Black Monday

I'm working from home two days/week now, which is a vast improvement over commuting to Silver Spring every day, but not nearly as nice as working from home full-time. I was home on Monday morning when I got a call from Kevin, the person my boss, Stephanie, reports to. He was calling to let me know that Discovery had undergone yet another re-organization, and that Stephanie's position had been eliminated. She had been notified that morning that it would be her last day. How awful! She had only been my boss for a month and a half, but she was a good one. I was bummed that I wasn't able to say goodbye in person, but at least I got to talk to her on the phone later that day.

Kevin told me that I would now be reporting directly to him -- which makes him my 5th boss in seven years. Fortunately, he's a very nice guy and I'm sure he'll be easy to work with.

When I went in on Tuesday, I learned that at least a dozen other people I know had also been let go, including a few people I've worked with for years. I've lost count of how many rounds of layoffs I've been through, but I can assure you it doesn't get any easier. My heart goes out to everyone who was let go, and I hope they all land on their feet. Those of us who were fortunate enough to keep our jobs are expected to continue as if nothing has changed, but I had two meetings and a lunch date on Wednesday that were canceled because they were with people who had been laid off. It's not that easy...

Ironically, Discovery was just named one of the Top 10 Places to Work in Cable last week...

In other news, we had a Wellness Fair at work yesterday, which included a cooking demonstration by Nathan Lyon of the Discovery Health Channel's A Lyon in the Kitchen. I've never actually watched the show, but in person, at least, he is a very engaging and entertaining speaker. He also provided generous samples of the Tuscan Vegetable Soup and Peach Blueberry Cobbler that he made in the demo, so I got a very tasty lunch out of it, along with the recipes. I also chatted with the doctor at Discovery's in-house Wellness Center about our renovation. I went in for a physical last week and it came up in conversation. She was planning her own renovation project and was interested to see what we had done, so I had given her the address for this blog. I did warn her that some of it was a bit silly, since at the time the very first photo was the one of Josh pretending to poop in Rob's toolbox. I cringed a bit when she said she had read my blog, but fortunately it sounded like she focused more on the photos of the house.

Steve W stopped by this morning to borrow the key for Ann & Matt's house -- which is 2 blocks away -- so he could winterize the pipes and turn down the heat. They have a ways to go before they'll be ready to start demolition/construction, and if they want to reuse or donate any of the materials in the existing house, it needs some basic maintenance to keep it in decent condition.

Cerphe came by this afternoon to return our house binder, accordion file, and plans that Susan (his wife) had borrowed for the awards submission last week. If you had told me a year ago that I'd be on a first-name basis with my favorite local DJ, I would not have believed you. Funny what life throws at you...