Adam_B Uncensored

Okay, so I haven’t updated this as often as I had wanted to. I guess that’s an understatement. For the next couple weeks, though, I’m unemployed. I have a new gig lined up, but just in case you’re interested, here’s some fun reading material for you, after the jump.

To Whom it May Concern:

I would like to inform you of my intent to resign from Yahoo!, effective Friday, March 14, 2008.

I’ve very much enjoyed working for Yahoo! It’s typically been a great company to work for, and that’s why I was so surprised and disappointed by its recent decision to move me from the San Francisco office to the Sunnyvale office, thus increasing my commute by three hours a day. I consider that an exceptional hardship, and for a company that claims it wants its employees to have a life away from work, it was an action that seemed absolutely counter to that message.

Had the same thing been done to me after an acquisition from a competitor, the company would consider a resignation justified and provide me with six months’ severance. Apparently the company does not consider this a reasonable request under present circumstances.

Having been left with no other recourse, I feel I have no other choice but to leave the company.

-Me

 UPDATE: 2008-03-19 21:40 PDT

Just to clarify — that’s not three hours each way. It increased it by three hours a day total. So typically, the total time spent between my front door and my desk would be between three and four hours every day.

Yahoo! did provide a free shuttle both ways, so I at least had the means to get both ways.  And there was an upside: a long commute gave me some time to sleep or read the New York Times or whatever.

But it just ended up being too much. To put things in perspective, every week, I was essentially putting in two extra workdays in commute time.

All that being said, had I really enjoyed the new position, I might have toughed it out. But I just got the sense that the new position wasn’t going anywhere, and that they didn’t know what to do with me.

Plus, it’s just a gigantic corporation, and that doesn’t fit me right now. It’s a lot of bureaucracy, and stuff gets done at a pretty glacial pace. Projects don’t take weeks, they take months or even quarters. There are projects that even span into years, and I don’t feel that’s an acceptable pace for Web development.  I like getting stuff done, and I like getting stuff done quickly. If I feel a project is rewarding or exciting, I’ll be happy to work crazy hours or whatever to meet a deadline and get it done.  I just couldn’t find that kind of fulfillment at Yahoo.

Maybe when I “grow up,” I’ll be less willing to so fully commit myself to my work, but for the moment, I’ll be happier in a startup environment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.