For weeks there had been rumours that Microsoft was going to layoff staff.
Several other big tech companies such as Google, Intel and IBM have been doing
their own layoffs so it seemed very possible that Microsoft would do the same.
If Microsoft does, it would be the first large scale layoff in the companys history.
This week was supposed to be a historic and hopeful week with the inauguration of
Barack Obama as the 44th US President. But just two days later, news closer
to home overshadowed the hope with something more sobering. Watching the news on Thursday
morning before work, Cristina and I listened as details of Microsoft's quarterly
financial reports came through. It wasn't looking good. Layoffs were announced but they
listed practically every department so I wasn't sure if they were just being deliberately vague.
On the drive to work, I was thinking maybe the layoffs mostly affected departments like
sales and HR. After all, Google only laid off permanent staff within HR.
After lunch, I started messaging some of our Microsoft friends to get more information
about the layoffs. Unfortunately, several friends of ours and some former colleagues of mine
were affected by the layoff. I couldn't work out any pattern to the layoff since it affected
junior and senior Microsofties. For two of our friends, their circumstances are a little more
difficult than the others - they were both Aussies on workig visas. This means that if they don't
find a new team or company who'll sponsor them soon, they would have to move back home once
their official employment with Microsoft completes. Everyone is hoping they'll find something.
Even as we were dealing with the news of our Microsoft friends, we got news from other friends
who were affected by layoffs the same day. It seems 2009 is going to be a very tough year.
With all the layoffs happening in the tech industry, online discussions are starting to heat
up about the number of foreigners on working visas who still have jobs while residents are
losing theirs. Some people seem to think that companies like Microsoft recruit from India and
China because it is cheap labor and that when they have layoffs, foreign workers should be the
first to go. I can certainly feel their frustrations and their arguments seem reasonable
on the surface but it's completely misguided. It may be cheaper for Microsoft to set up branches
in India or China but once the workers are brought to the US, it generally costs more because
there are relocation costs and the foreign workers in the US get effectively the same or higher salary than the locals.
So when companies bring foreign workers into the US, they do so because they can't recruit
enough local talent to fill the positions they need.
The dirty secret about the tech industry is that there are a lot of graduates with degrees in
the field who just aren't qualified to work in the field. I remember when I was still at CorVu
trying to build up the team. Each position took months and piles of resumes before suitable
candidates were found. And that was after recruiting agencies had already filtered through them.
It's the same complaint at every company I've worked at.
lots of snowboarding
by peter . january 18
Before coming to Seattle, Cristina and I had been to the snow about 3 times and each of those times
I'd always go skiing. When we got here, I tried snowboarding and never looked back. The first two
seasons we really didn't get many trips to the snow so we didn't get much practice. Fortunately,
so far this season I've had the chance to get 6 trips in so I'm starting to feel more comfortable
on the snowboard. The first trip was in Salt Lake City during Thanksgiving, which we already blogged about.
Here are the trips we've had since then...
crystal mountain
After the Christmas party at our place, several of us decided to go snowboarding the next day.
We decided on Crystal Mountain because many of us, myself included, had never been there. We took
Denis' SUV and blindly followed the directions of the new Garmin Nuvi 760. The road to Crystal
was icy and snowpacked but we were able to get there in about 2 and a half hours. When we got
there, it was absolutely freezing. I don't think I have ever been that cold in my life. It was so
cold the camera actually stopped working several times and I would have to rub warmth into the
batteries to bring it back to life. On the Salt Lake City trip, I started trying to take videos
but all I got was snow. On this trip, I learnt my lesson and got better clips by pointing the camera
a little higher.
summit central
The day after Christmas, several of us decided to go for a full day (9am to 10pm)
of snowboarding at Summit Central in Snoqualmie, which is about 45 minutes east.
So far, this is Cristina's only trip for the season. She hasn't been keen as me
to go to the snow but I'm pretty sure that's going to change soon :)
We stayed until the place closed and I managed to get some video of the snowboarding
at night.
summit west
The day before New Year's Eve, several colleagues from work and some friends from
Amazon wanted to go snowboarding after work so I joined them.
mount baker
After the snow stopped, it started to rain. Unlike all the light rain Seattle normally got,
the rain was harder and continued for longer. It started to flow in lots of places and many
highways were either closed because of floods or avalanche danger. We checked the snow report
and found that Mt Baker was the only place that was open and accessible....so off we went. I
picked some friends on the east side and we arranged to meet some work colleagues coming
from the west side at MacDonalds within Wal-Mart in Lynnwood.
Mt Baker was a 3 hour drive up north. Being so close to the Canadian border, there were quite
a lot of Canadian number plates on the slopes.
We stayed until the lifts stopped running and we were stuck near a lift half way
up the mountain. There was no direct path down so we had to be dragged by a snowmobile out.
Despite stacking it twice while being dragged by the snowmobile, I'd have to say it
was the highlight of the day.
summit west
A few days after going to Mt Baker, several us needed another snowboarding fix
so off we went to Summit West after work again. Unfortunately, with all the rain,
lack of additional snow and warmer weather the slopes were now just packed ice
with maybe an inch of ice shavings on top. It was definitely a bad day to stack it,
which I managed to do at the end of the next video.
christmas update
by peter . january 6
We feel bad for not updating the blog over the Christmas/New Year holiday period so here's
a quick update:
(Will add photos when we get a hold of them)
shih tzu christmas party
Andy and Ellie hosted another shih tzu Christmas party at their place again this year.
We met a few regulars of the group along with a few fresh faces.
company "holiday" party
The company holiday party (I'm still not used to calling it that) was hosted at
my immediate manager's house. It was a nice, large house like one of those houses
you see from Street of Dreams show homes. The highlight of the party was the game
we played called "Troy or False" (our CEO's name is Troy) where we had to
write up four things about ourselves - three of which were false, but possibly true
while only one was actually true.
The idea was to come up with a list that would make it as difficult as possible
for others to pick out the true statement. Everyone then had to guess which statement
from each person's list was true. I learnt some pretty interesting things about
some of my colleagues.
The second round involved everyone our CEO going through a list of about a dozen
statements about himself and we had to guess if each were true or false. There were
certainly a number of gems in there.
our christmas party
As we did the previous year, we hosted the Christmas party at our place again.
Like we do with most events these days, we organized it through Facebook and sent out
invites to our friends asking people to bring a plate of food and a gift for the white
elephant gift exchange.
This year, we decided to have a little more fun and decorated our front yard with some
Christmas lights. During the party, it started snowing outside...the first snow fall
for the season. The snow lasted only a few days but we still got excited about it.
the snow before christmas
The week before Christmas we were warned from the weather bureau that a big winter
storm was headed into the area. The warning said the damage could be worse than the
one that caused the week long black out back in 2006. The storm didn't arrive when
we were told it would and when it did, most of it had diverted north. The snow fall
started modestly but it lasted several days. And just when it seemed like it was
going to ease off it started dumping heavily. Temperatures lingered around the freezing
point for the entire week and we about 18 inches of snow. As usual, all of Seattle
ground to a halt. Most of the people from our office were working from home for the duration of
the snow because the roads were too unsafe.
Many of the businesses in the area were either closed or operating on reduced staff,
citing the "snow-pocalypse" or "snow-magedon".
The conditions of the roads made it impossible for some businesses to get supplies
so those restaurants that were open were offering a limited menu. Most of the gas
stations in our area were closed because they had run out of gas and the refuelling
trucks couldn't get through. By the time Christmas came around, I couldn't even use the
car because I was almost out of gas and the only station open only had the low octane gas that
my car couldn't use.
winter wonderland
However, despite being snowed in Cristina and I took the opportunity to wander the area
on foot enjoying the winter wonderland that surrounded us. One interesting thing about
the snow is that it actually helped keep our house warmer at night. We would often turn
off the heater, leaving the house at a toasty 70 degrees and woke up with the house
sitting around 60 degrees despite it being about 30 outside.
christmas eve dinner
With many of our friends on vacation or spending time with family, those of us
still left banded together and organized a Christmas Eve lunch and dinner. For lunch
we went with the hotpot and for dinner we went with the traditional ham. In between,
we went with a few games of Settlers and Risk Godstorm.
(Will add photos when we get a hold of them)
christmas dinner with cori and duane
Cori and Duane invited us over for Christmas dinner with their family and friends.
They posted photos of their front yard with the Christmas lights on facebook so we knew
were we in for a treat. However, when we got inside the house we completely in awe
of how much they had gone out to decorate the place. There were lights in every corner
and on every shelf. There were Christmas trees in almost every corner of the house.
It was an impressive display.
