No recession?

You know things have truly reverted back to the pre-pandemic times when Zoom - the one technology that hard-carried us all through the pandemic - has also announced layoffs. It seems everybody is preparing for a recession that just can’t seem to arrive. The January jobs report was surprisingly strong, and the unemployment rate is at its lowest in 50 years. Doesn’t seem like we’re heading into a recession, does it?

I see layoffs in the tech sector as a mere reversion back to the pre-pandemic status quo. These companies hired massively for a reality and eventually that no longer exists. Zoom in particular tripled its headcount during the pandemic. Now that universities like the one I work at will soon return to completely in-person learning, the demand will taper off dramatically. In general, inflation and interest rates are high, therefore the appetite for spending is muted.

Even if most people are gainfully employed.

Still, it sucks tremendously to be laid off. And it doesn’t seem like the tech companies are firing only the people they’ve newly hired for the pandemic. That cohort is cheap compared to the folks who’ve been there for decades. When it comes time to trim the excess, there’s zero obligation to cut based on seniority. I directly know of a friend who got laid off from SalesForce, and she’s been there way before the pandemic years.

That’s what happens when the job is not unionized. I am glad my workplace is. If and when the cut hammer ever strikes again, at least I will have a buffer of 10 years of service credit to insulate me. No guarantees, of course. Which is why like everybody else, I am also personally preparing for a recession that may not arrive.

View fullsize

Going anywhere.

What would you say you do here?

At work we are (finally) hiring another person to the team. I’ve been drafted to be on the hiring committee, which is a pleasant surprise. It’s my first time ever being on a team to determine who to hire as a colleague. Previous experience is only with interviewing potential student assistants. It’s quite a step up, and not without some pressure. To have the power to (partly) determine someone’s fate regarding their gainful employment is something I take seriously.

Since the pandemic is still a thing, we are conducting interviews via Zoom. We’ve only done one thus far, and I have to say I hate it. It’s a pain to read out long and complicated questions, hoping the interviewee catches all of it. Perhaps this first guy is idiosyncratic in not being able to hear well over the Internet. On half the questions he had to ask for a second reading. I got the feeling that this could have been avoided, and the interview gone much smoother, if it were live in person.

Because it’s difficult to deduce body language and cues when the other party is trapped inside a computer display. The eye-contact you want to make just doesn’t come through via Zoom. The interviewee can’t gather any immediately feedback, on how we are reacting to his answers. With this first guy there were definitely times where he should have caught onto our subtle hints that his answers were dragging on too long. Again, difficult to convey over Zoom.

Nevertheless I look forward to the rest of interview and deliberation process. To have some impact on who I will get to work with for many years to come is such a privilege. No one else to blame if who we hire ends up being shitty and wholly unreliable!

View fullsize

For you in full blossom.

Zoom zoom

Someday, I am sure there will be books written on just how Skype have utterly lost the video-conferencing market to Zoom. In this new coronavirus world, Zoom has become the de-facto standard for remote communication, the keyword that comes out of the tongue when we wish to contact a group of people simultaneously. Zoom is now to video-conferencing what Kleenex is to tissue, an astounding achievement given that just a decade ago, Skype was the verb for remote video calling.

How the tables have turned.

Working in the field of IT support, it’s thanks to Zoom that my coworkers and I were able to transition to telecommuting so easily. More than simply providing a medium for face-to-face contact, Zoom has support-focused features such as remote control of a user’s computer, allowing us to troubleshoot as if the particular laptop were physical right in front of us. It even allows a tech to prompt a user to restart their computer, and upon boot up, Zoom would automatically launch and rejoin the same meeting.

It’s all rather magical, and it just works. (Shoutout to Apple.)

Of course, Zoom has nearly singlehandedly keep education alive during this quarantine, enabling teachers and students to conduct virtual classrooms. It wasn’t without an adjustment period, but for the most part, at least from an IT support perspective, Zoom has been consistent and super reliable. I can remember some time ago when Zoom was announced as the official conferencing platform for our school. My initial thought was: why not Skype? What the heck is a Zoom? Little did I know that many years later, Zoom would play such a crucial part to campus functions during COVID-19.

Of course, having a paid Zoom account - due to work - allowed me to host meetings with my friends on weekends. No need to worry about the 40 minute time limit that free Zoom accounts are restricted to. To be able to remotely gather around each Saturday to chat and play some games was a much-needed distraction from the lockdown situation, a semblance of the human connection we dearly missed being thus confined to our respective homes.

Microsoft isn’t hurting financially by any means, but they’ve got be a little sour that Zoom has taken the crown from Skype, right?

View fullsize

Morning rays of orange.