So. The credit crunch looms ominously. I've been treading water for quite a while now financially and have been in effective denial regarding the size of my credit card bill, but things hit home two weeks ago when the CEO of our little company gathered us together to say, basically:
"Sorry guys, all that positive stuff we told you at the beginning of the summer was actually bullshit. We're nowhere near profitability like we thought, and so to appeas our shareholders and get back on track we've just fired two people and they've already left the building."
I paraphrase of course, but that was pretty much the message. Apparently the company needs to reduce its outgoings by 40,000 by January 2009, which is when our shareholders were told we'd be profitable. What happens then if that *doesn't* happen is a bit of a mystery, but it will unlikely be good news.
I have consoled myself by telling myself that I am indispensable, being the only person who a) has in-depth knowledge of the platform, and b) who has the patience and the anal-retentive attention to detail to keep it running. It is probably a mistake however to take this for granted, but I'm not quite sure what else I'm supposed to do about it. One card I have up my sleeve (or perhaps more accurately, a dagger) is that my immediate boss, our CTO, is a complete idiot, and the only reason our technical dept. hasn't gone completely off the rails is because I keep checking him every step of the way. I have however grown quite comfortable as a decision-influencer, rather than a decision-maker and I'm not sure how much I'd relish being in his shoes.
As a stop-gap solution I have decided to finally pull my finger out and start selling off some of the crap I have here at home. When I say crap, I mean books, games, comics etc. that are surplus to requirements. In actual fact, most of it is *actually* surplus to requirements, but my hunter-gatherer streak is pretty strong, and retail therapy has been one of my few true vices that has helped keep me sane over the years.
What nobody told me is just how tedious and soul-destroying the whole Ebay listing process is. You take your picture, load it up, write up a description, find the right category to put it in, work out how much the listing, the postage and the packing is going to cost you. I managed to put up less than 30 items in two days. All for the lousy 99p you get if nobody starts a bidding war. I could charge a hell of a lot more for freelance tech support, game design or music tuition. I wonder why the hell I bother - either I'm rubbish and I'm missing something, or the process is designed that way on purpose. Goddamnit.
On a more positive closing note, the new Bond Quantum of Solace is just around the corner and it looks awesome. So awesome in fact that I may have to go and see it twice.
"Sorry guys, all that positive stuff we told you at the beginning of the summer was actually bullshit. We're nowhere near profitability like we thought, and so to appeas our shareholders and get back on track we've just fired two people and they've already left the building."
I paraphrase of course, but that was pretty much the message. Apparently the company needs to reduce its outgoings by 40,000 by January 2009, which is when our shareholders were told we'd be profitable. What happens then if that *doesn't* happen is a bit of a mystery, but it will unlikely be good news.
I have consoled myself by telling myself that I am indispensable, being the only person who a) has in-depth knowledge of the platform, and b) who has the patience and the anal-retentive attention to detail to keep it running. It is probably a mistake however to take this for granted, but I'm not quite sure what else I'm supposed to do about it. One card I have up my sleeve (or perhaps more accurately, a dagger) is that my immediate boss, our CTO, is a complete idiot, and the only reason our technical dept. hasn't gone completely off the rails is because I keep checking him every step of the way. I have however grown quite comfortable as a decision-influencer, rather than a decision-maker and I'm not sure how much I'd relish being in his shoes.
As a stop-gap solution I have decided to finally pull my finger out and start selling off some of the crap I have here at home. When I say crap, I mean books, games, comics etc. that are surplus to requirements. In actual fact, most of it is *actually* surplus to requirements, but my hunter-gatherer streak is pretty strong, and retail therapy has been one of my few true vices that has helped keep me sane over the years.
What nobody told me is just how tedious and soul-destroying the whole Ebay listing process is. You take your picture, load it up, write up a description, find the right category to put it in, work out how much the listing, the postage and the packing is going to cost you. I managed to put up less than 30 items in two days. All for the lousy 99p you get if nobody starts a bidding war. I could charge a hell of a lot more for freelance tech support, game design or music tuition. I wonder why the hell I bother - either I'm rubbish and I'm missing something, or the process is designed that way on purpose. Goddamnit.
On a more positive closing note, the new Bond Quantum of Solace is just around the corner and it looks awesome. So awesome in fact that I may have to go and see it twice.
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
aesirr:
Cheers bud, I think I will.
leola:
Haha, no... it's therapy based on the key existential givens - that life is essentially meaningless (we create our own), that we are ultimately alone, that we are ultimately free and that the only thing we can be certain of is that we will die.