The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.

This week is really reminding me of how much my life can be like the movie Office Space some times.

Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime; so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.


So I don't have 8 bosses hassling me but the whole point about working my ass off for no benefit really hit home this week. The company announced that they were going to reduce the work force by 10% starting in a couple of weeks. Trouble is, they won't be done until probably September. But what really bothers me is that no one knows exactly how these layoffs are going to be distributed. So everyone is in limbo. Morale is in the toilet. Profits are down because we can't seem to make a chip without a bunch of huge bugs these days. Nothing I can do will help with the fundamental design flaws we've been seeing. I really do think it's time to start seriously looking to make a "voluntary career path adjustment". Trouble is, I don't know if I can afford it right now.

Thing is, I haven't been at AMD two years yet. So if I leave, I have to pay back a portion of my signing bonus and relocation expenses. On top of that, I just bought a house in August. And while Austin, TX hasn't been hit as hard by the housing bubble, things are slow and I'm not sure I can get out of my house without having to chunk in a bunch of cash of my own. Cash I don't have ready access to.

So I want to start looking for a safe place to land in case I'm hit by the layoffs but since I don't know if I'm going to get laid off any time soon or not, it's hard to commit to any offers I get. But if I get laid off, I'll be stuck in a position where I need to find something quick or I can get royally screwed with my health insurance. So long as I go from one company to another directly, I can continue health insurance. But if my insurance lapses, it'll be very difficult to get accepted by any new insurance since I have a preexisting condition (diabetes).

But I really think that I'm not going to be one of the people tapped by the layoff so worrying about all this probably won't matter anyway. Which pisses me off more because I'm going through all this uncertainty probably for nothing.

Life's a bitch some times.

So in the mean time, I'm not motivated at all to do any real work.  I've been screwing around surfing and playing games all morning...