In Last Week's Episode...(Or What I've Been Up To In The Past Few Months)

I once again have very little excuse for not being more active in my blogging. In this case, quite a bit has happened since I last wrote.

As of August 7th, I will no longer be an employee of Cessna Aircraft Company. Due to a federal law, Cessna has to give 60 days notice when laying-off 500 people or more and I was given my notice on June 5th. I am doing my best to not take it personally but this is a bit difficult as I was one of seven in our group of 40 or so that were chosen for this first round to really affect our group. As the company is doing very poorly financially and seems to be in survival mode, I didn't necessarily expect to avoid the lay-offs completely but I had hope. I viewed myself as a valued employee who had made a lot of significant contributions to the project I was working on and seemed to have a good skillset. I didn't consider myself one of the most valued employees but I hoped I was in the top 35% in my group. To find out I was in the bottom 17% is unsettling to say the least.

I don't know why I was specifically laid off. At the group meeting days before the notices went out our boss told us the factors involved in assessing and ranking the individuals in our group, things like attitude, technical skills, professionalism, etc. Noticeably absent from the list were things like salary, years of experience and current project. I honestly can't imagine how I could have ranked so poorly by the official standards that I would end up at the bottom of the list. When I told my co-workers I had been laid off (minutes before walking out the door for the last time), I could tell they were just as surprised as I was. Everybody's best guess is that, despite the official ranking criteria, the reason for me being laid-off has something to do with working half-time and pursuing a Master's. I don't know why developing my technical skills would be perceived as a liability but it may have been.

So what's next for me? Well, I still have two more classes in the fall and a thesis to finish up before I complete my Master's. I had a great idea for a thesis related to my project at work that is probably not an option now; back to square one at this point. After that, its hard to say. I may end up pursuing a PhD at Wichita State or at another institution and depending on how long my thesis takes, that could happen as soon as the spring or fall 2010. Katie and I are still discussing all of this because we'd like to start a family sometime before I would finish my PhD (since that would be in ~2014) but if she's going to be providing the income for us, she can't be a full-time mom as well. There are a number of options, we just need to figure out which one is best or most feasible for us.

In the mean time, I've been plenty busy with around-the-house projects. We might install an attic fan, maybe a skylight, probably replace our front door. (I may have not made it clear above but as of right now, I am still technically a Cessna employee and will be until Aug. 7th. I am still getting paid by them but, again, for reasons I don't understand, they would rather not have me around at work and have asked me not to come back.) I've got plenty of time to think and pray over my future and have also been doing just that.