. My supervisor, aware of how much time I'd been pouring into the job during recent weeks, actually insisted upon that arrangement. So, I finally have the time, motivation, and urgent need to find myself another--hopefully better--job.
I'm of course a little nervous about the whole thing, but also relieved that those weeks of working from before sunrise to well after sunset are finally over.
Now I just need to figure out what to do next: all I know is that I'd love to get the hell out of biotech. I never intended to work in this field, anyway.
But we'll have to see how that works out: much of what's available around here, most of my networking contacts, and most of my recent experience is in this field, all of which make it harder to contemplate doing something else.
In an interesting side note, three friends have recently left my old company (which shares an office suite with my current employer): we've had a farewell Happy Hour for every one of the past three Fridays. Pretty soon, it'll be my turn--I'm hoping that by then I'll have more to celebrate than just getting out of a bad situation ...
My company's Seattle office hired me on about a year and a half ago, when they were contemplating a dramatic expansion. Unfortunately, things haven't really gone according to plan: the Seattle office never managed to attract the additional project work which was supposed to be a prerequisite for that expansion. In fact, they haven't generated enough work to fund my position. Consequently, I've had to spend a lot of time phoning and emailing people at the home office seeking additional work--preferably tasks billable to clients. I've generally been able to find more than enough to do, but it hasn't always been billable: instead, a fair amount of this work has been on proposals or has consisted of spillover work from over-budget projects. (I've gotten the impression that the home office prefers to give the billable project work to those who are physically present, there, and I've been getting the leavings. They've basically been operating under the assumption that the Seattle office should be keeping me busy.) Consequently, I've had to work some very long hours to make myself sufficiently billable--often from well before sunrise to well after sunset (and not just during the dead of winter).
This isn't exactly the way that I want to live my life. It doesn't exactly make sense from the company's point of view, either. Unfortunately, because I've been practically living in the office, I haven't had much time to investigate other options.
That's about to change, though: The company has decided that the Seattle office's expansion plans haven't worked out and that they can't support my position.
So I'm facing another layoff, although the terms are somewhat different, this time: I've been given about six weeks' notice, during which period I'm only expected to work sixty percent--in effect, they're offering me forty percent of my workday to look for another job. My supervisor, aware of how much time I'd been pouring into the job during recent weeks, actually insisted upon that arrangement. So, I finally have the time, motivation, and urgent need to find myself another--hopefully better--job.
I'm of course a little nervous about the whole thing, but also relieved that those weeks of working from before sunrise to well after sunset are finally over.
Now I just need to figure out what to do next: all I know is that I'd love to get the hell out of biotech. I never intended to work in this field, anyway.
But we'll have to see how that works out: much of what's available around here, most of my networking contacts, and most of my recent experience is in this field, all of which make it harder to contemplate doing something else.
In an interesting side note, three friends have recently left my old company (which shares an office suite with my current employer): we've had a farewell Happy Hour for every one of the past three Fridays. Pretty soon, it'll be my turn--I'm hoping that by then I'll have more to celebrate than just getting out of a bad situation ...
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 07:17 pm (UTC)Ironically, my friend Jen just moved back to Seattle after a year in SF; the biotech she'd been working at had her doing 70 hour weeks. I'm not sure whether that's typical or anything, but I'd have to really love what I was doing to put in that kind of time ...
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 11:39 pm (UTC)Unless they change their mind and decide to fire us in a couple of weeks.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 11:59 pm (UTC)It says the severance is based on "continuing good performance", which I guess gives them power to arbitrarily decide to withhold it at anytime. Hopefully since both my bosses are getting let go, this won't be an issue.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-14 12:20 am (UTC)Hope the next job turns up quickly and turns out to be a major improvement.
And....
Date: 2006-03-22 06:18 pm (UTC)Also, if I can help with contacts I'll be happy to.
Re: And....
Date: 2006-03-22 07:39 pm (UTC)Re: And....
Date: 2006-03-22 08:30 pm (UTC)