No sense putting this off any longer

[drwex]

I was laid off from work this week (official last day Friday). I see that I didn't post a lot about the changes at PTC, though I've talked to a couple people about it. The short form is that there were a series of reorganizations that led to me having three bosses in the year I worked there.

There was a voluntary RIF a few months ago that I should have taken - the package was quite generous. Having been there less than a year and not wanting to go back to job hunting I passed. Stupid me. 20/20 hindsight.

People inside say that PTC stands for Prepare To Change. They're not wrong. The reorganizations left me with no people reporting to me and no idea what I was supposed to be in charge of. I saw the handwriting on the wall months ago, after the first big reorg put three of the people like me in one group. I thought I had navigated the rocky shoals - some of which were of my making - but no. They also let a visual designer and a UX designer go from the design team, as well as a couple of people working on close-associated projects. I heard that PM got hit particularly hard.

This is possibly the worst time to be unemployed since I was out of work for an extended stretch during the dot-bomb era. I predict that companies are going to turtle up and not hire until the COVID-19 situation is resolved. I doubt that'll be before May.

Obviously, if you know of UX/Design jobs please send them my way but more than that I could use companionship and interaction.

Comments

[chhotii]

There was that thing on Twitter about how to stay sane while working at home? And one of the recommendations, IIRC, was to get regular social interaction. I'm finding it really quiet and lonely being at home all day most days. I've been beating myself up for not being more productive, but perhaps I should realize that lack of social interaction causes more depressive brain chemistry and so it's actually physiological.

So, I'm considering forming an "unemployed susboids" club. We should get together and talk about job hunting. We might veer off into talking about grad school and Arisia. What do you think about that idea?

Of course, with the epidemic, getting together with people and seeing actual real people in the flesh is maybe a bit frowned upon? This is depressing. I don't know what to do about that.

[drwex]

Yes, regular social interaction is a thing we all need. A social club would be great - once upon a very long time ago what became the Diesel gathering started because a lot of us were unemployed and could go sit in a cafe that would let us hog tables as long as we bought a beverage or cake now and then.

Given the COVID-19 situation we could use some online tools. It's not like we're not all geeks with Slack and hangouts and whatnot, y'know?