What to do when laid off.........

What is proper laid-off behavior? I'll have to look it up on wikipedia.

Last week, my last week in Brazil, I called into a meeting that all of our staff in Portland had with some of the big wigs from SAP, the megalith that just purchased Business Objects. They matter-of-factly explained that in light of the fact that they have a product similar but better in most respects than ours, they are discontinuing our product.


As of immediately.



What does that mean for me? Well for starters I'm laid off as of August 31st. They're keeping us around until then for maintenance on our current releases, and to help SAP transition our clients to the new and better SAP one....

I'm not worried. They've extended severence packages and retention bonuses to attract us to stay on through August, so I'll be okay at least through then. My big concern is the impact this might have on our visa process. I can't host someone into the country if I'm not employed. But hopefully the process is finished by August.


If not, I'm going to slit both my wrists........



This has prompted me to give a lot of serious thought to starting a new career. I've been wanting to break out of technology for a long time, but am always torn. Corporate life offers stability, set working hours, bennies, and paid vacation. It's very posh. But then guys like my buddy Mitch (read his wife's blog here) light a fire under me. Mitch is also in technology, and is packing his family and all their belongings off to Utah where he is going to go back to school for construction management. WOW! Talk about a change!! (Mitch, are you sure you're not mid-life crisis-ing?) Whether he is or not, his courage is inspiring.