I alluded to some changes at my work in this post yesterday. Earlier today I indicated that I might get the news as soon as today.
I got the news but it was as clear as mud. In the near future, I will either be looking for a new job or I might end up staying with my company or I might go to the outsourcer. There are so many options it really is amazing how this is coming down. As for how it will play out, it will probably be another long road.
For now, I am on the road and there is a fork in that road and I have to choose which path to take. Hopefully there are no cliffs waiting on any of those paths.
My co-workers are telling me that the detailed news is beginning to filter down. The axe is swinging.
I guess it will be good to finally get the news and move on. No one likes uncertainty. If they are letting me go with a package, great. I’ll start looking for another job as soon as I can. In the past, others have taken a year off. I would be bored. I might decide to use some time to learn a few new things but I could not just sit around the house. It would be like trying retirement early and I’m just not ready for that!
So, let’s see what today brings us.
I keep hearing about the US credit crisis and I keep thinking about what caused the problems. Sure, there was greed by the bankers to make money by having more mortgages get approved so it looked like the banks were making a killing. But there has to be more to it than that.
I think the globalization of the work force is having a major impact on this. Think about it. Many high paid jobs are being outsourced to other countries to reduce costs for the companies. Workers are laid off and they are forced to find new jobs. Odds are those jobs will be for less money in many cases. I bet that there has been a steady downward trend in salaries of American workers, if you factor in those who have become unemployed and you factor in inflation.
I would bet that those low mortgage rates were put in to keep American’s housing market afloat so that these people who were displaced could keep their houses or so that immigrants could afford to buy a house.
Now that the economy has turned sour, we see more job losses because of that and so those people can no longer afford their houses. Mortgage rates are going up so people renewing have to abandon their homes.
If this does not turn into a catastrophe in the short term, I think it will in the long term. The Great Depression may seem like a period of prosperity compared to what we may see in the future.
I truly believe that this has to do with the globalization of the work force. We are basically going to see a flattening out of the curve of haves and have nots. We will see the US (and other countries) come way down in the curve and we will see more of a flat line between more of the countries. Then, I predict we will see those “former” emerging countries begin to climb a little and maybe even begin to surpass the US. If those countries can take all the knowledge they have acquired, they can start companies to compete and beat North American and European countries and they can begin to rise up.
If you think about it, the US economy is basically like a single “stock”. Those buying into it want it to have huge percentage growth and to merge with others to increase that growth and profit and a company, let alone a country, cannot achieve that forever. At some point, a company will merge with another to keep the “dream alive”. Can the US merge with other countries to “keep the dream alive” or will someone come along and perform a hostile takeover? That’s the big question we’ll see answered in the next 5 - 10 years.
Many months ago (10), we started hearing that our company was thinking about out-sourcing it’s IT functions. Not to worry we were told, it is just part of due diligence to make sure the right thing is being done. A few months pass and we learned that they would be pursuing it by talking with some vendors and seeing if it might actually makes sense. We were told not to worry, it would all be done in the best interest of the company. A few more months pass and we were told that “yes, it makes sense” but it needed to be approved by the powers so nothing was official so no one should draw any conclusions from what was happening (e.g. don’t quit). And there was no guarantee that they would reach a contract with the company they decided to go with. A few weeks pass.
Guess what happened?
Of course, they signed a contract with the outsourcer and it was approved by the “powers”. Again, we were told not to make any assumptions about what might happen and to just wait.
Again, a few weeks pass. This time the official revelation of the plan was completed. Most people would be transitioned to the outsourcer but only in specific countries. Other staff would not be moving to the outsourcer but our positions would be moving. Again, we were told not to jump to conclusions.
At some point we’ll get official notification as to what will happen to each of us. For me, I’ve stayed where I am because I’ve invested too much time to jump ship. But I’ve seen many co-workers bow out and leave early. I am not surprised. Who wants to wait for a good “kick” out the door or worse, go to another company you don’t know and didn’t seek out.
Many of the IT jobs are going to these large out-sourcing companies where IT seems like a fast-food industry.
But does it make sense to actually go to the service provider and take a job there? Can it be beneficial? I think it can be but it really is based on your own attitude. You might get a road block put up in front of you, but you can get around it. Be open to it and see what happens.
The good news is that there really are lots of IT jobs out there, if you have good business knowledge and some technical skills to put to use.
What am I going to do? Well, my hands are tied. I’m in one of those countries where going to the outsourcer seems unlikely. So I’ll wait to see what happens. Perhaps they will make me an offer anyway. Or perhaps they won’t and I’ll be forced out the door.
I’m already taking steps to ease that pain if it happens. If it is happening to you, you should do what you can to ease it as well. Join a professional organization, make sure you’ve got lots of contacts for when you are gone and read as many industry magazines, blogs and news articles as you can. The more knowledge you have, the better off you’ll be.
This morning I visited a site that had a Google Advertising block at the top of the page. The links were related to fixing problems with your web browser. It made me think about the site I was visiting and about Google and about users.
I hadn’t really thought about it too much but then I realized I NEVER click a Google sponsored link. I trust Google “search” 100% and it is the only search I use but I don’t trust the sponsored links at all.
Why? I find that most of the sponsored links are for sites or products that I would not trust nor use. I think I started to feel that way because I often see ads for products to remove viruses and spyware and I know that those links almost always point to products or sites that will actually infect your computer.
My hunch is that most people DO trust the Google sponsored links because they figure that if Google approved them, they must be good. But the reality is that there are no checks on those to make sure the products are good, just like an ad in the newspaper.
What does Google need to do? I think they need to actually take the time to review who they are taking their money from. Their reputation is based on the trust that people have in them. Look at how they’ve started to put warnings up about suspicious web sites.
What do you think? Am I not seeing the whole picture? Are most sponsored links really not a problem?
I used to be really into to Microsoft Windows Live (formerly MSN) Messenger but I grew out of it and so did my contacts. Today I still keep myself logged in but I rarely see any messages from friends.
In order to make sure i don’t miss new friends messaging me, I don’t have the program set up to block everyone by default.
In the last several months you’d think I was Mister Popular though! I must get at least 10 messages a day from people who think I’m “hot” or who think I can fix their computer problems!
This morning I woke up to find 8 open windows from different people! Here are some of my “new friends”. 
Debora and Lessie says:
I cant upload my pics to msn for some reason! But I want to chat with you.
you can find me on my personal page ********
my name is kelly
Krystal says:
hey cutie a friend of mine showed me yer pic - youre really hot! you should get on *******~ my profile name is kindakinky773
if u meet me on there soon i’ll get on my cam and we can have some fun!!
Rosetta says:
ijcqiaosmzHello there take a look at ****
Stefanie says:
hey my friend is new to town send her a message on msn messengor her names ******* and ask her for her pic shes cute i promise lol
Now, I have to assume that all of these messages are targeting teenagers and that the people who send these are all non-English speaking or illiterate people since the writing is awful.
Doesn’t Microsoft realize that this stuff is rampant on the site? Wouldn’t you think they would come up with a way to thwart this? You would think they would implement a more sophisticated form of CAPTCHA to at least slow them down.
I’m almost at the point where I want to just move totally to Yahoo Messenger. This type of thing happens there too but only a few times a week instead of 10 times a day.
Most people still have not moved to Blu-Ray DVD yet. The format war with HD-DVD ended with a bang but the end result has been very little traction in the Blu-Ray world.
I have an HD TV so I could get a Blu-Ray player and start collecting movies in that format. But I’m not going to do that yet. I cannot justify buying movies now that I can only watch on one TV and no where else. Even my family doesn’t have Blu-Ray so I can’t bring a movie to someone else’s house.
What’s going to make me switch? Honestly, the only thing that would make me switch would be if someone handed me a bunch of HD TVs for my house and replaced all my other players. Our van a regular DVD player in it. If I bought only Blu-Ray disks, it would be useless, except to watch old movies.
I’ve heard some people make the case that you should just be selective in the Blu-Ray movies that you buy since not all are worthy of the format. But I don’t want to have to think about which format to buy for each movie. In the end, that is probably what will happen, but I don’t see it happening in 2008 and probably not in 2009 either, unless some of my other TVs start to fail and I have to replace them.
I just had two fabulous weeks of vacation out in the quiet cottage country of Ontario (the Haliburton cottage country) and I cam back refreshed! It is amazing what two weeks of no stress can do to a person.
I came back to work ready to focus on the tasks in front of me. Unfortunately, I got a smack in the face. I had forgotten what was going on at my work until I read an email on Monday night and then it all came back to me. Even the IT world is not safe these days. We’ll see what comes to pass. Perhaps it will be for the best.
Along with my being refreshed, I realized how relatively easy it was to be away from the world of computers. Sure I missed some aspects and I’ve been catching up on things I missed. But while i was gone, I really didn’t miss it. I guess if you choose to leave it behind, it is really not so bad. Of course, if something really bad happened and there was no more computers / Internet, I’d probably be like a junkie, looking for a fix.
I fell in love with Sirius radio while I was away. Two friends came to stay with us for the week and they brought the wonderful device. Ah … real music of pretty much any type, when you want it! It was nice to hear the top music and then not hear it played 20 times a day. I think I may just invest in that instead of an iPhone.
I’ve been peering into the world of SmartPhones and trying to decide which way to go. I’ve decided not to necessarily stick with Rogers, my current provider, and possibly switch. But we’ll see.
I’m still looking for a Smart Phone that has GPS and WiFi and a keyboard of some sort but that doesn’t charge a huge premium for Internet access and one that actually allows you to use Internet applications.
That’s all for now. The fishing is all done (didn’t catch anything worth mentioning).
Literally! I really am going fishing … and swimming and reading and relaxing!
See you on the other side of vacation!
July 11th has come and gone and I don’t have an iPhone. I wanted one and the 6GB for $30 offer really tempted me.
But then I thought about how I would use the phone.
80% of the time it would be as an iPod. I have one of the latest gens of the Nano. I love it because it is small.
10% of the time it would be as a Phone. I have one of those and, hey, it makes calls and receives calls!
10% of the time I would use it for remote Internet access. I don’t have that today, other than the Rogers browser.
So when I thought about it I realized that if I got it, the following would change:
1) I’d have to carry a larger Ipod around with me and a larger phone (I have a clam shell small phone today). Most likely I’d have to get an external carry case because today I put both devices in my pocket and I don’t think the iPhone in a pocket would be a good idea.
2) I’d start surfing the net wherever I was and checking email everywhere, even on vacation at my trailer. I’d become a slave to the Internet. If I resisted that, I’d basically be paying for the iPhone when I didn’t really need it.
Finally, work is getting so crazy lately that they might start wanting me to get a Smart Phone anyway and the iPhone isn’t likely to be an approved device. Then I’d have to carry around my iPhone and a Blackberry or a Treo. Too many gadgets.
If I had my own business or if I was single and had a really busy social life, I would have jumped. But as a married guy with a child and working for a large company that won’t accept an iPhone, it really doesn’t make any sense.
Something that might make me change my mind would be if there as turn-by-turn GPS added because I don’t have a GPS right now and don’t really want to have a separate device for that.
Has anyone else come to this same type of conclusion?
