> I don't want to be too obsessive, but today marks a special
> anniversary for me:
>
I don't want to be obsessive either...but 31 years ago today, I passed my
driver's test and got my license!
:)
> It was 15 years ago today (February 13th, 1989) that I started working
> at Speech Systems in Tarzana, California. I worked for there over 13
> years, or about 1/3 of my life. Here's a peak:
>
> February 1989: The day after I was hired, there was a 25% layoff. The
> man who hired me and who was to be my immediate supervisor was hit.
> The employees later referred to this as the "St. Valentine's Massacre
> Lay-Off".
>
> June 1991: After months of mini-layoffs, the entire company went out
> of business without severance pay. Two weeks later, it rehired a
> "skeleton crew". Since I love horror films so much, ;-) I was brought
> on board. Out of nearly 50 previous employees there were five of us
> remaining.
>
> July 1992: The company opened an office in Boulder, Colorado. This
> became the de facto headquarters of Speech Systems. New stock
> certificates were cheerfully issued.
>
> June 1993: Speech Systems California moves from Tarzana to a smaller
> office in Canoga Park. More stock certificates were issued with a
> promise of a coming IPO.
>
> January 1994: The terrible LA earthquake. The office in Canoga Park
> was destroyed. Three of us relocated work to our homes, while the
> other two moved to Boulder.
>
> July 1995: Here was the promised date of the IPO. We passed this
> milestone with nary a mention of it.
>
> June 1998: "Speech Systems" was given a new name: "SyVox Corporation".
> New business cards and stock options were issued.
>
> September 1998: SyVox California opened a new office in Santa Monica.
> All employees were given cool company shirts and coffee mugs. A new
> date for the IPO was promised.
>
> July 1999: More hiring. SyVox headquarters in Boulder moved to a
> larger building. A European branch of the company opened up in
> Belgium. A brand new company logo was made, and new business cards and
> stock certificates were issued.
>
> January 2000: SyVox employees received cash bonuses (their first and
> last) at a celebrated year-end company meeting: $50 each.
>
> May 2002: After months of mini-layoffs, the company went out of
> business, without severance. Also they had stopped covering our
> medical insurance for the last several weeks before the end.
>
> None of us were called back this time. Thank goodness for that!
>
> :-)
>
> Okay, I got it out of my system... Have a great weekend, everyone.
>
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
Received on 2004-02-13 19:21:53
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: 2020-02-04 07:16:19 UTC