It's been a while... general update.
Haven't had a whole lot to report as of recent, honestly, save a few speedbumps in life stuff, but this week has been one for the record books.
On tuesday we had massive layoffs through out the company. 6 people total; 5 within our building and one in our remote Dallas, TX office. The two Financial Officers kinda saw it coming. Ever since Innerworkings acquired our company, we knew that because of how their billing and accounting system was set up, we'd have no need for in-house financial management. The others were completely out of the blue. It terrified everyone. We heard about one through the whispering grapevine at around noon... then 30 minutes later another... then another... They also have furloughed the two design ladies I share an office with currently, making it so that only one of them is in here at a given time, trading off every two weeks. Thankfully I seemed to have ducked the axe in all this, and though I am a little surprised I am so exceedingly thankful. It seems that because I wear so many hats in the company, they need my "Emergency Help OMGWTF" skills to be around all the time.
So for the next 2 weeks there will be only one designer in here with me. And technically, neither of us are officially designers. We're considered QC/Prepress/Proofing/Archiving people with design knowledge. We also have our "Design Manager" (that currently resides in Colorado... don't ask me how she pulled THAT little trick off) who will likely be reluctant to help pick up the slack. So we're going to be floundering... trying to figure out what the salespeople need, how they need it, and trying to turn it around in a reasonable amount of time... which is generally unreasonable to start with. I will be talking to one of the bigwigs today about whether they want me to be putting in overtime within the next two weeks. Since this furlough move is to save money and keep any of the art dept from being laid off, it wouldn't make sense for me to put overtime in and just cost the company time and a half. I'm the only "hourly" employee in the front offices, so it's gonna have to be a consideration. It's like seeing a hurricane on the news, knowing it's coming right at you, and not being able to get out... you just have to ride it out and hope it doesn't wipe you off the map. I know i can keep up, at least to a certain degree, and I'm willing to do the work... but I don't know the jobs or the "processes" well enough to just fly through them like the designer does. It's gonna be some scary shit... and I'm not looking forward to it.
The salespeople are about to revolt because of the hit the art dept took. They feel like they're getting the rug pulled out from under them. We got the "we have to find more business and increase sales numbers", but at the same time, the support staff got a major cut. They're panicking because they know they won't be able to turn around artwork and conceptuals as fast as we have in the past... and some of the jobs coming up are pretty massive. I know the management couldn't have anticipated that business would pick up RIGHT after layoffs and furloughs. But I don't think they're gonna budge on how they set up the time off for the designers. it doesn't make much sense, honestly. I think everyone would have preferred, including the ladies in here, would have preferred half-days... one lady in during the morning, and one in during the afternoon. Just so that nothing would slip through the cracks on any given day. *sigh* But the management is holding tight on their decision, even with the torches and pitchforks being brandished outside their office doors. We'll see as the day goes on.
In less gloomy news, we have the Eclipse War day going on tomorrow. In the rain. And possibly snow. :-) Which doesn't bother me all THAT much, honestly, because I had time to prepare for it. Rain gear, nerf guns, new boffer weapons, and much less gear than I normally carry around. I think it'll be fun in the global scope of things, but it's not like this team of Imperials work all that well together. It's not like the "Bar" team, who have been larping together for years and know each other's brains. We're a bunch of misfits, and most of us don't particularly trust or like each other In-Play, so it's gonna be a bit tricky. It could go a multitude of ways, really, and all we can do is hope we catch everything visually we need to catch, fight intelligently and as a unit, and go home victorious without too many dead PCs.
On the home front, we've begun the renovations on the house, but taking baby steps at this point. We started on the guest bathroom, and finally got the final coat of base paint on the walls. Next step is rag rolling the top coat of the lighter grey color and seeing how it looks. The we move on to the computer room which will be MUCH easier than the bathroom though about being. Way too many damn things to tape and tarp off in the bathroom. So once we get the silly "child nascar" wallpaper border off the walls in the computer room, we'll get that all painted up... that's make me happy. :-)
Also began the HUGE push to chop down all the blackberry vines and honeysuckle vines from the edge of the backyard. It's a hell'uva undertaking, but with the gift from my Dad of a 28" hedge trimmer that can cut through half-inch branches... it's like buttah'! I just need to get out there, cut it all back and down to the dirt, then have a nice burning to get rid of all the crap. I started it last night and made some serious headway... kinda fun actually, but it's far from done. That way I can get to the rain run-off ditch and make it look a little more pleasant than a muddy, root-covered ditch. Then I get to tackle the BACK of the backyard... which has more substantial overgrowth than just vines, but the hedge trimmer should make the job 200% easier. Hoping to have all that cut back and leveled before late April... that way, if I want to start some moderate landscaping back there, then it won't be too late in the season to plant. Then I'll be pulling all the mulch from the islands and edges in the front yard, ripping up all the current crappy landscaping plants, replanting with a more intelligent landscaping eyeball, and then filling it all in with white chipped marble. Still have no idea what the marble chips are gonna cost... probably much more that I'll be willing to pay for it, but I'm done with the mulch. Done. It fades, you can't leaf-blow the leaves out of it, it washes out of the beds and floats away, and you have to replace it pretty much every year. Screw that noise.
Well, that's a quick sum-up, I suppose. King's Gate thoughts, financial ponderings, and other ramblings will have to wait for another time.
Have a good weekend all... and to those I'll see this weekend, here's hoping we don't all catch pneumonia saving the galaxy! :-)
On tuesday we had massive layoffs through out the company. 6 people total; 5 within our building and one in our remote Dallas, TX office. The two Financial Officers kinda saw it coming. Ever since Innerworkings acquired our company, we knew that because of how their billing and accounting system was set up, we'd have no need for in-house financial management. The others were completely out of the blue. It terrified everyone. We heard about one through the whispering grapevine at around noon... then 30 minutes later another... then another... They also have furloughed the two design ladies I share an office with currently, making it so that only one of them is in here at a given time, trading off every two weeks. Thankfully I seemed to have ducked the axe in all this, and though I am a little surprised I am so exceedingly thankful. It seems that because I wear so many hats in the company, they need my "Emergency Help OMGWTF" skills to be around all the time.
So for the next 2 weeks there will be only one designer in here with me. And technically, neither of us are officially designers. We're considered QC/Prepress/Proofing/Archiving people with design knowledge. We also have our "Design Manager" (that currently resides in Colorado... don't ask me how she pulled THAT little trick off) who will likely be reluctant to help pick up the slack. So we're going to be floundering... trying to figure out what the salespeople need, how they need it, and trying to turn it around in a reasonable amount of time... which is generally unreasonable to start with. I will be talking to one of the bigwigs today about whether they want me to be putting in overtime within the next two weeks. Since this furlough move is to save money and keep any of the art dept from being laid off, it wouldn't make sense for me to put overtime in and just cost the company time and a half. I'm the only "hourly" employee in the front offices, so it's gonna have to be a consideration. It's like seeing a hurricane on the news, knowing it's coming right at you, and not being able to get out... you just have to ride it out and hope it doesn't wipe you off the map. I know i can keep up, at least to a certain degree, and I'm willing to do the work... but I don't know the jobs or the "processes" well enough to just fly through them like the designer does. It's gonna be some scary shit... and I'm not looking forward to it.
The salespeople are about to revolt because of the hit the art dept took. They feel like they're getting the rug pulled out from under them. We got the "we have to find more business and increase sales numbers", but at the same time, the support staff got a major cut. They're panicking because they know they won't be able to turn around artwork and conceptuals as fast as we have in the past... and some of the jobs coming up are pretty massive. I know the management couldn't have anticipated that business would pick up RIGHT after layoffs and furloughs. But I don't think they're gonna budge on how they set up the time off for the designers. it doesn't make much sense, honestly. I think everyone would have preferred, including the ladies in here, would have preferred half-days... one lady in during the morning, and one in during the afternoon. Just so that nothing would slip through the cracks on any given day. *sigh* But the management is holding tight on their decision, even with the torches and pitchforks being brandished outside their office doors. We'll see as the day goes on.
In less gloomy news, we have the Eclipse War day going on tomorrow. In the rain. And possibly snow. :-) Which doesn't bother me all THAT much, honestly, because I had time to prepare for it. Rain gear, nerf guns, new boffer weapons, and much less gear than I normally carry around. I think it'll be fun in the global scope of things, but it's not like this team of Imperials work all that well together. It's not like the "Bar" team, who have been larping together for years and know each other's brains. We're a bunch of misfits, and most of us don't particularly trust or like each other In-Play, so it's gonna be a bit tricky. It could go a multitude of ways, really, and all we can do is hope we catch everything visually we need to catch, fight intelligently and as a unit, and go home victorious without too many dead PCs.
On the home front, we've begun the renovations on the house, but taking baby steps at this point. We started on the guest bathroom, and finally got the final coat of base paint on the walls. Next step is rag rolling the top coat of the lighter grey color and seeing how it looks. The we move on to the computer room which will be MUCH easier than the bathroom though about being. Way too many damn things to tape and tarp off in the bathroom. So once we get the silly "child nascar" wallpaper border off the walls in the computer room, we'll get that all painted up... that's make me happy. :-)
Also began the HUGE push to chop down all the blackberry vines and honeysuckle vines from the edge of the backyard. It's a hell'uva undertaking, but with the gift from my Dad of a 28" hedge trimmer that can cut through half-inch branches... it's like buttah'! I just need to get out there, cut it all back and down to the dirt, then have a nice burning to get rid of all the crap. I started it last night and made some serious headway... kinda fun actually, but it's far from done. That way I can get to the rain run-off ditch and make it look a little more pleasant than a muddy, root-covered ditch. Then I get to tackle the BACK of the backyard... which has more substantial overgrowth than just vines, but the hedge trimmer should make the job 200% easier. Hoping to have all that cut back and leveled before late April... that way, if I want to start some moderate landscaping back there, then it won't be too late in the season to plant. Then I'll be pulling all the mulch from the islands and edges in the front yard, ripping up all the current crappy landscaping plants, replanting with a more intelligent landscaping eyeball, and then filling it all in with white chipped marble. Still have no idea what the marble chips are gonna cost... probably much more that I'll be willing to pay for it, but I'm done with the mulch. Done. It fades, you can't leaf-blow the leaves out of it, it washes out of the beds and floats away, and you have to replace it pretty much every year. Screw that noise.
Well, that's a quick sum-up, I suppose. King's Gate thoughts, financial ponderings, and other ramblings will have to wait for another time.
Have a good weekend all... and to those I'll see this weekend, here's hoping we don't all catch pneumonia saving the galaxy! :-)