How lucky can I be?  I ask that humbly, not arrogantly.  As of Tuesday morning, I have again survived my 8^th large downsizing in 11 years.  The reduction in force was a surprise to most of us but even more for me since I survived the cut even though I was the new guy.  Is it luck?  Is it my work output that spares me the ax each time?  Do I make less than others, thus making me more attractive to a company financially?  Is it a case of office politics in determining who stays and who goes?  I really don’t know.

They basically wiped out one person per group, including one of the founding fathers of the company.  To be quite honest, I’m extremely thankful to have a job today.  For the first time in years, I really like my job, I really like my coworkers, I really like the company, and I really like the product.  To get paid to test web sites is much better than a lot of paths I could have taken in the past 11 years.  Surviving yesterday's hack job meant more to me than were I still at several previous companies I've worked for.

Being a parent, the last thing one needs to have happen is to lose one’s job, making it appear that your ability to provide for your family is in jeopardy.  A majority of people I know have been laid off at least once and sometimes people land on their feet right away and other times it takes months.  By NO means am I implying that companies should lay off people without children.  I’m simply stating that the burden of providing for other humans who rely solely on you can be a huge strain when one is unemployed.

Maybe it’s karma.  I won’t ever get into the details of growing up in Detroit, but maybe it truly is a cosmic sense of retribution for how we had to survive as a family in a city that was as dangerous as any city in the country at the time.  We never got a break financially and I’ve basically been paying my own way since my second semester of my senior year in high school.  Is this Fate’s way of saying “Dude, I know life didn’t start out easy but I’m looking out for you for a while”?  I really don’t know, because being a productive worker doesn’t always translate to not getting the axe when it comes to the dreaded Reduction In Force.

I guess yesterday created an atmosphere of Survivors Guilt.  I’m still convinced it’s only a matter of time before my luck runs out when it comes to these layoffs.  In the meantime, I thank my lucky stars every day, keep my nose to the grindstone, and find solace in the fact that, if I ever do get laid off, it won’t be as a result of inferior work.  Of course, solace doesn’t pay the bills.  Ask anyone who was laid off yesterday.