The fight for diverse and conscious voices

No sense putting this off any longer

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 19:18:40 GMT

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.

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What a difference a (job) makes

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 15:00:13 GMT

Work is stressing me out. Yesterday I had a meeting with Boss #2 in which he productively suggested some ways of responding to the things that are stressing me out. This morning I have mail from Boss #1 in which he agrees we should meet to talk over those components of the stress that need to be addressed at his level.

I don't know if any of this will solve the problem, but damn it's nice to feel like there are other people willing to help me push these boulders uphill.

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Pointer update

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 17:17:21 GMT

I've been meaning to post this all week but Things Keep Happening and my emotional spoons are near zero. There's a lot to say here and I think I'll divide it into three bits. First the facts, then the story, then the backstory. That way at least some of it will get written. So...

Monday, about an hour before my dad called to tell me my aunt had died, I handed in my resignation at work. My last day at Aspen will be April 1, ironically my exact sixth anniversary. It's a little odd to leave on a Monday but that's Sprint End for a couple of my major projects and makes it easier to put a neat bow on a couple things. Mostly I'm in back-to-back meetings trying to hand over as much of my work as I feasibly can.

I'll be going to work for PTC down in Boston's Seaport district. If you work downtown and want to do lunch or something let me know. The commute is going to suck rocks but there's WFH options and a transport reimbursement policy to ease the pain. There are some other nice perks; we'll see what the actual working conditions are like once I'm settled in there. I promise to update.

I will be a Design Director for them, which is a definite step up the ladder for me and one of my motivations for going. The core truth is that I'm sad to leave Aspen and the friends I've made here, but it was (past) time and I'm looking forward to new challenges.

Ping me if you want contact info once I get it, or if you want to socialize.

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