![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fuzzygrufThis morning I called Spherion, the outplacement services company that is part of my severance package. It turned out that there was an orientation session today at 2pm, so I signed up for that.
First, Steve and I got lunch at Osaka, then had coffee at the newly-opened Le Bon Gateau. The patisserie was decorated very nicely. My double latte was served in a bowl. WTF? Oh well, I slurped it down like the miso soup I had at Osaka. The desserts looked good. Seems like a great alternative to meet a date instead of the less-discreet Starbears.
After coffee, we went to, yep, Starbears. We chatted with a couple from Denver. I was wearing the polo version of My Job Went To India... shirt. One of the guys asked if I'd give quantity discounts for the shirts. Heck, if I got quantity orders, I could invest in at least a one-color workstation and print them myself.
Left from there and went to Spherion. I had written down the address. It was on the corner of Sansome and Clay. I signed in at the lobby desk, then went up to suite 750. Oops. Wrong address. Oh, 475 Sansome, not 450. Signed out, then crossed the street to 475 and repeated sentence #4 of this paragraph.
There were four of us for orientation. One other person was from Schwab and recognized me or my India shirt. Orientation only lasted about 45 minutes. She went over all the services available to us for the next month. We filled out some forms and will be assigned a consultant within the next two days. This service will let us reserve an office for four hours at a time. (Hmmmm. I could turn tricks downtown?) If the seven available offices are all in use, we can use one of the many cubicles. (Not so good for the trick thing.) Each office and cubicle has a PC with internet access. We can print, fax, and make copies. (Oh good! I can copy music for free before my next Gary-aoke!) We can set up phonemail and let the office screen our calls. They'll printtrick business cards for us. (Free.) They'll pay postage for any job search mail. There is lots of training available. I'm pretty impressed. Glad I'm taking advantage of it.
First, Steve and I got lunch at Osaka, then had coffee at the newly-opened Le Bon Gateau. The patisserie was decorated very nicely. My double latte was served in a bowl. WTF? Oh well, I slurped it down like the miso soup I had at Osaka. The desserts looked good. Seems like a great alternative to meet a date instead of the less-discreet Starbears.
After coffee, we went to, yep, Starbears. We chatted with a couple from Denver. I was wearing the polo version of My Job Went To India... shirt. One of the guys asked if I'd give quantity discounts for the shirts. Heck, if I got quantity orders, I could invest in at least a one-color workstation and print them myself.
Left from there and went to Spherion. I had written down the address. It was on the corner of Sansome and Clay. I signed in at the lobby desk, then went up to suite 750. Oops. Wrong address. Oh, 475 Sansome, not 450. Signed out, then crossed the street to 475 and repeated sentence #4 of this paragraph.
There were four of us for orientation. One other person was from Schwab and recognized me or my India shirt. Orientation only lasted about 45 minutes. She went over all the services available to us for the next month. We filled out some forms and will be assigned a consultant within the next two days. This service will let us reserve an office for four hours at a time. (Hmmmm. I could turn tricks downtown?) If the seven available offices are all in use, we can use one of the many cubicles. (Not so good for the trick thing.) Each office and cubicle has a PC with internet access. We can print, fax, and make copies. (Oh good! I can copy music for free before my next Gary-aoke!) We can set up phonemail and let the office screen our calls. They'll print
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-28 06:19 am (UTC)tricksjobs too much. :)no subject
Date: 2004-09-28 02:54 pm (UTC)I've got to say that I'm impressed with the services paid for by your ex-employer. A far cry from my no-notice layoff in 2002 which was "here's your paycheck, 2 weeks severance, pack your shit by noon and get out!". I've got to admit that I enjoyed deleting all those irreplaceable work files off my laptop, ooops, sorry!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 12:21 am (UTC)I spotted that Le Bon Gateau this morning after my Dr's appointment. Looked really nice inside. I came really close to going in and checking it out. I'll have to check it out more thoroughly next time i'm over that way