pshaw_raven | (no subject)

The last couple of weeks have been trying, and I'll try to sum things up for y'all without getting too deeply into the weeds of any particular. As you may know or have inferred, Fox works in tech and for the past couple of years has been handling the patching and maintenance of an HR/payroll system. He knows SAP really well and taught himself things like HANA and bob-j (business objects) in order to make sure this system runs regularly and on time so everyone can get paid. One major obstacle to that is that each little department has their own systems, and everything is cobbled together into one over-arching payroll system. Apparently one OS he needs to deal with is from the mid-90s.

In the interest of cutting costs, the company decided to "sell" his team and several others to another company, who would then employ them to work at Company A as contractors. With the accompanying decrease in pay, loss of benefits, etc. Losing our health insurance at this point would be a nightmare - in fact, Fox has an MRI appointment tonight for his lower back. Anyway, they would be contractors for one year, after which Company B would reassign them as needed ... or let them go. As needed.

Fox started contacting people he knew at other tech companies looking to get on there, and then the most fortuitous thing happened. A guy who has been a data warehouse dev since forever decided this was probably a good time to retire. And Fox's manager recommended him to fill the position. As of yesterday the paperwork has been signed, and the crisis is averted. The people he regularly works with see him as a valuable asset, since he's very good at programming languages, self-starting, and has worked at this company since it was AT&T way back in like, 1998. Fox has stayed at his job there as the various companies bought and sold the business. In fact once his old team was informed of his move, they were "distressed." Of course, I think they're also down to two now.

So that made the last couple of weeks an anxiety roller-coaster.

We're still "on" for a camping trip next week, since the time off was approved back in January. We'll be pulling the camper out tomorrow and starting to clean it up. As I said, he's got an MRI tonight, so we need to drive over to Baptist South for that. Earlier this week he had a neurology appointment where they determined he's got no nerve damage in his foot and leg, which is good, though it means his problem may likely be in his back. That's what tonight ought to tell us.