Oh boy

Today I'm feeling some like Cooper, Draper, and Pryce (and Cosgrove and Campbell) and some like Sterling. That makes more sense to those of you who watch Mad Men and saw the October 3 episode. The rest of you certainly don't have any idea what I'm talking about, so let me explain. (And yes, you should take that as a spoiler alert if you watch the show but haven't seen the most recent episode.)

Of course it's about my work situation. In Mad Men the ad agency partners are blindsided by news that their biggest client, one that is critical to sustaining their operation, is terminating business. This development seemingly comes out of the blue. Actually, Roger Sterling was aware that this was on the horizon but had begged for (and received) time to do what he could to salvage the business relationship. In the past Sterling had had to suck up his pride and do whatever the client wanted to keep him happy, yet it still wasn't enough.

How does this compare? I don't know why key people didn't know--no one I directly work with knew--but the agreement with our biggest client, so to speak, was ended on their part three months ago. (They are still responsible for fulfilling their financial obligation for half a year after delivering such a notice.) Needless to say, while we anticipated that this was the direction it was heading, little did we know it's where we've been and are.

Apparently the short term solution is, in essence, to grovel for a phasing out scenario over a year, which will give us more time to locate and implement alternative funding. If that is rejected, who knows?

There's more that is unclear than clear. Really, it's all pretty muddy, but as far as I know, I'm at least "safe" through the end of this calendar year. I may be OK through the completion of the school year. After that? It's anybody's guess.

Sterling had to eat a lot of crap in his situation, and he had to plead to dine on more of it so he could keep afloat. We're certainly familiar with that, and we now may have to increase our consumption to stave off elimination, at least in the short term.

This could finally put in motion what's been necessary for some time and be an enormously positive turning point. Or I could be out of a job and trying to figure out what to do with my life. Yikes.