Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Going through the motions

I have been catching myself doing this pretty regularly at work lately. My motivation has been more or less completely drained, as the company has systematically eliminated any form of incentive for advancement as part of cost cutting measures put into place during the past two years. Not only that, they have restructured, read cut, our pensin and benefits packages. In short, they are making the same anti-personnel, pro-profit maneuvers that most American companies have made a part of their corporate philosophy over the past two decades. Collective morale has accordingly declined to the point that they suspended the employee satisfaction survey, because the question of whether or not employee satisfaction was high became a redundant question. Most of the people I talk to today, even the movers and shakers within my department are dissatisfied. A majority of us are formulating plans to move on at this point. The dwindling number of good reasons to stay makes the decision to leave a much more attractive one.

That's not to say that it is all bad. I draw a decent salary, still work for/with a couple of my oldest friends and generally have a good time, but the long outlook is starting to seem less and less positive. Not only that, but my interests are starting to meander a bit, so I am more open to exploring options. The Company has been good to me, but this is not the same company and my loyalty to their agenda is directly proportianate to my perception of their loyalty, which is to say nothing short of nil. Things have certainly changed over the past three years...

Believe it or not, the comic strip is STILL a work in progress. I probably have a total or an hour and an half or so wrapped up in it. I have been so busy with other things that most of the work has been in ten or fifteen minute stints. As it sits, 3/4 of the panels have been "inked", which means I am almost home. The funny part is that this little strip is not even particularly funny. In fact, I'll be lucky to draw a chuckle out of anyone who doesn't know Manboy and The Chancellor directly, but that no longer matters to me. All I care about at this point is getting the damn thing done. Expect to see it in a day or two. You will be underwhelmed, but we all have to start somewhere. ;)

Time to get back to work...

Posted by Erik @ 9/12/2006 11:12:00 AM