The Sword of Damocles

So, by end of week Amazon May Be Smaller. No idea if I’m affected, but it helps me to write about it, so here we are.

I spent seventeen years at a place with only one strategic move: Downsize. In that 17 years, there were constant rumors about “rightsizing”, “downsizing”, “aligning headcount”. The constancy made it gallows humor. It also made me erratic and flinty at home. As sole breadwinner–by choice–I knew that my growing family required me to have a job. There was no plan B.

And in a literal sense, in Lexington, Ky, there wasn’t much of a job market for a Java programmer. “Where are you going to go?” seemed to be the management reposte, or simply “Well, there’s the door.”

So, from 1999 to 2016, we’d all listen anxiously to quarterly results and parse for the words “restructuring” or “reorganization”. Finally, I had enough–in 2016 I took the “Voluntary Reduction Plan”. They paid me a week’s salary for every year served + $xxx and I bailed.

Coming here from 2016 to 2022 it was a hiring party that never ended. Every slide deck, presentation, paper, etc. ended with “We’re Hiring”. We recruited mercilessly locally, nationally, and internally. We wanted people working with us. Sure, some wouldn’t work-out or chose to leave, but the general tenor was clear: “Always Be Hiring”

Then 2022 changed all that. Amazon hadn’t seen a Reduction in Force (RIF) in over 15 years. Even then, it was hiring freezes + regular attrition, then back to hiring-as-usual. Not 2022–then it was cuts handed down by above.

I was a manager then, as I am now. I had no idea what was to come until the notification day-of. So, I’m walking into the dark as we stand here.

I’m still that guy who’s the sole breadwinner, only now it’s college funds and private school tuition.

I have a terrific wife, and she’s the “saver.” As noted, I got real and turned over the finances to her earlier this year. Now, we have an emergency fund, and the tuition saved for both daughters to go to school, both in HS and college. If needs be…well, we’ll discuss that when the time comes.

“Tech Winter” may come for me tomorrow, but we’ve prepared. Thanks be to my wife.