Once upon a time - just over four years ago, to be approximately precise - I started working for a lively startup company full of highly-motivated, interesting people. I thought of starting a blog then, to record a fictionalized account of my adventures, but of course there wasn't time.
Well, time has passed, and the startup company got bought out by an established company (for stock, not cash), and our stock options are underwater, and we've had three years of layoffs, and a few months ago Upper Management finally acknowledged what the rest of us had known for a year: the local operation has long since been cut beyond the point of no return, and is to be closed down by the end of September.
So, here it is mid-July, and my severance package is finally vesting! One more work day to pack up the stuff from my office (fortunately, most of it is company stuff, and can stay here and be Somebody Else's Problem) and finish bundling up projects for those who will inherit them. Then, a token morning appearance for my exit interview, and it's time to go fishing!
There's a big difference between a startup company and a shutdown company. No working late at night, with dinner brought in; no mad dash to get a decent parking space in the morning. There are maybe 200 people still here (for another day and a half), rattling around in a building complex meant for 3000 or so. Empty offices, dark labs, and the only sign of bustle is in areas where the movers are packing up the equipment.
These empty halls should be good for something. I've suggested turning a hallway into a bowling alley or an archery range, but that didn't go over too well.
When I was a King and a Mason - in the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a Word from the Darkness - they whispered and called me aside.
They said - "The end is forbidden." They said - "Thy use is fulfilled.
"Thy Palace shall stand as that other's - the spoil of a King who shall build."I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my sheers;
All I had wrought I abandoned, to the faith of the faithless years.
Only I cut on the timber - only I carved on the stone:
"After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known."- Rudyard Kipling, "The Palace"
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