Oh oh... it's really getting closer

Lately a friend of mine has been telling me about his worries that he would be laid off as he could see some restructuring happening in his company. His current company is my ex-company and so, I know a little bit about it... well, at least I thought I knew. You see, this company is really huge and was always on its recruitment drive as they have this problem with retaining their employees.

So when my friend told me his concern, I confidently assured him that this thing is the last thing he should be worried about. I told him that the company is already understaffed and couldn't retain its existing people, so why would they ask the remaining employees to leave.

I was wrong, so wrong. This evening, my friend called me and told me that some of the contractors in his department were already asked to pack up and leave. I was so shocked. Thank goodness my friend's job is still intact... and I hope it remains so.

Anyhow this news jolted me back to reality. Oh oh... it's really getting closer.

Daddy, I need a bath

I have been a very bad and lazy daddy. Axel hasn't had his bath (not that he is complaining) for 2 weeks already and his nails need trimming. Thank goodness tomorrow is a public holiday... Axel is going to feel and smell brand new!

Who moved my cheese?

I wanted to write this sooner but I was so bogged down by my own negativity that blogging seems to be the last thing on my mind.

There have been a major change in my company recently. I should have seen it coming when I saw my company's 2009 calendar and the "Who Moved My Cheese?" book by Spencer Johnson on my desk the very first day I stepped into the office after my Paris trip. Apparently all my colleagues were given a copy of them.

In case you do not know, "Who Moved My Cheese?" talks about change and how to deal with it. I have read this book some time ago and I guess I must have forgotten the lessons in it... cos I am definitely not dealing with the new change well.

You see, in the new change, all of us engineers have a change in job scope. We all need to do technical support work now... fulltime that is! Previously we have our primary roles plus some secondary support work on rotation basis. With this change, our support work has become our primary role... and to make matter worse, it's for a new product and the very fact that I hate doing support!

Someone has definitely moved my cheese and I am really sad about it. I really love what I was doing previously. I guess many people would say that I should be grateful that I still have a job... they are right! I do!

I just need to condition my mind to accept this change in a more graceful manner so that I can be grateful more. At the meantime, there are going to be a lot of transition periods (which may be painful) that I need to go through in order for me to be comfortable with the new role.

Guess I better pick up that book and start reading again.