Looking back over the last 11 years

It was just about 11 years ago that my favorite job ended. Yes I did work for a company that I really liked and thought I would be with them until I retired. They were an electrical connector company that I worked at for 12 years and went from an inspector to a supervisor.

When the owner of the company decided to retire he put the company up for sale. Looking back I don't see why he needed to sell it rather than become a silent owner. After all the company's profits were in the $15+ million range each year. Never the less he sold the company to that mega giant corporation, Tyco. If you know anything about Tyco, the company is known for buying small companies then shutting them down. They want the sales connections and their technology but not their employees. So that is what happened, Tyco bought the company and within a year shut it down and laid everyone off.

Since the great layoff (over 300 people) many people have had very dramatic changes to their lives that use to work their. About 2 years after the layoff we had a get together in Santa Clara, CA to see what everyone was up to. The former owner was not there but was now residing in San Diego and was the owner of a soccer team. The vice president of the company had a divorce and now lived in Hawaii. Much of the upper management was now retired and living comfortably off of their share of the $53 million that Tyco paid for the company. Even the daughter of the former owner, that was now living in San Diego has a bright new career at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a marine biologist.  Many former employees were still struggling to find work that even came close to what they were earning before the layoff. I was among them. Yes I was working but those jobs lasted under a year till the next layoff. None were even close to what I would call another dream job.

Last year I found out more about some of the people I use to work with and what happened to them. One women moved from California to Texas and became a real estate agent.  Another women I worked with moved back in with her ex-husband because she could not afford to live on her own. One of the men that use to work on the production line was now holding down 2 full time jobs and was commuting 4 hours every day to them. We moved from CA too (6 years ago) and found a cheaper place to live. I also discovered ways to make money from home like selling stuff on eBay and writing for Yahoo. I never in a million years would have thought that I would write for a living, but I do.

Now that I live outside of CA, I find myself wanting to go back and visit the places I never had the time nor money to visit when I lived there. Two places I have never been to are Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo. Of course now it costs more in the form of air travel to go to see those places when before they were just a long car trip away. Oh well, I get to see them eventually. 

I think all of our lives have changed since Tyco laid us off.