How To Lose a Job in 10 Days

Okay, I didn't lose my job. But there have been two co-workers that have been "let go" in the past three weeks. I'm currently working on a high profile project, one that is surely a "lifetime" building. This mean that I will probably never in my career see another project of this size/scale/type again. This also means that there are lots of people involved and everyone is required to pull their weight. Which is also a part of the difficulty in understanding these firings. If we are so strapped for people, why were these workers let go and yet other that were even less productive are allowed to stay? I didn't know these two people very well so I can't satisfy my curiosity. However, it does put things into perspective for me. It doesn't really matter how hard you work for your employer, because when push comes to shove and they need your spot for someone better, you can bet that you will be asked to leave. Sure, you can put in your hours and be as productive as you possibly can be, but once they see that you aren't living up to their expectations of you, they will can your butt rather than see where you may be needing help or guidance. There's a saying in Chinese and I think it sums up how I've decided to deal with this situation. The saying was told to me again by a friend and I think it fits quite well. It goes, "If you have your hands and feet, you have nothing to worry about." Which is very true of most of the Chinese culture. We are usually very hardworking and dedicated to our jobs. The exceptions seem to only apply to the Chinese workers in my office which I find extremely odd and annoying. But in general, we work without much complaint. However, the western culture doesn't foster hardworking individuals, instead it punishes them by giving them more work and higher demands. I've ranted on this subject before so I won't dwell on it. But it's just becoming more and more apparent to me. With that bit of background information about my week. You know I am going to need this weekend. I'm hoping to get at least a few hours of solid gaming in somewhere in the next two days. I've started to swim everyday at lunch to try and get back into shape so that should boost my energy level a little bit. For the mean time, I'm still hooked on Lost and I can't seem to stop watching Season 3 even though it seriously lacks the tension and suspense of the previous two seasons. Lets see how Season 4 will turn out. Oh, and I'm still looking for a Macbook Pro. With the latest refresh being not that substantial, I'm probably going to wait until June or right before September to see what else Steve will bring to the table. Peace.