I Become (Under)Employed

So, here's the truth about the endorsement entries - they were written over the course of a single sleepless night last week, and then checked, revised, and posted in bite-sized bits over the following week. The reason for the sleepless night, and the fact I have been busy otherwise this week, has been a return of that Fall Classic - The Autumnal Employment Challenge.

Here's the story so far - Two years ago I was working for a Large Company that was owned by an Even-Larger Company. Financial numbers were not made, someone had to go so we could clear the budgets, and I and a goodly number of others became unemployed. A few months later I was hired by a nice Middle-sized company that was then purchased by a Large Company. Financial numbers were not met, and I and a goodly number of others became unemployed.

After this happened twice, I thought I had come up with a solution. I have hired on with a Small company that does Web Design work for Larger Companies. It seemed like this would work - as of two months ago we had more work than we knew what to do with. However, one of the Larger Companies did not make its numbers for the quarter. Suddenly, the work dropped away as projects were killed - with luck a temporary slump - but still a patch where we don't know what's going to happen next.

So our small company had to lay off one of our web designers, and myself and the other copywriter went to reduced hours - working only on those projects that were totally billable. This left both of us with some downtime, and left me in a quasi-employed zone - still with all benefits, but not with a full forty-hours-a-week.

So the past week has been rattling doors - not looking for an entirely new gig (I trust things will get better), but putting together proposals and looking for a few projects to spackle in some of the lost income. I have a few leads, and one of the dead projects from the Big Client has come back to life in another form. Other than that, I have taken advantage of the situation to do some writing on my laptop at the office (Its a great place to work - T1 connection, quiet atmosphere, few distractions, available in case of an emergency/opportunity, twenty-five cent cokes, and most of all five-dollar pizzas on Thursday). I'm weathering it pretty well, but it has become another fall where resumes flutter like maple leaves on the wind.

But if anyone needs a good web designer, with experience in projects for young women and girls, drop me a line.

(And if my boss reads this, no, I'm not billing for this time.)

More later,