As of 4 o’clock today, I still have my job. 161 of my colleagues are not for fortunate.
There was a board meeting this morning, then HR set up shop in our building and started handing out the notices. We lost one guy in our group – brilliant programmer – and then heard stories throughout the day of great people being lost and whole departments being decimated. I kept a list of the ones I heard about – those absences will be creating some terrible gaps.
Tomorrow, the rest of those affected will be notified and we’ll hear more about our friends and colleagues losing their jobs.
It’s a dark time for the University.
I don’t know that anyone got much done today and tomorrow will be much the same. We’ll all kind of shell-shocked.
And then we’ll sort through the rubble, find the survivors, and start to rebuild. The start of the fall semester is a month away, but somehow we’ll pull it together.
I have a lot of questions that I know won’t be answered and a lot of worry and loss to deal with. I can’t imagine what those folks who didn’t make it are going through and they are in my thoughts tonight.
I’ll write more when I’ve had some time to process this. It’s just… too much right now and my heart is aching for my friends.