How drunkenbatman got his groove back
One of the problems I have to deal with when it comes to the site is that I can't really talk about a lot of what I pick up or happens to come my way. Talking about them would cause a lot of trouble without much being gained, and you need to be doing things for the right reasons -- not for recognition or page hits or selling swag, rather those things are a means to an end.
Every once in awhile, my head starts blocking, because my head works weird, and some of my days just are weird. As in, those days where its late in the evening after a full day and you're grinding on blog stuff, and a napkin slides your way that Steve Jobs is in Fiji, most probably on vacation. Then someone at a company leaks to someone else at another company, and another napkin slides your way saying AOL is going to lay off 700+ employees in week, or about 10% of their work force.
The AOL thing is an example of something that causes my head to start blocking. It's news, as no one else really knew about it yet, but at the same time, it's people.
They're all going to have to figure out how long their severance will last against their mortgage, and its not as though Christmas is very far away. If I were one of them, and 10% of the company was about to be cut, I don't know that I'd want to hear about it on a blog -- it'd be chaos if it got picked up. Obviously I didn't post it, because I couldn't come up with an angle that would make it worthwhile (page hits are only worthwhile towards a purpose) -- It just didn't really have much of a chance of doing any good or giving people a way to prepare, it would just freak people out. Going for page hits makes you not look forwarding to shaving in the morning, because of that fucking mirror.
There's a place for getting the scoop and all that, but I unsure, and while I may decide differently another time, that's where I ended up that night. This was piled in with other stuff I can't talk about, and the thing is, you still know 700 people are going to be losing their jobs.
I don't think its megalomaniacal to know something bad is going to happen and have it grind you down that you can't affect it -- and you know its wearing worse on the people who passed it onto you. If you're in a funk and you're several degrees removed, you can only imagine how heavily some of the others closer to the situation are drinking. While I'm not all that proud of it, I basically was done with blog stuff for a day or two.
I was just sick of it, and needed to decompress and wasn't going to think about it for awhile. And then I check my inbox, and get:
I know you're deep in Adler hour, but I snapped a couple shots of the Cow in our Jump Rope room. The room is located in our corporate headquarters, and employs developmentally disabled people to make jump ropes. We sell these ropes to corporate sponsors (who logo the ropes and donate them to various schools) or to the schools directly.Fundraisers.com has a nice article about the company from back in the day that may give more background with eloquence that I severely lack.
Anyway, walking through every morning to the server room gets lots of hello's and hugs from these guys. Just thought I'd share some love. Let me know if you want to use them and I'll send you the full sized images and you can shrink to please.
Ralph
I did go read the article, and afterwards I got my ass back to work. My thoughts eventually landed me back at the last section of Rumble Young Man, Rumble, where I talk about inspiration and sparking heads.
You really never know where what you're putting out there is going to go, and while you don't always get what you want, sometimes you really do get what you need -- and its amazing how inspiring someone can end up inspiring you. Life is weird, but it's worth it.
Posted by drunkenbatmanOctober 21, 2005, at 01:26 AM
Comments (8)
Posted by: Ajit at October 21, 2005 02:29 AM
Man, 700 people laid off!! Damn. FUUUUCCCCCKKK.
(deep breath)
One of your more poetic moments, batman.
Posted by: drunkenbatman at October 21, 2005 02:48 AM
A bit off topic, but now that the AOL thing is out of the bag and MacWorld has an article about it they're quoting something like 4% of the AOL workforce:
It could well be, I was just going by memory and unfortunately don't have time to ping around -- I know 700+ sticks in my head.
Posted by: Diggory Laycock at October 21, 2005 03:34 AM
Sorry to be completely nit-picky:
1 - 'Fuji' is a mountain in Japan and photo company - 'Fiji' is the island group you linked to.
2 - "...and another slides your in saying AOL is going to.." and another slides your way perhaps?
Posted by: Nick Vance at October 21, 2005 01:17 PM
700 is bad if it's 4% or 10%... My prior comment might have come off a bit insensitive, but really; best of luck to those 700 (or so) people. Hopefully the Web 2.0 bubble is real...
Posted by: robert at October 21, 2005 01:30 PM
I wonder if all the laid-off workers reside in the same area or if it is more spread out? Things like this remind me of my childhood when we would get news of layoffs in the factory where my father worked, and something like this, a 4-10% reduction in workforce would hit hard, you basically didn't want to be at the dinner table during those days.
There is a whole different dynamic to layoffs these days it seems, the impact is very different, and it seems that companies have less responsibility now than they did in the manufacturing days' so to speak, I bet these layoffs come from around the country and so particular town is not hit hard-yet on an individual basis, there will be some very sombre dinner tables this weekend...at least my dad had a union and some way to resist this kind of thing.
Posted by: mennonot at October 23, 2005 03:22 PM
These are by far my favorite cow photos. Thanks for posting them!
Posted by: LEGO Boy at October 31, 2005 08:40 AM
Robert, there is definitely a diff vibe to layoffs these days. I've been through about 20, and been involved in two. It's not the earth-shattering thing it used to be, although there are those for whom it is. These days, it really is an opportunity to try something else (though that still sounds a little hokey). I think as long as your identity is not your job, you'll be okay pretty quickly. I echo the sentiment in hoping that the Web 2.0 bubble is real. It'd be nice to see some real innovation again :)
A bit off topic, but now that the AOL thing is out of the bag and MacWorld has an article about it they're quoting something like 4% of the AOL workforce:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/10/20/aol/
Not to argue with you but 4% seems a bit more reasonable than 10%. Could AOL have only been employing 7000 people prior to these cuts? 17500 seems a bit more reasonable to be sure. Anyway, check the article for details and more numbers.