The buzzards are circling…

Literally, in the back parking lot, there are buzzards. There must be something dead… somebody probably finally hit one of those crazy rabbits that like to train across the road. Wonder if it was Jason, leaving here last night well after 10pm, because he’d been working on figuring out some lame form handler one of our long former engineers wrote.

Yesterday was… strange. I swear my brain is permanently off or something. I have so very much work to do that I can’t think straight. Cannot prioritize. I spend all my time “putting out fires” all day of things that “have to be done now” that I never seem to get to the day to day work, and thus it is piling up. And now we add to that my increased role in new site setup, where they are anticipating we will soon be able to crank out three to four per day.

I just overheard someone on the phone… “Let me check with Kim on that and see how that would work out… ” Wonder who they’re talking to. Wonder what it is. Wonder if I should go hide.

So, Jason didn’t “sneak” out like he wanted. I was bad. I went to the store and I bought a lovely “good luck” card and had everyone sign it before he even managed to drag ass in to work for his last day. The non-engineering, hell, the non-Bailey’s gang of the office were shocked/surprised to find out it was Jason’s last day. Babysitter Jonathan looked at the card I wanted him to sign and said, “No way! Today?!? Does Paul know?!?” It was also our big FNIS catered luncheon/farewell Jim day, but several of us left before food and went to Baileys for a last day of pool. We ate big fat meals and got desserts and took our time. We tapped the last of the Bailey’s cash, but it was a farewell lunch.

[15:09] Kim J: OMG… did you look at your card yet? i have to tell you something funny about that
[15:12] Jason Churchill: tell me
[15:12] Jason Churchill: breast wishes?
[15:12] Kim J: okay… Jackie.
[15:12] Kim J: I went to get her to sign it, and she says “oh that Jason. he’s always been such a cutie, but i could never tell him so. I love his hair. I want to write something funny, but i dont guess it would be appropriate….
[15:13] Kim J: so i ask her what she wanted to write… and she said “good luck in hawaii, hope you get leied”
[15:13] Jason Churchill: hah

Then much work ensued. Too much work. Trying to show some FNIS Hawaii guy my role in new sites was making me crazy. He’s all like, “so how could we improve what you do?” “why don’t you just do this?” “that seems like the long way…” which were all getting on my last nerve. Each time, I had to explain to him why we do things like we do, he would understand, but then still add, “Somebody should fix that.” Yeah, well, somebody should, shouldn’t they. Aren’t you a programmer?

Oh yeah.. failed to mention, my new “helper” from Hawaii … we’ll see how long this lasts… but my “helper” who will be doing what I do, as far as new site setup, not design, is their last surviving Java programmer. They relocate him from New York to Honolulu, then shortly after, layoff the whole rest of his team. “That project is on indefinite hold.” Uh huh. He tells us the .net project Jason was supposedly being relocated for is on hold, too. “If it’s not profitable, it’s not being done right now.” So, Jason is really relocating out to do what he already did here, but with this new “helper” dude instead of me. Geoffrey will be contracted here to continue to play the role of Jason, so when all is said and done, we’ll have two “new site” teams, one east-coast, one pacific-islands, to crank out new crappy websites that customers don’t even want, but still pay for, which nobody has time to support, because it’s all about the money.

Headcount reduction…
It was a bullet point in a less-than-impressive powerpoint presentation given to us by our new Division Manager (a boy named Lynn) during our luncheon. Lynn’s from San Francisco, a short, stocky, “sweet” black man, who will tell you flat out that he doesn’t know much about real estate. Guess that’s why they put him in charge of the Real Estate Division. Lynn can talk, though… he can redirect your question into a discussion about how well FNIS stock is doing every time, even if it’s a question about the weather. Thus, his skimming past the headcount reduction section by merely saying “We all know this basic rule of how to make the numbers look better on a per employee basis, right? So, we’re going to continue doing that.”

The non-“bullshit” translation of which is, oh yeah, we’re going to be firing most of your asses, better make sure what you’re doing for us is making money. The words in the powerpoint presentation said: “Headcount reduction: 154-141 current / reduce to 130 by June.” Well, dear “sweet” Lynn, about a minute after skimming over the headcount reduction, let slip that if all goes well, Friday he’ll be flying out to Las Vegas to sign the contracts on another FNIS company acquisition which will add many folks to our Real Estate Division team. Thus, not only will they be reducing the current staff by eleven more souls by June, but apparently also by the number of souls we are about to acquire in Las Vegas as well… if they’re going to make those numbers. And they will make those numbers. That’s the bottom line.

More work “scandal”… it seems within the next year the ENTIRE Los Angeles office is being relocated to Florida. So much for Atlanta being the only Eastern Time Zone office. “Sure, they’ll keep us open.. they want the call center to be in this time zone….” *cough* *hack* *beach* So, who knows… work life is up in the air. Our lease here doesn’t expire until 2005, says Jackie.

So at 6:45 pm, I started the walk for the back door. Had to leave before I just broke down and cried from stress. Marc walked me out. Jason was packing books into his truck, so he wouldn’t forget them. I took the opportunity to give him the going away presents privately out back. He growled at me for getting him stuff, but laughed at the notes I’d put on everything telling why he needed it. “An organizer to keep your shit together, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because you’ll need reading material on the plane & you’ll miss towel day, a Maxim mag because it was cheaper than the blow up doll I threatened you with, another card, and finally Dating for Dummies so maybe you can get it right out there in Hawaii.” We were both looking like we were gonna tear up. I was going to go back in and help him finish up the form stuff, since it was for me anyway, but he wouldn’t let me. He gave me a hug and told me to go home so he could get stuff done. This morning there’s just a little yoda keychain here.

This post is turning into a novel. I have so much to gripe and whine about. I have some sort of alternative cheese to look forward to tonight, but I don’t know where yet. Maggie leaves today for OK, and James leave Sunday for SC. Get the house to myself for at least a few nights. Wonder what I’ll do…