Everyone in the Lifeboats

Workload fell to where it has kept us below the float line for some time now. The backlog of work is there but no money is available to fund the projects. Even those from late last year that were supposedly financed have parked and are not moving. Had one owner want the design team to hurry up for a deadline for HUD submission which triggered the letter from the architect stating exactly how much money was required to cover unpaid invoices going back to September 2009, when it was required and how payment would occur for the work yet to be done to meet the requested due date. While valid, in the owner's eyes it essentially postponed or even killed the project. Better than spending time for invoices never paid.

The staff was not pleased to hear the news of our shutdown. Timing was such that doing it now allowed us to go out respectably with as much honor and fairness remaining to us. Certainly different from other companies that try to continue and simply bury themselves in debt to where the only choice is bankruptcy. We chose to bow out gracefully since we'll have to deal with the same people in future years.

The staff will receive letters of recommendation, assistance with resume preparation, assistance in partner contact with other companies for interviews and, of course, financial compensation due to them. The staff gone after June 11. The principals will be out of the office space by July 30 and working from their home office during August & September at about half-time. After that it's no job time although there will be some construction issues for which some design work may be necessary.

What will I do? Nothing firm yet although since I'm still getting over the reality shock of really going through with the shutdown. Slowly though I'm putting things together in my head, preparing some groundwork issues on my end and expect to have a plan ready by the end of June. I've been in the engineering business for thirty-five years and only been out of the loop for a few months early in my career. I want to look at this situation as a opportunity for better than to be negative and miserable.

Contrary to what most people experience during this economic bust, I'm actually thinking of taking some time off before plowing back into it. I long ago trained myself to save money for unexpected situations and I then expanded that attitude to where I have enough to hold out for well over a year. I've pretty much committed to staying in the business, at least 51% in favor of it now. Options for other work activities exist but I'm not sure about them. I have a natural bent for HVAC design and it has served me well. Passing along knowledge to younger engineers and designers would be a way of giving back. I certainly do not want to join a company with the goal of "buying" into the company.