03.31.07

The Fated Hour

Posted in Site News at 6:35 am

I sincerely want to thank everyone who’s called asking about me, and everyone who’s expressed their concern about what’s been going on. I realize I haven’t been exactly forthcoming with information about my status heretofore, and most of that was due to some minor gag orders being placed on me by the people involved. I still can’t reveal too many specifics, but the bottom line is that as of Monday afternoon, I am once again unemployed.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about what’s been going on, actually. The situation has been quite unbalanced out of my favor for some time now, and being that I meant to get a head start on this and get my ducks in a row before the eleventh hour, the fact that it took this long to get an answer was a bit disappointing. Still, I understand the decision and more than that, it’s been made abundantly clear to me that this was nothing personal. I hold no ill will whatsoever, and quite frankly I am happy that I’m leaving on such good terms.

Our industry– IT, that is– often has to deal with a significant amount of ethical quandaries. I’m not talking the large-scale, stock-options-as-toilet-paper level moral dilemmas. Rather, on an individual, one-on-one basis, every employee of a company has daily problems that can be dealt with ethically or amorally. It is ultimately up to the individual how to proceed, and whether or not an action could be interpreted as being self-serving or serving everyone’s best interests. Nine times out of ten, what works out in the individual’s favor coincides with the company as a whole. On occasion, it doesn’t, and those are the most important times to be sure that the actions you choose are above reproach.

I tend to place a lot of weight on my words and my promises. If I say something in a business context, it’s reasonable to assume that I mean it. This makes me a dangerous poker player (because nobody can tell when I’m bluffing or not) but it also makes me a reliable employee. Any actions I take to violate this integrity serve not just to erode my reputation with the immediate targets of the breach, but to cast into doubt my entire past. “He lied about this… what else has he lied about?” The fact that I don’t have to do this makes me far more comfortable.

I have opportunities that I can pursue; in the meantime, however, there are a few projects that I’ve been neglecting for far too long. While my search continues (yet again) I will be working on those, and I’ll keep you all posted as much as I can with regards to how things are proceeding. Actually, as it turns out, I have an interview first thing on Wednesday morning, so while I don’t want to rush anything, I may have less time to devote to those projects than I think.

The plus side, really, is that all of this happened after the site fees were due, so TFO.net is going to be around for at least another year, folks. I still intend to keep it up as long as I am able to, and to continue this daily writing experiment. As I’ve threatened before, I may even return to doing a podcast or even (heaven forbid) a video podcast. We just don’t know.

Whatever may come, I thank you all for sticking by me and for your support. May you be at peace.

I am.

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