Jensen & Chin and Beyond
I was living in San Francisco and working at Jensen & Chin (J&C) with my two friends Gary and Mona. My last day at Tymshare was a Thursday and I started with J&C the very next Monday. I would have liked to have take a little time off first as I had not really taken a vacation since my honeymoon with Kathy and that was only for a few days. I had pretty much been working non-stop for four years, only taking the occasional day off. But, the agreement I made with Gary and Mona was I'd start right away. I had previously planned a vacation to Hawaii with my brother Pete for later that summer. That was going to be my first vacation since that honeymoon back in the spring of 80. I was still working at GBS (General Business Systems) then. It was now 1984. Gary and Mona OK'd it providing I completed a number of pressing projects first. That did not seem like a problem as I felt confident I'd be able to accomplish that.
J&C shared an office with another company that they were partnering with run by Phil who had been the Vice President and part owner of our old company GBS. They shared clients with Gary and Mona doing all the software work and Phil's company taking care of all the hardware needs. Phil had always liked me. We all knew each other and so the office was very friendly. Since I was so familiar with the work I could just come in and immediately hit the ground running as I was already an expert in that area. I could be productive from Day One.
Everything started out fine at J&C but before long I started having trouble concentrating on work and my production started to go down. For the first time in my working career I was having trouble completing assignments timely. I was still managing to complete them but it was requiring more effort than it should have. I was struggling to fully concentrate for a sustained period of time. My mind just wouldn't do it and I didn't know why. It was frustrating. I was perplexed as to why I was struggling. Soon my vacation to Hawaii was looking to be in question. As the deadline approached for canceling my Hawaii trip I was uncertain as to whether I would complete the work I promised to complete at J&C.
Of course, another factor was my relationship with Heidi was just getting started. I was spending most of my time with her. I was thinking that if I was going to take a vacation at this point I wanted it to be with Heidi. I mean I love my brother, but taking a vacation that did not include Heidi, who I was always thinking about, seemed less than ideal. So that combined with my struggle to complete my work with J&C on time led me to cancel the Hawaii trip. Pete was disappointed and I was somewhat too but my disappointment was highly mitigated because of Heidi. I think you know how it is, in the beginning of a relationship when you are falling in love everything you do together seems more interesting than even an exotic vacation where you are not together. I mean I was at the stage where just going to the store together to buy a loaf of bread was fun.
Even after canceling my vacation plans I continued struggling as I just could not get myself to perform at the level I was accustomed to. What was wrong with me? As the weeks and months went by it was clear something had to change. Phil, seeing me struggle, gave his GBS partner, Larry, who was now the head of a division at Zentec (I may not have the name exactly right) a call. Zentec was developing a new UNIX based mini-computer. Larry had brought all of the GBS software with him to Zentec and they were modifying and upgrading it to run on their newly developed UNIX computer. Woody, who I also knew from GBS, he'd been a software manager there, was in charge of that development. Phil called Larry. Larry talked with Woody. Woody called with an offer to work with him at Zentec. After talking with my friends Gary and Mona we all agreed things weren't working out like we had hoped so I accepted the offer. Woody told me I could take some time off before starting and I did. I started work at Zentec on the week of Thanksgiving so my first week was only 3 days long after which I got another 4 days off. My first day I completed my first assignment, Woody was ecstatic that I was able to be so productive the very first day, and I was pretty happy myself.
When I returned from another 4 days off, Thanksgiving weekend, I felt completely refreshed. I was able to fully concentrate again! I seemed to suddenly be back to my old self. I was so relieved that I jumped into my new assignments. Looking back I realize that my problem had been that I was burnt-out and all I needed was just a break from the constant IT programming pressure.
The next week I learned that Zentec would close for a week over the Christmas Holiday. It was a week paid holiday and that was now less than 4 weeks away. After the Christmas Holiday break I showed up early for work on the Tuesday after the Monday New Years Day holiday. I was in the midst of writing a program when Woody came around the office telling us all to go home early. I was buzzing along and did not want to stop so I kept working. Finally Woody came into my cubicle and told me to stop and go home. He said he appreciated my hard work but it could keep until we returned Wednesday. So I reluctantly packed up and went home..
When I arrived at work Wednesday morning I was informed that there was a 9:00 division meeting. Larry and Woody were both up front leading the meeting. Larry said a few words thanking us for our hard work and then turned it over to Woody. Their message was that the new computer the company had been developing was not going to be competitive and so the company was canceling the whole project. They didn't say anything about what we would be doing going forward. So, I raised my hand and asked “With the project canceled what are we going to be working on?” Woody kind of smiled and replied “Dave, you don't get it. The division is being eliminated and we are all out of a job. All of us are being laid off.” I felt kind of dumb but I was even more stunned. My witty reply was “Oh”. After the meeting Woody explained to me that this was our two week notice and that coming in was optional as there was nothing to do. He said we could use the company's facilities to fix up our resumes and search for employment. I decided to use that day to update and print out my resume. I then packed up all my stuff, said my goodbye's to everyone, and never returned. I picked up my last pay check on the way out. It contained the current months pay plus one more month in it. I had only actually worked a total of 5 weeks over a 9 week period considering Thanksgiving and the one week Christmas holiday and 2 weeks notice. I ended up getting over 3 months worth of pay for just 5 weeks of work. I have to think Larry knowing me and that I had just left J&C to come work for him padded my severance pay. That job didn't last long but I gotta say the pay was great with a very generous benefits program.
So now it was January 4, 1985. In the last six and a half years I had worked for 5 different companies, 3 in 1984 alone. By contrast, my father had worked for the same company for almost 40 years. I was unemployed and looking for yet another company to work for. The good news was I had a bit of savings and did not have to feel rushed to find my next job. I could take my time to find a good fit.
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