Blogocentric Formulations

Halloween Surprise

Got called upstairs today and was informed that the company is laying me off. Apparently, they're trying to cut overhead once again and, of the six of us who were still at the company and survived the cutbacks last year, they decided to let me and our business affairs person go... the only two people at the company with any experience on the business side of the industry. Now they have a development executive, another development executive, an assistant and a receptionist. But no one to cover business and legal affairs, operations, physical production, IT, HR, or accounting.

During the "we love you but we have to let you go" conversation, the boss asked me what I was working on that she and the remaining employees would have to take over. As I started going over my list of responsibilities, she was frantically trying to write them all down and her face became more and more concerned as I kept going. Clearly, she didn't realize exactly how much I actually did for the company (I was the one who took over ALL the responsibilities of the six people they laid off last time). Not to mention that I'm the only person at the company who has a halfway decent understanding of troubleshooting technology, corporate operations, and the overall process of producing a film from beginning to end, in detail.

I'm not one to toot my own horn to puff myself up unnecessarily, but the very real fact of the matter is that I was the linchpin that was holding the company together as it tried (and continued to try) to cut costs and move forward productively. Laying me off is going to be one of those decisions that, in six weeks or two months, when things start to fall apart, everyone says, "Ohhh, he really did take care of a lot. We made a mistake letting him go."

Unfortunately, that realization won't do either of us any good.

I don't know what's worse... the fact that I got laid off today, or the fact that I'm really not all that upset or surprised by it, even when it came unexpectedly on the Friday before Halloween.

On the bright side, more time for NaNoWriMo! Does anybody know if the SMs are looking for an out-of-work Hollywood production executive? Working at WDC would make things sooo much easier.

P.S. - Hey, aszreal! I think my bosses finally beat your bosses in the all-time WTF department.