Nuts & Bolts

Where's the beef! I actually had something going on Wed night and last night I was just so stressed out, I wanted nothing more then a few hours of World of Warcraft and an early bed time. Wed night, Andrea and I went over to my brothers’ new apartment to watch 300 on High Def DVD. Strangely, no one had seen it yet but me. My brother must have just been really busy around the time it came out and never got around to seeing it in the theaters. Everyone enjoyed it, and Andrea said it was "the best movie she had seen in a long time." I was a bit surprised at that reaction, but then I realized that the movie is 90% hot half naked guys walking around... Maybe not so hard to understand. :-)

Yesterday was just very stressful at work. We have so much work that needs to be done and not enough time to do it. Or not enough time to test it properly. Instead of giving us more time or scaling back the work, they just keep pouring more on. Everyone has a breaking point, where you just have to stand up and say SOMETHING. As if that wasn't enough, we also had a company meeting. You see, our CEO is leaving the company. He is taking an even higher position in the parent company.

Before I go on my rant, I need to clarify my true feelings about CEOs. I love CEOs. I admire CEOs. Without CEOs, I wouldn't have a dime to my name. I thank every CEO I've ever had for giving me the opportunity to put money in his pocket. Because without someone willing to spend their entire life building and running a company, I wouldn't have a job. Having said that, the life of the grunt is starting to make me wonder.

After his goodbye speech, I was reminded how much of a cog in a machine I really am. Hell, not even a cog. More like... a washer. No matter how good I can do my job, it's hard to convince myself that it has any real effect. The machine will keep rolling along, ideally making lots of money, and keeping me employed for a long time. But even if I'm the best damn programmer, things can change in a heart beat. That's the part that keeps me up at night.

Consider my experiences, driving my thoughts: (or as I like to call it, "The Facts")

My first company did layoffs in 2001 and again in 2007. I found out the department I worked for at my first job was completely off-shored, so even though I survived the 2001 layoffs, I most likely would have been gone on the second round.

My second company off-shored the department I worked in shortly after I left. (and some even say, as a direct result of me leaving)

How long until my current job is off-shored? Some programmer in India who can work twice the hours for half the pay? How long until I'm obsolete?