Mr. Me

A little glimpse of me.

Beginnings and Endings

· by Mr. Me · General

Yesterday I received my first paycheck from Altiris. I also received my severance check from Symantec. I found it ironic that they would both come on the same day.

Things are going well at Altiris. I'm starting to feel a tiny bit comfortable with some of the stuff I'm working on, which is a good sign. I can't wait until a few months down the road when I know (for the most part) what I'm doing. But for now, I'm content to learn, and, more importantly, my boss is content with that as well. I'm in a good work environment. I'm actually already starting to enjoy myself at work. That's DEFINATELY a good thing.

As for my severance check from Symantec... HOLY FREAKING CRAP! Thanks for taking so much of it, Uncle Sam. I hope you enjoy your interest-free loan until April, you bloated, greedy government you!

It's interesting to me to think about how much it will cost Symantec to close their American Fork lab. The people that were there were, for the most part, people that had been with Symantec for multiple years. So realistically, it cost Symantec a couple MILLION dollars just in severance packages. If they're paying COBRA health insurance for the people they laid off, there's an additional $1300+ per month per laid off employee. And then there's the cost of flying management back and forth, the cost of moving tons and tons of computer equipment from American Fork to Houston, TX... Millions of dollars were spent to relocate engineering positions from one location to another.

Yet businesses do this type of thing on a regular basis. I'm sure that Symantec thinks it will more than make up those costs by running ONE lab in Houstan instead of the two labs.

And then I start thinking again that none of this matters any more to me. It's still difficult to stop thinking of Symantec as "we" and Altiris as "you" and to reverse those positions.

I still maintain that Symantec was a great place to work for the five years that I worked there. Now I'm hoping that I'll be able to stay here at Altiris for a good long time.