Changes are a comin'

Its weird how this happens to me, but every once in a while I’m jolted back to reality and I’m reminded I’m not independently wealthy now, nor likely ever will be. 

Recently Hotel CaliforniaSoft announced layoffs. I’ve had many friends affected (effected?) by this and it hits a bit too close to home for me.  It’s in times of uncertainty that I feel myself slinking back into my cave and pulling in the all the financial strings.  

I’ve been a victim of a layoff. Mine was completely unexpected and completely floored me. I thought, at the time, that I was an excellent worker and had been adding value to the team and company. It wasn’t until later years I realized it was personal, it was business.  And as Meg Ryan said in “You’ve Got Mail.” It was personal to me. 

In addition to these staggering layoffs at Hotel CaliforniaSoft, the contract community, of which I am one, is being hit hard too. Recently they’ve changed the amount of time we vendors can work at the company. We’ve enjoyed unlimited time – as long as your contract team wants you – AND no taking time off between gigs.  The agency workers (aka a-dash employees) sued Hotel CaliforniaSoft in the mid-90’s that caused their situation to be that they could only work for 365 days and then had to take 100 days off before returning to the company.  It was devastating at the time for many agency workers, but 100 days off, it turns out, is quite doable. 

Having a “vendor” status, I’ve not had to take the 100 days off (only once did I have to do that). In fact I could work for a team for as long, and consecutively, as they want me.  It’s a win-win. The team doesn’t have to retrain new employees every year, and I get to keep my job. 

Starting July 1^st, the cards have been shuffled and dealt.  All contract staff, whatever your status, can only work at Hotel CaliforniaSoft for 18 months and then must take 6 months off.  This changes the game for me significantly. 

What this has done and made me realize that it’s really time to find a job in which I am not a contract employee. A real company, one that I can grow with and add value to on a full time basis. I’ve wanted to do this since I left my job before last, but the contract gigs are so inviting that I keep coming back. Oh and they pay well. 

There’s a lot of speculation flying around the contract world these days. And some great articles like this one that really shed light on what may come about for us using contracts as our livelihood. 

Contracting is not now, nor has ever been, for the faint at heart. You can lose your job at any time. (and Washington being an at-will state that’s true of any job really).  This happened to me in my last contract. They re-orged. Plans changed. Their focus changed and that meant I was gone. I know this. I live this. And yet for some reason these recent changes have me on edge more than normal. 

I’m unsure, at this point, how long my current contract will go. They “say” they want me through June of next year. I’m not a betting type, so I’m planning financially as if they don’t or cant’ keep me.  This uncertainty is what gets me.

I start to feel unsettled. I start to think more about my future and how I’m going to pay for my retirement – or taking care of the MomUnit in her later years. I start to get sweaty palms, and a rapid heart rate, and the anxiety meter is off the chart. 

I plan.

I document.

I review my budget again, and again, and again. 

And I get more anxious. 

Then I stop. Take a breath, or two. Maybe have a glass of wine, or two. And I start to really think about the implications of this new environment and what I must do to make myself feel safer, more secure. 

I start cancelling subscriptions to things that are unnecessary. Cancel the cleaners. Call the cable company and threaten to leave unless they drop my rates, etc. You get the picture. 

I still have a job and yet I’m feeling like I don’t. I’m feeling really insecure about  my career and where I’m going.  What I’ve relied on for years to pay the bills, may not be an option in the next year and a half. 

So, to make myself feel a smidgen better, I’ve updated my resume and have added myself to some job search engines and will start the search. It’s time to find a company that I can be an FTE and grow with. I know, in this world today, that nothing is really forever, but I’d much rather find someplace I can call home for a bit. And hopefully stop the worrying of having to find a job every year or so. 

Or I can marry some rich guy and this would all be for not.