Survived To Fight Another Day

Today was D-Day at work. The 15 contractors on the team met with the manager 1-on-1 in 5 minute intervals. The main topic of discussion was will our contracts be renewed after the first of the year and for how long.

We were told about 60 days ago that 1 of the fifteen would be hired full time and 3 let go leaving 11 contractors. Since then the company announced large cut backs in the over all work force. 350 full time positions are to be eliminated by the end of the first quarter 2010. With that news it seemed obvious that the one of the contractors was not going to be hired and 4 were going to be let go.

I was the third one to meet with the manager. I was told I was one of the eleven and to expect to be on for all of 2010. An obvious relief for me. Back in 2002 I was laid off at the end of the tech bubble bursting. There was such a flood of programmers on the market - tech bubble bursting and the end of the Y2K conversions - that it took me 14 months to find a another job. When I did find work I was terribly under employed (read: under paid) for my experience and skill set.

This morning I thought I was ready for the worst case scenario. As I was waiting for my turn in the hot seat though I found my palms all sweaty and my heart rate up a bit. Clearly, I don't want to do that again. If it had happened to me now it would have been a lot harder to deal with. In 2002 I was renting and could find cheaper housing when I needed to. The mortgage isn't going away.

Of the other contractors not many people are talking at this point. I know the fate of my two friends. One is in the same position as me. The other is being renewed but with less confidence of how long he will stay on. One other contractor let me know she was being let go. I suspected she might be one of the 4. I have some speculation on the other 3 but I don't know. The names will come out soon enough.

For now I'll just be content with having survived to fight on.