Monday, July 29, 2002

Ever been laid off by text message? No, me neither.

However, when I was working for a dot-com in 2001, I was in Tucson, Arizona at our parent company's conference, trying to cut some deals with my opposite number. Obviously I was aware that money was tight, but we were confident we had another few weeks. Third day of the conference, I get a call from one of the girls in my (extremely embryonic) team: "Hi Sasha, sorry to call so early. Can you tell me what my redundancy package is?"

"Ah," I replied, "Things have moved quicker than I thought. Let me make a couple of calls and come back to you."

Then I called the CEO.

"Ah, Sasha. Yes, was just going to call you."

Lesson learned: there are no jobs for life any more. Have alternative plans. You are responsible for your own destiny.

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