Charging Through Life

Part 1: "I woke up one day and was working for a fitness company"

February 9, 2007 was the day I was laid off from Technicolor. I had worked there for 4-years. They were having their own restructuring issues and the company was sending staff off with week-ass severance packages in groups of 15 to 30 at-a-time. I got caught in round three along with the other two guys from my department.

Having been laid off once before from Duplitech, I knew I had to get a job; and with a looming mortgage over my head I had to do it fast!

Enter Beachbody. Well, rather Million Dollar Body, the experimental subsidiary division of the more "successful" Beachbody. I say "successful" because I had reservations about this company from before I stepped in the door for my first interview. My good friend Drew got me the interview but it was his long-time boyfriend, Brian, who had himself been laid off from Beachbody in 2004/'05 when the company was bleeding money and needed to trim the fat. Having just been a victim of of the same corporate restructuring fate, I was weary of any company that couldn't better forecast it's future successes and staffing needs.

I interviewed with a cute kid named Brandon (who I would later learn, to my horror, was only 24) and a hyper "funny-man" named Scott, for a new position in the new Production Department, Digital Asset Manager. There was no job description for Digital Asset Manager and the HR rep couldn't tell me what I would be doing. In fact Scott didn't fully know what I would be doing in the position other than keeping the editors stocked with footage for the shows that were in development. You see, there was no organization or process yet. So I was going in to set up a digital library. Piece of cake.

The offer came in less than what I left Technicolor at. And when I pointed this out it seemed as though I was putting Scott out. He begrudgingly upped his offer to $50k to match my last position. Now, realize, I knew I should have been making $55k at that point in my career but it was difficult to get the cheep-ass infomercial company up to $50, and I wasn't planning on staying there more than 3-months until I found something better.