Semi-Daily Scribbles

Yesterday a couple of workmates and I met up with a colleague who’d recently been laid off. Since this fellow trained me, and I’ve now taken on most of his job responsibilities, one may presume this lunch meet-up to be awkward. Not so. Just four folks chewin’ the fat (we did have burgers, after all) and catching up. As luck would have it, our buddy went and broke his foot. Truly a bad break when you’ve lost your medical benefits. However, the upside to his newly acquired employment status is that he qualifies for financial aid through the government’s Displaced Workers Program. He’s been meeting with a career counselor to assemble the necessary documents to start applying to schools. He has his sights on the medical industry, perhaps x-ray technician or pharmacist. Certainly a departure from our collective backgrounds in telecom. Speaking of which, I mentioned that his former company now has us working on Saturday’s. An off-hand comment I regretted when he replied: “Yeah, that sucks…but not as much as being unemployed.” GULP. That last bite of turkey burger didn’t go down so well. It’s good when reality sends a reminder by whacking me upside the head.