A Year a go, I "left" the corporate job at Harris, My thoughts

Hello all,

I am sitting out on the deck amongst the trees of the forest. The moon is rising, as I can see it peek through the trunks of the trees up on the hill behind me. It is not as quiet here as it can be, the dogs in the neighborhood are barking. Mr. Bear must be roaming about.

Anyway, I am writing to reflect my thoughts of 1 year of non-corporate life and the events that led up to it.

A little background. I worked at Harris, Inc. in the Broadcast Division. when I was downsized. I had "survived" many layoffs in the past, but the months leading up to year ago, I had a feeling that my time had come to move on.

A couple of clues:
In Spring of 2008, I was showing Vice President Bob Duncan some of the good work I did. He seemed very pleased with my work (great!) but kept asking if I was the only one working on this project. I said essentially yes, and it concerned him. The director John Patrick was also in this meeting, and well never mind...

Following that it seemed like I was setup to fail. Prior, I was given lots of respect, but it then felt like the project was on life support. It is funny thinking back on that project, on how I stressed about it, and how I wanted it to so much to succeed. Oh well.

In July of 2008 I approached HR asking that I was not happy with the project (and manager) and would like to switch projects. As a good HR person would do, she said OK, and will see what she could do. I'm sure she knew what was going on. I don't blame her, it is all part of the game.

I was asked many times by my manager if I would consider moving back to Denver. I flatly said NO, that I was established in Telluride and I would not consider it. That was the nail in my 5 year stay at Harris.

I was then asked to book a immediate flight to Budapest Hungary, where all the rest of the team on my project was located. I went out of my way to book a 2 week trip, even traveling on a weekend to maximize the amount of face time with my Hungarian peers.

During this time, the goal was to train a co-worker in what I had done, so he could help develop the project WITH me. Wow, that would be great. When leaving for the trip the HR person said, "Make sure you have some fun also while over there". Hmmmm... Ironically, a lot was learnt on both sides on how to stream line the project. I was starting to feel good about it again. Yet, a part of me knew, that this was the last time I would be over there on Budapest. I proceeded like it wasn't the end and I put thoughts on how I would continue the new relationships. The last day at the office in Budapest, I had lunch with the Development Manager over there. Great guy, I spoke to him saying that this may be the last time I speak to him. He honestly seemed surprised.

I arrived back in Telluride on Sunday, the following Monday morning at 8 am, I get the call from HR.
Hello this is so and so from HR. ......
That was August 4, 2008

The first thing I did, I said hmmm and got a PRB out of the fridge. I did not have to go to work that day. :)

One thing working for a company for 5+ years, I built up some severance pay. So, the immediate future was not in question. It was the long term I knew that I would have to re-invent myself in Telluride.

Mary Dawn convinced me to go a couple of trips to Europe. I was was little un-easy about going, but I agreed to "I won't have the opportunity to do this again soon", and put costs of the trip on credit cards. Yes, I had a good time. :)

Following that I started up TellurideTech.com in September time frame. I also have had several consulting projects with Hyperspider.com. AND a lot of time has been helping out in the store and web of Alpen Schatz.

One would think, that now I don't have the corporate job, I could go explore all these side projects I have dreaming about. But you know, it is hard to follow some of your dreams if you need to worry about money. Mom and Dad have been great, unemployment has help thru some lean times, but now I have good clients who respect me and my work.

Yes, I know, being a remote employee, I did not really live the corporate live. The 3+ years of working remote, I made sure, that I had plenty of face time in the office and to worked more than anyone else. Part of the reason why I lasted so long as a remote.

Anyway, prior to working for Encoda (who was acquired by Harris), I was a contractor. Contracting has been in my blood for half of my career. There are definitely challenges with contracting. Seems like you always have to sell yourself over and over to each new client or prospective client. Something that I need to work is to realize that a service-client relationship is a two way. In addition to the client making sure service provided is a good fit for them, the service-provider needs to make sure if the client is a good fit for them.

Plans moving forward:
Now that I got Telluride Tech somewhat established, I want to transition back into more programming projects. One of my goals is to finally publish an iPhone app. It seems like I never have time for this, but I just need to make time. It is always about time and balance.

I DO miss a lot of the friendships I had at Harris, but social media has help with keeping in touch.

Sigh, but sitting out here in the woods, I can't imagine myself anywhere else.

ps.
One of things I DON'T miss is this



pss.
Peter Gabriel - Don't Give Up



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