I wanted readers to know what I've been up to the past few weeks and why such activity has impacted the postings here at DAF and my other blogs. Such activities deal with a blogging alter-ego that I created back in mid-September when I realized that the law firm where I worked, Heller Ehrman LLP was sliding towards an implosion very similar to Enron.
Since it seems I have "mad skillz" when it comes to blogging, I decided to set up a Wordpress-based blog entitled Heller Highwater which would help my 1200+ co-workers deal with issues such as unemployment, proper payment of back wages, accrued vacation, filing wage claims. Hard to believe that a 118-year old law firm would screw its own loyal employees and violate numerous labor laws? Yes Virginia it can and does happen more often than you think.
As the blog took off, with close to 15,000 unique hits on some days, and lots of press (mostly legal industry trade papers and blogs but I was also contacted by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal), it was eating up much of my time. Since my lay-off on October 10th, I've been able to devote more time to helping out my former co-workers, to discuss issues such as continuing health care coverage, how to rollover a 401k, and how to prepare a resume (some of us had worked for this firm for 25 years!).
Where is this all going? Well as I created the blog under the pseudonym Heller Drone, and I created another blog called Thelen The Pain for the staff of another global law firm which has also collapsed and not given its loyal staff that to which they are entitled, I couldn't maintain these different blogging personalities any longer.
So on Monday I had my "coming out" party where I was able to merge ego and alter ego into one. Lots of press as you can see here. Lots of phone calls and emails. But also lots of job leads and work offers to design websites, blogs, etc. Now I can list these two popular blogs in my portfolio and not feel disjointed, from a blogging personality standpoint.
5 comments:
Quiet!? I guess not. I hope something comes out of it for you. Consulting sounds both exciting and scary.
Way to make lemonade out of lemons, Thomas. Good for you!
Somehow I'm not the least bit surprised. You go guy! I'm thrilled to say I knew you when . . . ;o)
Given that you have a family history interest, perhaps you should consider applying for one of the San Francisco IT openings at The Generations Network (parent company of Ancestry.com). Here is a link to their corporate Help Wanted site:
http://www.tgn.com/default.aspx?html=career
I work for TGN and it is a great company that treats its employees right! (And no, they did not ask me to write this post)
The office in San Francisco has been open for just a few months, so has been doing a lot of hiring recently. Right now, there is an opening for a Senior User Experience Designer."
Thank you Thomas for putting us in the loop. "When bloggers go quiet" could be an entire meme... the alter lives we lead, as you say.
Best of wishes to you in your new adventures. What a wonderful holiday gift you are giving to your fellow employees.
Denise
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