Plan B

So, as I have mentioned before, I have been somewhat worried about getting laid off from U.Va. in the coming year. Most people at work think I am paranoid, but I guess I have learned from the past that surprises do happen and nothing is completely for certain. Just the fact that we have received a few emails detailing how they are trying to avoid layoffs - sends a signal to me that they might be coming. If they truly were surely not going to happen - why mention anything about them at all?

Hopefully it will NOT happen, but I am emotionally and mentally preparing myself beforehand in case they do. I have decided that I am going to go to Graduate School to get my Master's Degree if I get laid off from this job. I will probably got to Virginia Commonwealth University to do it as they are the top ranking public University in regard to the Arts in the country and within driving distance from where I live.

I think it is a great alternate plan - I would totally be okay with that. I think it would make my career much better in the long run as well.

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Turmoil

Over the past few weeks, things have been pretty hectic at work. We have been receiving emails about how the University is facing tough times ahead and that they are doing everything they can to protect the workforce and avoid layoffs. That is somewhat comforting news, but I am well aware that I am not out of the woods yet. On top of the economic worries and uncertain future, we are also being forced to accept that there will be no pay increases for at least two years and all open positions will remain unfilled. That means less help and more work for everyone.

At least I still have a job.

I did reach a milestone last week - I worked with the Webmaster to redesign the homepage of the Arts & Sciences website. I did some initial design comps based on her wireframes in Photoshop, which she modified a bit... then I refined the details, built out the new slideshow, sliced the images, and wrote all of the xhtml and css code. I finally launched it after testing and debugging in Internet Explorer  6.0 (GOD I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL THIS BROWSER GOES AWAY FOREVER) on friday. Seriously, by the end of the day yesterday I had a raging headache and had to pull over to puke twice when driving home from work.

I do not handle stress well. :(

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