Solo Startup

When I was in Dilbert-land, before I took the red pill, I worked at a company that constantly had the IT staff under the threat of layoffs. It was during this time that I first started dreaming of going solo and running my own company, albeit a very, very small company of one. There were many of my companions that were afraid of losing their jobs. I was secretly praying to get laid off. Even a small severance package would allow me to get a head start on my business.

I waited and waited and waited but instead of getting the boot I got reorg-ed into different groups. With the loss of so many people we took on their abandoned projects. I was supporting applications in Java, .NET, ASP (classic), Cold Fusion, Visual Basic, Access along with a slew of third-party products for content management and code generation. It was ugly and when I finally gave my notice it was on good terms and voluntary; but no package for me.

There were others in our organization who were a little more creative in their approach to obtaining a severance. Some played computer games or played loud music or played with their toys from ThinkGeek. Others tried more traditional approaches like complaining and trying to get the boss in trouble.

I guess they would have benefited from Fourteen Surefire Ways to Getting Yourself Fired on FreelanceSwitch. Where was Web 2.0 when we really need it?