Ethan Marcotte now blogs at Unstoppable Robot Ninja.

Weblog entry:

End of an era

My last job was what finally convinced me that I was one of the middle children of dot-com history: with less than a year of web experience, a former English literature major finds himself working for a small-but-bustling New York design firm. And it was an incredible company; they’d been around for years, did amazing work, and had never laid off a single member of their team.

Now, Eric was one of the more interesting designers in the studio. His work was gorgeous, bordering on the abstract, the beautifully psychedelic — and after speaking to Eric for a few minutes, you could see why. He was idiosyncratic, to say the least: he’d stroll in for work at around ten-thirty in the morning and/or leave an hour or two early, and Fridays were often optional in Eric-land. It was rumored that he was one of the founding fathers of NYC’s rave scene, which caused Eric to bring a certain wild-eyed (read: "disquieting as all hell") intensity to every conversation.

Of course, that little flash of insanity made Eric’s most memorable quality all the more special. The guy was seized with a love for all things George Lucas-related: his monitor was lined with Star Wars collectibles, he’d often find ways to slip Episode IV quotes into everyday conversation, and would often remind folks that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side. And of course, the coup de grâce came when Eric asked Rick, the studio’s owner, to adjust his paycheck to 1138 dollars, in honor of Lucas’ first movie, THX-1138.

Eric was, of course, fine with the fact that he’d actually be making less money than before. Trouble a Jedi not with details.

So by some downward blow of genius (or just plain bad luck), Eric was one of the first folks to get moved to the company’s new offices in midtown Manhattan. The studio had been recently acquired by a technology company, and the edict from above was consolidation — in other words, put the crazy artists in the same room as the Java developers. As we were still in the middle of a hiring boom, there were only a few folks sent over until the company could coordinate the full move.

So one sunny Manhattan afternoon, the executive VP of the company decided to inspect the new offices, get some updates on various construction projects. As he passed a storage closet, he heard a low, slightly mechanical sound.

Mrowr…

Curious, our fearless VP moved closer. He heard it again, louder now:

…mrowr…mrowr-mrowr…

The VP mustered up his courage, screwed it to the financial services sticking place, and flung the door open. There was our dear friend Eric, broomstick in hand, making lightsaber noises in a dark broom closet. He even offered a feeble mrowr for the VP’s benefit.

Who wasn’t, to say the least, impressed.

The next day, Eric was summoned back to the studio for an emergency meeting with Rick. Usually a jovial guy, Rick was obviously sweating a call he’d gotten from his new boss, and he was taking it out on our poor, beleaguered Jedi. Rick looked Eric straight in the eye, What the hell were you thinking?

Eric stared at Rick. It was a lightsaber, he said.

And that’s how the first layoff in the history of my old company came about.

Comments

Hooray, technical difficulties.

There’s a WordPress issue that’s currently preventing old comments from displaying correctly. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully we’ll be back online soon.