Technistas

A few weeks ago, while walking from the parking lot into the office, I saw something that at the time didn’t fully register. Two middle aged men walking out of the building, holding cardboard boxes loaded with books and papers, picture frames and ethernet cables. The kind of stuff that one keeps at their desk or cube while at work. When I saw the same scene a few days later, it hit me that there were layoffs going on in the office complex where I work.

When my turn came two weeks ago, it struck me as I drove back home at 10 am that it wasn’t the boxes that had caught my attention. It was the look on their faces, faces that said, what will I do now? How will I explain this to my wife? Will the kids understand why Dad doesn’t get up early, shave and shower and go to the office?

Back home, seeing my own face in the mirror, I recognize that look. The market is tough right now, not impenetrable, but tough. But the moment passes, and my next step is clear. Get up every morning, shave and shower, and go to my new workplace – for now, this Mac, at this kitchen table, working my network, with my 3 year old son on the floor next to me playing with trains. It’s his face that motivates me, that moves me to pack up the annoyance of this career interlude into a mental cardboard box and shelve it. After all, as much as I love marketing communications, nothing can beat laying on your belly each morning with a gleeful 3 year old, choo choo chooing the time away.