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Subject:RE: When to leave? From:"Victoria Wroblewski" <victoria -dot- wroblewski -at- eagletest -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:02:22 -0600
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 8:02 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: FWD: When to leave?
>>>>
When do I leave, and when do I become a "stalker?" By staying longer,
will
I be earning brownie points, or will I make everyone even more
uncomfortable (post layoff stress syndrome)?
>>>>
I was in this same place a year ago. They let go of pretty much the
entire engineering department, writers included. There were some
critical projects that still had some work to be done, so my original
termination date was a month later than most.
I agree with others that have said that you should continue to work, but
not overwork yourself. Provide lists of where things are and how they
are done, and any project plans that may be helpful to those that are
left behind. And if they want a single thing out of you past Jan. 2,
they should be aware of your contracting rate and you should be aware of
how to bill them for your services (who approves, etc.).
As hard as it can be to be singled out in layoff, it pays to be as
professional about it as you can. I lucked out, they turned it into a
month-by-month thing and I kept on until I found another full-time
position. With scaled back engineering, their documentation needs were
not going to be "full-time" for long and I wanted my future settled.
Since leaving, I've done some small projects for them on a contract
basis.
One person made a bit of a huff and left a lot of things
unfinished/unexplained when it all happened. When the need arose for
someone outside the company to provide services in that area, they
didn't contact that person - they called on another previous employee
who was a SME in that area, and that other person is making the
contracting bucks. Food for thought.
- V
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