Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[davidschroth]

Someone in corporate, in their not so infinite wisdom, decided that we, as a corporation, don't really need any of our corporate libraries. So they shut them down.

They acknowledge that we, as R&D organizations, might actually have a need of some of the books and periodicals in our libraries to do R&D. So they're giving us two weeks to come up with a list of the holdings that we think we need to keep. Once they get the list, they'll decide what further they need to do.

I just got the list. I/we have two weeks to select the keepers from a list of ~11,000 books.

Argh.

I gotta believe, with current corporate management, that shorting Unisys stock is a winning proposition.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"I gotta believe, with current corporate management, that shorting Unisys stock is a winning proposition."

Don't be giving out insider stock information now.

B [typing from your living room]

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Hey! Are you guys taking down Nico's favorite tree? Because I'm sure he didn't approve.:)

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

They're just putting the tree into protective custody so it will be in good shape when next he visits the tree...

Tree

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We tied it up so it wouldn't get away.

B

Tree

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

The tree is so far gone you can't see it from here.

B

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I don't think my opinion that Unisys upper management are total idiots qualifies as insider stock information...

Since you're typing from my living room, I'm guessing that there won't be any brownies left when I get home...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Likey there won't be. But it's not about "left"; it's about them not being here in the first place.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I did have some beef w/ broccoli, though.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

And we opened the cheese, salami, and bread.

B

Brownies

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

But no brownies.

B

Re: Brownies

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

"You can fool some of the people some of the time..."

But you can't fool me. I saw the meatloaf, and the brownies, and the ice cream. Saw them disappearing into your mouth, is what I saw...

Re: Brownies

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That was K.

B

[s6b.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, what is Treddy doing? (I assume that they're in the same boat.)

As for shorting Unisys stock, if that's truly what you believe, may I humbly suggest that it's (long past) time for you to spruce up your resume and start networking?
I don't think that it would be good for the Company to lose you (or probably any of the others still there), but trying to rely on the fact that the person who's job you're generally doing died at it rather than being fired to get you to retirement doesn't sound like a good gamble.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

All of the corporate libraries were whacked.

I'm not yet ready to give up on my architecture and customers. As best I can tell, Chuck (CRC) feels much the same way - we're both working on (different) task forces to come up with something more sensible than the mess Daiuto left us with (why oh why won't that man just go away?).

And most of the time, I'm successful at not remembering that I'm effectively attempting to replace Hans (and Pete, and Wayne).

[s6b.livejournal.com]

All of the corporate libraries were whacked.

Yeah, I got that ... I was asking what the body in Treddy who was given the list of 10K+ books and magazines to select from/dispose of in 2 weeks had come up with.
Since the A-series folks are closer to the suits and have been at emulating their hardware longer than the 2200 folks, I was curious if he/she might be in a slight better position with regard to accomplishing the task in some reasonable fashion.

I'm not yet ready to give up on my architecture and customers. As best I can tell, Chuck (CRC) feels much the same way - we're both working on (different) task forces to come up with something more sensible than the mess Daiuto left us with (why oh why won't that man just go away?).

To quote from Danny Devito (AKA "Larry the Liquidator") in "Other People's Money":

This company is dead.
...
We're dead alright. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go
broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.
...
At one time, there must have been dozens of companies making buggy whips. I'll bet that the last company around was the one that made the best God damn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company?

I think I would be remiss as a friend not to point out to you whenever the situation presents itself that the Company has already dumped a lot of loyal employees (at least some of whom presumably hadn't given up on the architecture or the customers either at the time they were let go) and that it still doesn't seem to have come up with a reasonable strategy to save itself (or you).
Therefore I still think that it would be *A Good Idea* for you to be preparing your "parachute" just in case.
If you've already ascended the corporate food chain high enough so as to be given a golden one, then please disregard my comment.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got that ... I was asking what the body in Treddy who was given the list of 10K+ books and magazines to select from/dispose of in 2 weeks had come up with.
Since the A-series folks are closer to the suits and have been at emulating their hardware longer than the 2200 folks, I was curious if he/she might be in a slight better position with regard to accomplishing the task in some reasonable fashion.

Beats the heck out of me. Each location is responsible for coming up with their own list of materials to retain (which is unfortunate - Tredy and MV each have a copy of a book I want, and we don't).

As far as being high enough up the corporate food chain to receive a golden parachute - fat chance. I'm thinking it would help, tremendously, if I'd worked at HP recently...