"started unpacking my box from the office i used to have. funny all of the things you seem to accumulate. cdr's with no labels. folders full of papers you have no idea why you kept them. frequent eater cards to places you haven't been to in years. a coffee mug that fell behind your monitor. pencils, pens, post-it's, folders, binders, paper pads, tacks, glue, staples, sugar packets, odd computer parts... "

[via Thom Allen's DotNet WebLog]

I hear you man, i totally do. Ive been there and my current concern is that i COULD be there within a matter of months. being employed by a Start-Up company has it's drawbacks (lately, mostly drawbacks..) and one of the biggest is the uncertainty of survival.

The market in israel is in pretty bad shape. I, as a programmer with 5+ Years exp. mainly in windows development using VB and lately C#, have a very slim chance of finding work that can both financially support me and my wife (who is also a VB6 programmer turned ASP.NET ) and in which i will not be creating crystal reports all day, but doing actual programming work.

It's hard. There are a LOT of compromises one has to deal with when working in a strtup today: Salary cuts, benefit cuts ,moving to a smaller location, and dealing with an annoying boss whom you KNOW you have no choice but to tolerate, since no other jobs are just lying around waiting for you. And yes, Ive been looking for about 3-4 months now for an alternative, but there just wasn't one that fitted me (and i was NOT looking for great benefits or salary, i even agreed going with what i have now and even less. I do NOT make alot of money, i make much less then avarage for my credentials).

phew, where did all that come out from? i guess i needed to share it. My point is i know where you are and I too have considered finding other form of employment area if I don't find anything in my area. I guess "Eye-opener" is a small word.  perhaps "A**  opener" would fit better.

My boss knows that in the state of todays economy, he could literally bully the employs and do practically what he wants, and he won't even hear a squeak coming from us (the 10 that are left). We just can't afford to lose our jobs. Thus, many of the programmers find themselves doing stuff on the job they never thought they would do : Fixing Servers, creating PowerPoint presentations, writing Marketing documents, editing Video files for marketing and basically everthing they SHOULD do.

This of course affects out ability to do actual work and lowers motivation to amazing depths. Everyone promises in their hearts that the day the situation is better, the boss will be amazed at how fast the company cleans out. And they are probably right. people have long memories, and they won't put up with something for nothing. eventually what goes around comes around. And i'm afraid that this is the situation today with many companies that are taking advatange of the situation. They will get what is soming to them BIG time.

I agree, cutbacks are sometimes required, but a company must also nurture it's working staff and inhouse knowladge. in fact, that is the most important thing i believe. preserving knowladge in your company builds strong companies. Treating your employees like handymen just because you can leads to disaster.

You are not alone Thom. The thin red line between Employment and unemployement just keeps getting thinner. everyone knows it could be them next. Stay strong and know that all over the world, there are people that feel just like you.