Goodbye to all this
A group of us had drinks after work yesterday with a cow-orker who is leaving the UW to work for Microsoft. He's a web developer, and Microsoft will pay him something like half again as much as we were paying him. On the downside, he'll get less time off and a more expensive health insurance plan.
He had been here less than a year. I've been here for over twenty years. It's hard to imagine working anywhere else at this point. It's very, very hard to imagine working for a corporation. It's quite possible that I could make more money working for a corporation -- during the dot-com boom I used to fantasize about doing technical writing -- but the reality is that I make more than enough money to meet my needs at this point, as a single guy without dependents. (The guy who is leaving has a daughter who is starting college this year.) And I love working for a university, and a very good university at that. I'm proud of our mission, and I love the campus atmosphere, love seeing the kids stepping up into the world, love working with people who are interested in knowledge and learning. Oh yeah, and I love all the time off. I haven't counted in a while, but last time I did I was pretty close to the European ideal of six weeks off a year, although it took me a decade or so to get to that level.
Anyway, that's what I got out of saying goodbye to O yesterday. I understand his reasons for leaving, but I'm damned grateful that I get to stay.
He had been here less than a year. I've been here for over twenty years. It's hard to imagine working anywhere else at this point. It's very, very hard to imagine working for a corporation. It's quite possible that I could make more money working for a corporation -- during the dot-com boom I used to fantasize about doing technical writing -- but the reality is that I make more than enough money to meet my needs at this point, as a single guy without dependents. (The guy who is leaving has a daughter who is starting college this year.) And I love working for a university, and a very good university at that. I'm proud of our mission, and I love the campus atmosphere, love seeing the kids stepping up into the world, love working with people who are interested in knowledge and learning. Oh yeah, and I love all the time off. I haven't counted in a while, but last time I did I was pretty close to the European ideal of six weeks off a year, although it took me a decade or so to get to that level.
Anyway, that's what I got out of saying goodbye to O yesterday. I understand his reasons for leaving, but I'm damned grateful that I get to stay.