I have a little desk and I have a little chair.
Now I've counted all of them and all of them are there...
Gentle Reader, oncemore I salute you from my place at the fireside, too weary to rise from my armchair and too drained to do much more than wave listlessly towards the brandy decanter and the plate of biscuits.*
Should you have the energy to speak and the requisite enthusiasm regarding the answers ask why I am in such a moribund state I may even bestir myself enough to answer.
The company has been suffering somewhat of late, mainly due to publishers being a little uncertain as to the future economic climate and thus entirely refusing to sign any new products, concldue any form of business, or take any kind of actual decision.
Some contracts have been waiting signatures for six months.
One we may have to send back to the publisher with notation to the effect that they've dithered so long that the game cannot be produced by the deadline they insisted was the absolute latest possible date. With the result that they've just wasted their money on the IP since nothing can now come of it.
So inevitably, in an extended time of many staff and few projects, redundancies are spoken of.
A "mere" half dozen out of the forty odd of us, but still enough to make it certain that we'll be losing at least one person who we really would rather keep. It's a horrible situation to be in.
The strain in the air over the last week has been considerable. Both on managment and staff, since there is always the faint hope of a last minute reprive, any one of the projects just waiting signature would take us straight from firing to hiring in one move. If two or more sign we'd be looking to expand considerably.
11am today was decision time, and after a last round of phoncalls to publishers saying "Look, guys. If you don't sign it now we'll have to lay off some of the people in the staff plan we gave you. Can you come to a decison please ?" and getting answers like "Hmm, can we get back to you on that once the quarterly sales figures come in ?" The Meetings began. In strict alphabetical order.
In short I not unemployed. I still have a job. Which though I rant, gnash my teeth, and rail against the sheer idiocy of some members of the profession I do for the most part enjoy.
I have a carefully calculated score giving a measurable reading to the company, and I suspect its lawyers, of how useful I am.
Which, somewhat to my dismay, gives equal weighting to "job performance" and "timekeeping" implying that someone who does a damn fine job but comes in late is considered just as valuable as a chap who's punctual but bloody useless.
I beleive I may have discovered something...
*Chocolate digestives, for the building up of strength
Gentle Reader, oncemore I salute you from my place at the fireside, too weary to rise from my armchair and too drained to do much more than wave listlessly towards the brandy decanter and the plate of biscuits.*
Should you have the energy to speak and the requisite enthusiasm regarding the answers ask why I am in such a moribund state I may even bestir myself enough to answer.
The company has been suffering somewhat of late, mainly due to publishers being a little uncertain as to the future economic climate and thus entirely refusing to sign any new products, concldue any form of business, or take any kind of actual decision.
Some contracts have been waiting signatures for six months.
One we may have to send back to the publisher with notation to the effect that they've dithered so long that the game cannot be produced by the deadline they insisted was the absolute latest possible date. With the result that they've just wasted their money on the IP since nothing can now come of it.
So inevitably, in an extended time of many staff and few projects, redundancies are spoken of.
A "mere" half dozen out of the forty odd of us, but still enough to make it certain that we'll be losing at least one person who we really would rather keep. It's a horrible situation to be in.
The strain in the air over the last week has been considerable. Both on managment and staff, since there is always the faint hope of a last minute reprive, any one of the projects just waiting signature would take us straight from firing to hiring in one move. If two or more sign we'd be looking to expand considerably.
11am today was decision time, and after a last round of phoncalls to publishers saying "Look, guys. If you don't sign it now we'll have to lay off some of the people in the staff plan we gave you. Can you come to a decison please ?" and getting answers like "Hmm, can we get back to you on that once the quarterly sales figures come in ?" The Meetings began. In strict alphabetical order.
In short I not unemployed. I still have a job. Which though I rant, gnash my teeth, and rail against the sheer idiocy of some members of the profession I do for the most part enjoy.
I have a carefully calculated score giving a measurable reading to the company, and I suspect its lawyers, of how useful I am.
Which, somewhat to my dismay, gives equal weighting to "job performance" and "timekeeping" implying that someone who does a damn fine job but comes in late is considered just as valuable as a chap who's punctual but bloody useless.
I beleive I may have discovered something...
*Chocolate digestives, for the building up of strength