Free Agentry

Potential layoffs are a persistent fixture in some industries, like some kind of Sword of Damocles looming over them in perpetuity. With the recent advances in AI and the weak economy battering industries of all description, the rate is only accelerating. Perhaps anecdotally, Tech is one of the worst affected in the current climate, with nearly 50k laid off already in 2024 alone, and over 250k in 2023 according to the Layoff Tracker.

And so, perhaps it’s not too much of a surprise that the insatiable monstrosity has turned its withering gaze upon me once more. The last time I was laid off was in the year 2000. I worked at a subsidiary of McLeodUSA, and while they filed for Chapter 11 in 2002, they were having financial problems long before then. Frankly, I wasn’t surprised at all when they ceased to exist entirely in 2008.

My tenure at 2ndQuadrant and then EDB has been fantastic, and I have no regrets at all. I had the opportunity to work with some of the most exceptional minds in the industry, and I’m certain I’ll encounter these men and women as coworkers again in the future. The Postgres community abides, and colleague or no, we’ll see each other again in the various mailing lists, Slack and Discord channels, Reddit, and all the other places we’ve collectively called home.

I’ve contributed to projects that will bear my name and influence for years to come. I’ve written a book on Postgres High Availability. I blog as I learn so others have a valuable resource they can use in the future. I’ve spoken at dozens of conferences, user groups, and webinars since 2011. I’m not going anywhere; I’ll just be funded by a different source once the dust settles.

So yes, please do express your regrets at my untimely—if fleeting—fate; I appreciate the sentiment. Please do call or open up a chat window to catch up and maybe voice your condolences. But don’t cry for me Argentina, for bigger and brighter things await in this new beginning. My goal is always to be the best there is at what I do, and I think my record speaks for itself so far. Regardless, I’ll never stop learning new things, and I’ve got two Dell R730s hosting a K0s Kubernetes cluster in my basement ensuring that’s the case. I’ll hit the ground running.

And as I always say in situations like this: Vaya con Queso!