Penchuk.com

Something that this country is really lacking is civility.   January 20, 2009, was an incredible day for the United States, regardless of your politics.  The peaceful transfer of power, the breaking of a racial barrier, the pride that a large portion of our population felt, and more made the day memorable and historic.

Yet, as I cruise the internets, I’m disappointed at the images and comments that I see about Bush.  Add in the news that he was taunted with jeers and goodbye songs during today’s ceremony, and it is disappointing.

I’m not going to argue for or against Bush’s positions and record over the past 8 years, but I do believe that he is entitled, (yes entitled) to a certain amount of respect, as is EVERY ex-president, Republican or Democrat.

UPDATE:  More of the same.

Today I met an impressive, older gentleman. The man struck me as a self-made entrepreneur that has had a lot of success in his life. I just happened to Google him and found his LinkedIn page. I didn’t think he would even be on there, but he was.  Check out the screenshot from his profile:

Perhaps this gentleman is a little bit more plugged in than I realized.

Well, that’s how my New Year’s Eve started.  My phone rang around 9:30AM from my boss who asked me to come in to the office (I had been on vacation) to discuss a “restructuring”.  Long story short, my job at RegEd was eliminated effective immediately.

My position had been a mixture of three jobs:  managing the implementation, product management and quality assurance departments.  The company decided to parcel out those responsibilities to a few other folks and make what I was assured was “entirely a financial decision”.  Since I had been ranked as one of the top performers in the company just last March, I can only assume there is some truth to that.  As a senior manager, I think I had too much to do and a decent salary.  Unfortunately, it made me an easy target.

I spent over five years with RegEd and watched it go through interesting times.  We were bought and sold twice, we purchased two companies, we released four or five new products, and had a string of five profitable years during my tenure.  There is no question that I put an imprint on that company.  I instituted the requirements process in the development cycle.  I was responsible for some of those new products.  My record is one of 100% employee retention.  I retained 98%+ of the revenue that I was responsible for guarding.  I turned around multiple client problems and had those clients sign long-term deals.  I re-invigorated a department that was completely unhappy and in the process, cut overall implementation times by 30%.  There’s a lot more, too.  In the end, I’m incredibly proud of the work I did.

There are a number of people with whom I have made lasting friendships and dozens of other good people there.  My employees were great and they always tried hard to do their best.  I will miss them.  Many of them have sent kind words and encouragement, and for that, I thank them.

As for me, I need to move on to something new.  We’re going to be OK for a while, but I quickly tire of idleness.  It’s in my nature that I need to be doing something productive or I’ll get antsy.  Hopefully, future posts here will have good news.  Happy 2009!  )