Silver lining on Sun layoffs?

Today is yet another Big Layoff Reduction-in-Force Day at Sun Microsystems. Between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs are expected to be cut this year, and today 311 jobs were cut from my local Sun Colorado campus. I have only a few friends left there... most of us got the boot one way or another over the last 4 years. But what I think is worse than the layoffs is the anticipation of layoffs. Ever since the first cuts began (the first one was supposed to be the only one, but there have been a gazillion since then), most of the employees who made each successive cut became more and more anxious, and less and less focused on whatever it is we were supposed to be doing to help the company turn things around (after the whole "we're the dot in dot com" thing stopped being Good Positioning).

I suppose I was one of the lucky ones... tossed out fairly early. And had that not happened, I would never have been "forced" to do the only thing I could think of -- write a technical book. So for me, there was a HUGE silver lining. I'm not sure I'd have had the courage to throw myself out of a Regular Paycheck Job.

The bizarre thing that prompted this post, though, was a story on today's cover of our local "Daily Camera" newspaper. It seems that local restaurants and bars have found a silver lining--the anticipation of a huge boost of business normally found only on weekends. In today's story titled, Layoffs Pushing Happy Hours, the anticipated "mass Sun exodus" drove local businesses to staff up and modify happy hour times to be ready for them.

And for those who did get cut today--I'll raise a glass for you. As awful as it might feel today, I'm surrounded now by a dozen of my local Sun Refugee friends who are all--ALL--much happier now. Simon Roberts is now a flight instructor and photographer. Solveig Haugland is now a consultant/trainer/expert in All Things Open Office. Kathy Collina went back to school to become a therapist. Annette went to massage school. And I'm here, and rather than travelling every other week to Baltimore, Kansas City, and Phoenix (no offense--all fine cities) I now get to travel to Spain, New Zealand, and London. I hope and believe that one day soon you'll be able to celebrate.

I learned a lot of wonderful things at my time at Sun--things I'll use forever. But in the end, leaving turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Sappy, I know. But true.

[Update: I forgot to mention a site you should visit if you DID survive this round and are still in the corporate world (or contempating leaving anyway), by someone who knows a thing or two about corporate dysfunction at, say, Sun...David St. Lawrence has a site and a book titled Danger Quicksand! Have a Nice Day!. Highly recommended.]