Deborah Lipp

As of yesterday, I join the ranks of the downsized.

It hasn’t quite hit me yet. I am making plans, sending resumés, networking, thinking things through. I grieve, oddly, the products I worked on quite a lot. My products were “sunsetted” and hence, the writer who documented them had no more work. That was me.

I have to say I think it’s a poor business decision. Big corporations are responding to market changes like they have the hiccups, killing off jobs in the hopes of making stockholders happy. But there’s more to strategy than being in-the-moment. Three years from now, the crisis will be over, and the products and brainpower will have moved on. Then they’ll be hiccuping again, wondering why it’s so hard to hire the right people.

I’ll be okay. I have a wee bit of savings which will, with my severance, tide me over. I don’t anticipate a life of soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Neither do I plan on living beyond my means. Vacation cancelled, priorities reorganized. And amazingly calm throughout the entire thing.

If you know of anyone interested in hiring a brilliant, personable, focused writer/designer/business analyst, do please get in touch.