I’ve been hinting to some of you since mid February about this day. Originally I had been told I was to be laid off end of first quarter. Turns out it was postponed to end of second quarter. Various people have been really trying behind the scenes to save my job, and, as of Wednesday afternoon, it seemed like I was going to be outsourced to a different company and then Unisys would contract with them for my services. However, something happened between yesterday’s “final go-ahead” and today and I was notified toward the end of the day today that my time with Unisys was finally up. I’ve gone thru several (6-7) “almost” layoffs with Unisys, starting in 1987, so, I’m happy to have worked as long as I have since those early massive layoffs we first incurred due to the merger (from 87-96?), and then thru out these final 5 ‘bad’ yrs. Seems like the only good yrs were those short few yrs with Larry W.
In my almost 30 yrs, like each and every one of you, I’ve worked on several projects, in many, many different teams/depts. (11?), and also in different locations (3 – Detroit Burroughs HQ, City of Industry, CA, Roseville and the last 19 yrs in the MACS building in Eagan). What I’m trying to say is, I’ve worked with a great bunch of people, (and some nitwits – you know who you are – LOL). I’ve also worked for a bunch of managers (averaging a new manager every 2-3 yrs), and they were evenly split in thirds, with one third brilliant mentors (Mike Dowers, Mary Mikhail, Tom Adams, Rob Voigt, and Steve Diederichs), and then one third average, and of course, one third nitwits. The nitwit managers were mostly banished long ago. I’m sorry to say, some/many of the brilliant managers have left as well.
So, for all those people I’ve worked with, I want to say thank you very much, for teaching me, for putting up with me (especially in the mid to late 90’s when I was a bear to work with at times), for helping me become a better man, a better person, a better colleague, and most importantly, a better team lead. I never aspired to being a lead, but, I’ve grown so much while leading a great bunch of people, from the A-Series DBA team, to the A-Series System Admin team, and lastly the Remedy Support team. Everyone, on those teams, THANK YOU very much for your help and understanding when I was your team lead.
If you feel sad for me, please don’t be. I have always felt my current job or situation is a stepping stone to the next position. I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to leave my 24+ yr A-Series background 4+ yrs ago, to learn something new and exciting: Remedy Development. Most of you know I’m very passionate about programming, and have been a programmer at heart since high school (before there were PCs). So, I’ve very happy to be leaving with significant experience with a new marketable skill set – Thank you, Tom Adams for believing in me.
Team Leadership and introverts. I want to thank Rob Voigt for believing in my ability to lead, and for helping me move from extreme introvert more toward the middle by ‘requiring’ me to learn how to present in front of an audience as well as to learn how to formally teach people in front of a “class”.
Mike Dowers: I wish I knew where you are nowadays: Mike was the first manager to believe in me, enough to offer me my very first “professional” programming position and having the company pay for my relocation from Detroit to L.A., when I was just 24.
I’ve tried to mentally walk up and down the aisles, trying to ensure I’ve not left anyone out. If you notice anyone I’ve left out, please forward to them.
I would like to mention the following people whom are not on the c.c. list due to recent other layoff events:
Sid Kahan (Detroit)
Bob Billheimer (Detroit)
Jim Simpson
Kim Landmesser
Lena Dowers
I enjoyed working with these people as well.
God, I’ve worked almost 30 yrs here and I’m still only 2/3s toward retirement age. Wow, now THAT’S a scary thought.
Regarding Remedy Support – Some of you saw an email in mid March when Kim and Lena were forced to go. Here is the new list of the Remedy Support Offshore Team:
Preeti Rao
Indira Prasad
Madhu Prasanth
Preetham Subbarao (who is leaving the team in two week to pursue other opportunities – he will be sorely missed)
Please understand they are new to Unisys and new to Remedy Support – they will need your patience.
Thank you, and the best wishes to everyone.
