Rolfe Schmidt

On Friday I found out that I’ll be losing my job soon.

I saw it coming.  Business has been slow and if there is no money, you can’t pay people.  It was what the company needed to do, and because the company is really a group of my best friends it is what I wanted to happen.

I got spoiled at this job.  It’s the only place I’ve worked where I really respected everyone I worked with.  There was absolutely no BS, no politics, just a joint desire to be really productive.  Of course we hoped to make money in the process, and I hope that will still happen.

It was the only job I’ve had where I felt legitimately productive.  I’ve worked at a few companies where I built more impressive technology or had loftier sounding ambitions, but with these guys I actually got to talk with plenty of paying customers who told me how much they loved the software, how much time and money it saved them, how the latest features where just what they wanted.  That is much more satisfying than feeling that you’re getting paid by some philanthropist’s hope or some venture capitalist’s dreams.

But we write software for construction subcontractors, and our customers are having trouble.  If they don’t have money, they can’t buy.  It’s not like business is disastrous, it is just not good enough.  And everyone will be less productive if the company doesn’t make it.

So now I’m free.  Hoa and I have decided not to make any big decisions for a couple of months.  No new jobs, no big moves, nothing like that.  I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure I can stay at home with the kids.  I’m only going to take a full-time-commute to-the-office job if I need to, and for now I don’t.

The big issue is getting health insurance.  It is expensive and I don’t trust insurance providers at all.  When I get private health insurance I feel like they will happily take my premiums when times are good, but I’m never sure what they’ll do if I actually have a big claim.  It feels like we have a dispute with our insurers for almost every doctors visit, and there have been a few this year (new baby, broken leg, and more).  At least they’ll help us get negotiated rates so the hospitals don’t rip us off like they do the poor cash-paying customers.  But still, it is a little uncomfortable.  So maybe we’ll cancel that family base-jumping trip to Yosemite.

So now we need to figure out what comes next.  I’m not convinced I ever want to work as a programmer again unless I can have a situation as good as the one I’m leaving.  I love teaching, but I’m not sure I’ll love a teaching job.  Especially now, when I want to have time at home with my kids.  I am selfish that way.

Anyway, my apologies if I’m posting a lot of irritated sounding stuff about investments and the economy.  They’re on my mind a bit lately.