Dr. Dobb's Journal November 2001
Welcome to "Poverty on Parade," the radio show that asks the question, "Is there life after dot-com failure?" I'm your host, Mike Swaine, and today we have with us Mr. Hobart Flurn, whom we discovered at Recession Camp, a trendy gathering place for recently laid-off dot-com workers in San Francisco.
Mike: Mr. Flurn, it's obvious from your scruffy appearance that you haven't found work yet. So thank you for coming all the way to Grants Pass, Oregon, by Greyhound bus to share your miserable story with us.
Mike: How poignantly true, I would imagine. Unemployment must be quite a letdown from the adrenaline rush of being a highly paid programmer in a high-flying dot-com.
Flurn: Well, I was in tech support, so I don't know about the adrenaline part.
Mike: Still, it must have been stimulating to breathe the charged atmosphere of a web-based startup in the height of the dot-com boom.
Flurn: Not really, not until the sheriff's deputies came in and escorted everyone out. That was sort of exciting.
Mike: And after those heady days, you're hitting the unemployment line?
Flurn: Actually, I'm spending most of my time sponging off friends and watching the Cartoon Network. It's just hard to imagine starting over at 22.
Mike: I suppose you lost a lot of money when the company shut down?
Flurn: Oh yeah, I lost everything. My $1.5 million house in Atherton. My Jag XJ-6. My Vespa Obsession. My Handspring Visor. The orthodontist repossessed my bridgework.
Mike: Yes, I thought you were talking sort of funny.
Flurn: The ironic thing is, I didn't even need the bridgework. But everybody else was getting it done. Oh, my dog ran away. I've been reduced to using a 56K dialup.
Mike: All right, all right. I imagine you harbor a lot of resentment toward FlyByNight.com, the company you used to work for?
Flurn: Actually, I can't do that.
Mike: You can't feel resentment toward the company that laid you off?
Flurn: No, you see, they outsourced responsibility.
Mike: Outsourced responsibility? Is that possible?
Flurn: Oh yes, you can outsource pretty much anything these days. They contracted responsibility to a free-lance human resources consultant by the name of Delmer Clupferer, of Walkerton, Indiana, wherever that is.
Mike: So you resent Clupferer then?
Flurn: I have to. I don't feel very good about it, though. He's a darn nice guy.
Mike: I suppose he was well compensated, at least.
Flurn: Not really. The company went into receivership before it had paid the contractors anything, so I don't believe Clupferer ever saw dime one.
Mike: That must make him angry.
Flurn: If so, he'd have to be angry at himself, because FlyByNight.com outsourced responsibility to him.
Mike: Yes, you said that. Look here, I really wanted to ask you about Recession Camp. It's quite an interesting concept, a combination support group and trendy club. Are you a regular there?
Flurn: No, I only went that once and they asked me not to come back.
Mike: Was it your complete lack of social skills?
Flurn: That, and my trying to borrow money from everyone there.
Mike: I can see their point. Well, thank you again, Hobart Flurn, for sharing your pathetic experience with us here on "Poverty on Parade." So until next...
Flurn: Aren't you going to say that you have some lovely parting gifts for me?
Mike: No, we don't do that.
Flurn: Well, do you validate?
Mike: Yes, but you don't have a car. So until next time, this is Mike Swaine for "Poverty on Parade," saying, "Write if you get work — or better yet, if you don't!"
Michael Swaine
editor-at-large
mike@swaine.com