11 Apr 2010
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts
Changes afoot
I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better. – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
After 7 years and 3 weeks, it is time for me to move on from my current employer. On Friday, I was given a severance package and I left my job as a process improvement engineer and measurement specialist. The past couple of years have been difficult as the company has struggled to find new work in the weak global economy and has laid off over 250 individuals reducing the staff from about 640 two years ago to under 400 today. Declining morale has been an issue as the layoffs and bleak prospects for new work have taken a toll. My group has struggled to find a clear vision and I’ve been thinking about a change for some time. When the company sought volunteers to take layoff packages, I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to make a change that I’ve been needing to make.
Not that my departure was simple; the company made a last ditch effort to try to keep me on. On my planned last day, a week ago, the HR Director asked if I’d stay an extra week to allow the company the time to prepare an offer to stay. Well, the week went by and the offer amounted to simply continuing in my current role. I’d not chosen to accept a layoff package idly, so it wasn’t too hard to turn down this “second chance”.
Over the next few weeks, my plan is to take some time to recharge and reflect then to seek new challenges that capitalize on some of the skills and abilities that I’ve acquired in the past 7 years. The severance package is sufficient to allow this to be one of those rare chances to evaluate what is, to contemplate what could be and to prepare for opportunity.
