Is it morbid to call getting fired serendipitous?
Last Friday, in the last of a series of discussions with my employer about my future with the company, we concluded that there is no such thing as my future with the company.
Having worked for him as a product manager (for a failed product), a project manager (for a project that is continuing to fail up to this day), an ISO certification manager (a resounding success), and the manager of the software development department (not a failure as such, but not quite a resounding success either), the fact of the matter is that we’ve run out of things I can usefully do for him.
His conclusion was that it was not in his interest to renew my contract after December 31st. My conclusion was that I could live with his, given that the current job market and my resume combine into good chances of finding something better fast. My conclusion was affirmed when he offered, and I accepted, the month of November off for job seeking. Ten minutes later, he had his favorite headhunter call me.
Oddly enough, his main motivation to grant me the whole month of November was NaNoWriMo. I’d told him about my intention to take part, and with his usual appreciation of personal passions, he’d immediately taken to the idea. Under the circumstances, he felt it would be in my best interest to allow me the time I needed to write a book in a month. He looked almost disappointed when I told him I’d use the time to find a job first, and write a book second.
This explains both the fact that I haven’t written a word on Friday and Saturday (having used those days instead to recover from the shock of getting fired), and that I suddenly have a sea of time and a very easy production schedule for completing NaNoWriMo. Budgeting four hours of writing time a day, I need to produce an easy 500 words an hour. Today, which was a rather slow day of writing, I ended up with 2,100 words in a little under 2.5 hours.
I’m wondering: should I stick to this easy schedule, or should I challenge myself and aim for 100,000…?
