A new position

Following the round of layoffs earlier this month, little clarity about the present, nor the future has emerged from the fog.  One thing I do know, though, is that as of today, I'm the new design standards guy at PayPal.  The previous team was disbanded in the layoffs, and with successful experience creating standards at four companies to date, I gave our acting director a clear, comprehensive proposal he couldn't turn down.  How much of that proposal I'll actually be allowed to execute upon remains to be seen.

The grim reaper's scythe has fallen yet again

Layoffs.  The happen all the time, but you can never get used to them.  We've all known cuts were coming, yet the way they hit left everyone I know in total shock.  Among the eBay portfolio of companies, PayPal is the strongest, the most profitable, and the one with the largest upside potential, by far.  Members of the design group at PayPal?  Very busy.  Always.  When a full third of our ranks were slashed over the course of the past two days, all productivity came to a grinding halt, the "survivors" left in a stunned stupor.  Almost every level, from new contractor to senior director, has been impacted.

This is crippling.  I thought we were understaffed before.  Now things really get hard.