I am so feeling like a computer geek right now

[Captain Kidd]

I'm at home working on a school project during fall break.

If that's not bad enough, I've got dual monitors on my desktop, both displaying windows for said project. Two PowerShell consoles, OneNote, and Notepad++. I needed to review the book, which I have in ebook form, so next to the desktop monitors sits my laptop.

I went downstairs to make some coffee and when I came back upstairs the sight of three monitors in a neat curve around my chair made me chuckle at myself.

[Tucson_Tim]

You're ruining it. I thought you were a locomotive engineer.

[Captain Kidd]

Not completely ruined, I am a fireman, although I'm suppose to get my student engineer card sometime this past March or April. (They're a wee bit slow.) So I'll be an engineer in a couple years. I'm a volunteer for a railroad museum. The fun's in the hobby, railroading is not a career I'd choose.

In "real life" I'm a grad student; after getting laid off from the nuclear industry. (Although they're emailing me like crazy trying to get me back. They've now realized that laying off 75 people didn't exactly cause quality to skyrocket like they thought it would.)

[Tucson_Tim]

They've now realized that laying off 75 people didn't exactly cause quality to skyrocket like they thought it would.

Bummer. The company I work for lays people off then replaces most of them with contractors, which are cheaper and can be let go in a moment. Oh well.

[Fazor]

They've now realized that laying off 75 people didn't exactly cause quality to skyrocket like they thought it would.)
Isn't that funny how that works? I oft wonder how the conversations in the exec offices go.
Exec 1: Gee, sales are down, and now I don't know if I can make my yacht payment this month? What will we do?
Exec 2: You see, Ted, if we lay off workers, we can keep the same pay even with the lower profits.
Exec 1: Brilliant! I'll be back after lunch, I'm gunna go shop for a 5th Beamer for my wife, she got some mud on the last one.
<Post-Lay-Off>
Execs 1&2: We don't understand! We're paying less people to do the same ammount of work, and we're still losing money! For some reason, they're not getting the job done! Lets fire some more to make examples out of them!
<Few months later>
Exec 1: Gee, nothings getting done around here. Do you think we should hire some more workers?

[Captain Kidd]

Bummer. The company I work for lays people off then replaces most of them with contractors, which are cheaper and can be let go in a moment. Oh well.
We charged the plants just over $50/hr to do work for them (gotta love weird budgeting where the company pays itself), the contracting firm that replaced us charges over $100/hr.
Now that's complicated a bit by the fact that the cost to run our org was well over $50/hr (but not $100). What didn't get covered by the plants was supplied by the main company. So, overall they did save some by dropping us, but suddenly the plants have to pay twice the amount for the same amount of work. Or, do half the amount of work to remain in budget. Yeah, safety and maintenance is #1, until the budget limit is met.

It's like saving $20 by not changing your car's oil only to buy a new engine later. That happens a lot in any company though. Ignore preventive maintenance to save a little now only to pay a lot more later.

[Tucson_Tim]

The company I work for will lay off contractors in November and re-hire them in January just so they aren't on the "funny-money" books at end of year. Makes sense to them.