Today was supposed to be the part two post of my shotgunning course, but something else came up. After four years of ups and downs, my employer axed me and about half of the group I worked in on Monday. My boss and his right hand man were among the casualties. I can’t say I was surprised at anything other than the timing. I’ve been under-allocated and underfunded for the last two and a half years. I worked on quite a few projects across different parts of the company in that time, but my primary role has been guarding my red Swingline stapler, hoping no one found me in the basement.

It turns out that someone finally paid attention and zapped me. I had a great setup: working from home with sporadic trips to Maryland and San Francisco, California; I was able to work mostly flexible hours and could do anything at home as long as I was within earshot of the office phone or the Lotus Notes incoming mail sound. I was fortunate to work under the Captain, a very wily and supportive manager for three out of those four years, and met a lot of great people.

I had hoped to retire by forty, and that might still be in the cards. It will be more difficult without the annual bonuses and salary. I certainly won’t be able to replace the relaxed working environment of the home office.

My employer let me off easy with a very generous severance package, so finances are not going to be an immediate concern. I have also been working for Starbucks since May of 2007 as a barista, mostly to get out of the isolated environment of the home office and meet other human beings. Porter, Rosie and Pearl are awesome, but they have pretty limited vocabularies. One of the nice things about working for Starbucks is that they offer really fantastic health insurance for anyone who works over twenty hours a week. If I don’t find a suitable position by February, at least I’ll have health insurance.

I am looking for senior manager-level front-end Web development and design leadership or senior manager-level user experience and usability leadership positions. I am willing to relocate to northern Virginia, Southern Oregon (to serve the SF Bay area), or Austin, Texas. I would also stay in Richmond, but I am very afraid the salaries are not up to my requirements. But you never know, so if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, I would be much obliged for your assistance.