Baby, It's Cold Outside -- Last Day

It's still cold but I'm going home so I don't care. I'd like to revisit San Francisco with my sweetie but I'm not sure I could get him on the plane.

What a trip. You know, I have been part of the American workforce since the age of 15. I have had a lot of jobs but the majority of them have been sitting behind a desk. When I was in college I worked part time at a place called the National Braille Press. It was my job to type the contents of books into the data entry system so they could then be translated into braille. That was sort of cool. I did a short stint at the United Way. I worked at a day care center (hated it), I worked as a chamber maid on a naval base (loved it), I worked a little while in retail and I've been on staff at dozens and dozens of different office buildings.

I have never been fired. I have never been laid off. Everytime I want or need to work I do. I'm never without a job. I work. That's what I do. But when there are changes in the corporate structure, it's startling and somewhat unsettling but I don't worry about myself because I'll be fine. But I do worry about my staff. I feel personally responsible for the people that I brought into the company. Right or wrong, that's how I feel. Business is business and I know that, but it can't be all about profit and loss; it cannot be all about the bottom line. These companies are made up of people and people should be more important than profit.

Naive? Maybe. But I sleep like a baby at night. I'm not a saint and I'm not necessarily a people person ... hell, most people get on my damned nerves. But there are times when I feel personally responsible for others. And this is one of those times. What's going on in my company is nothing new and it's certainly not fatal. It's new to me though but everyone will recover.