Sorry Jeff:

I used to do consulting myself and I'm glad I'm out of it right now. We're so slow it's scary.

FWIW, Thomas Sowell has written a great book on late talkers. IIRC he asserts that it's a sign of intellect.

what's a late talker?

David Letterman
Jay Leno
Conan O'Brien
Craig Ferguson
Jimmy Kimmel
Spike Fersten
Carson Daly

There is a lot of that going around. I'm still employed - for now.

Good luck in the job hunt Jeff.

Ian

Sorry to hear that Jeff.

On the positive side - you're young, not weighed down with kids or mortgages, and have a lot of experience at different things.

Jeff, sorry to hear the bad news.
I'm feeling the pinch too, but i am just a one pony show so i can't lay myself off
Let me rephrase that... i can't fire myself.
I don't think 2009 can be any worse than 2008, but we'll see what the new administration has in store for us small business owners.
I hope you find something that suits your abilities.

Join us, Jeff

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/448988-psup-pelican-society-unemployed-people.html#post4390151

Sorry to hear. It does suck.

If the Gubermint goes ahead with it's economic stimulus package, those companies positioned to win government contracts will be looking for folks like you. When you are ready, start finding contacts so they know you are available. When (if?) the bucks start flowing, you want to be in a position to be picked up.

Best of luck.

Tuesday evening my wife and I had dinner with an architect, her husband and their young son. She works for a non-profit organization (supported by foundation money) that is promoting more efficient buildings and housing on a national basis. She stated that the country was way over built in terms of real estate and built for business models and ways-of-living that are likely to become obsolete for various reasons (mainly technology and quality of life). Her organization has been meeting with representatives of Congress and the new administration. They are proposing a work stimulus/energy efficiency improvement/carbon foot print reduction program to the government that would motivate home owners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes through a program of mortgage interest rate buy downs. For every level of improvement the mortgage interest rate drops with homes reaching the highest standard of efficiency qualifying for a 1% mortgage rate for example. The costs of the needed improvements/renovations would be offset by reduced monthly mortgage payments and smaller future utility costs. The economy would benefit from the jobs created in this effort, the country would reduce its dependence on foreign energy supplies and we could burn less coal in this country. The overall quality of the country's housing stock would be improved. Home renovation has always seemed to be very inefficient as compared to new construction so there may be big gains to be had in developing better ways to do it. There would seem to be significant work and opportunities for architects, builders, craftsmen, construction laborers and technical innovators if such a program goes forward. Best wishes for a good 2009. Jim

What is that, like one day lead time?

That sucks.

Most companies will want a recently laid-off / fire employee to leave the premises as soon as possible upon notification. This is to insure that security to their network system is maintain. They however will give a serverance package base on the number of years of service.

If you notice that IT is backing up your pc at work more often, consider that a wake up call that you are about to be terminated.

Our IT guy got laid off too and frankly, I probably had overall more computer/network experience than he did anyway. Mostly I just never flaunted it because I didn't want to get pegged as the "office CAD guy" or whatever (happened to me at a past job - I ended up spending 2/3 of my time chasing down computer problems and fixing network glitches and only 1/3 of my time doing actual design/production work). Years ago (90s) I was really into computers and stuff - now I've become more anti-technology and don't find the stuff nearly as fun or interesting. But I'm still fair around a network in any case.

This was a small office so there's a lot of trust involved. I realize there always COULD be the potential for someone to sabotage or whatever, but it'd be pretty easy to figure out who and doing so would only mean they shoot themselves in the foot insofar as a reference. I just don't see it as a realistic thing. Possible, but very unlikely. There isn't much they could REALLY do that would be much more than an inconvenience anyway and means that the few people staying on to "tie up the loose ends" wouldn't fix anyway (they lose a day of work maybe).

I agree we're WAY overbuilt as a society. Retail in particular. In the future I see work/projects (if any) being adaptive reuse or creative ways of reconfiguring existing buildings into other/alternate uses. Obviously some attention to energy efficiency and LEED standards as well. My best leads right now are in the area of civic/municipal/state type work, although I'm going to give one of my old firms a call and see if they can use me again (they did mostly telecom/critical infrastructure stuff).

Things look really, really bad out there. As bad as I've ever seen or heard of. It's very, very bleak. But I also can't imagine that we as a society will just let things keep sliding and sliding and sliding into despair so bad that our whole way of life completely collapses. I realize it COULD happen, but I just don't see it as especially realistic. Things are bad, they will continue to get bad, but eventually people just get sick of being miserable, start looking for positive "rays of sunshine" and when they start finding them/seeing them, it becomes the genesis for a turnaround (basic economics - positive attitudes become "self fulfilling prophecies" of positive consumer habits and vise-versa). Right now it's just working in reverse - everyone's scared schitless so they're not doing anything, not spending, not LIVING, which is paralyzing the economy and making businesses shut down and lay off people, which in turn scares people, etc. Catch-22. Well-known and well-documented.

Eventually things will turn. I still love the practice of architecture and design, but I wonder if it's what I'll ultimately end up doing. It's truly a noble profession and seeks to make us better as a society - not many can really say that. Most just seek to take. Architecture seeks to give - at its core. It really does. But if we as a society can't value it or don't appreciate it or can't support it - I have to look elsewhere.

The hunt starts in earnest tomorrow/Monday. Right now I'm just taking it easy and building up my mental toughness to stay resilient and not give up or despair. I'll emerge from this stronger and better off - I just don't know how yet. It's "psyche-up before the fight" time.

This is what you call building your mental toughness?
Sorry to hear about losing your job, especially at Christmas time; but I truly believe the most important thing is our attitudes. If you believe it's bad, then it's bad. You need to decide that 2009 will be the greatest year for you; then focus your attention on being happy. I don't think you need the money, so go out and do something you enjoy. Life's too short to be miserable.

When you cut a blade of grass, it grows back. The world is an abundant source of positive energy and all you have to do is tap into it. So your grass got cut? It's gonna grow back and possibly healthier and stronger, if you allow it. Put your focus on what you want!

good luck in the job search for you and the others in the same situation.

Pipe dream.

Might be a Pipe Dream, but so were flat panel displays.

Saw an episode of the original twilight zone in which a flat panel was use in the story. This had to be 40 or 50 years ago when black and white TV was the norm and color was the exception.

The story was about a women who was consider ugly because she didn't look like the rest of society. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

One person dream is another person reality.

Wow, talk about a Milt-down ;)

Thanks Rob - I agree with you on the attitude thing. If you go back and re-read what I wrote, I think you'll see I actually believe in that too. Unfortunately right now there's a lot of negative energy out there. I just don't want it to get on me, ya' know? But to be Pollyana-ish and pretend it's all just rosy out there is simply to deny reality. Yes, it's bad out there. It's extremely bad. But it's not bad everywhere and it's not bad for everyone. I just need to figure out who's doing well and where, and try and tap it. It's a temporary state and a temporary setback. It ain't the end of the world. I know I'm a pretty smart guy with a real passion and a lot of drive. That counts for a lot. I've got good credentials and experience and a good educational background. That counts for a lot too. Eventually either (1) someone will realize it and want to hire me on because they see me as a big potential asset or (2) I'll figure out a way to build my own business/client base (which is kinda' where my heart lies anyway I think...)

Can't say I didn't see this one coming either. I brought up the subject of diversification to my former boss on several occasions. In one ear and right out the other. He couldn't be bothered. I decided a while ago I probably was going to eventually have to get out of this place anyway, so in a way it's just a catylist and perhaps prevented any prolonging of misery or drawn-out wasting of my time by staying put just because of convenience/perceived comfort.

There's a lot more to this story that I'm leaving out (I have a few things in my personal life that I've not posted about here that make the timing of this particular event not so great right now) but I'm trying to just let those things become motivators, rather than loci for worry.

Very good advice. I will definitely put irons into those fires starting tomorrow. Thanks.