I was laid off on Tuesday (August 3, 2021) from my job, which has been my source of income for the past four and a half years. I have already had some condolences, and I wanted to try to explain my situation so that I don’t get any more. I really do appreciate any concerns that people might have, but this is not an unexpected event. This is really for the best.
I will be OK. I am getting some severance and I can collect unemployment if needed. My wife and I own three houses, and I am planning to sell one to pay the loan and get some cash. I have a lot of skills and I will find something to do until I retire. Since I am 65, I could retire now, but I am hoping to stay working for another 5 years.
I feel a need to provide an explanation.
I had a really great time working at this job, but I was in a position that made no sense for them or me. I had been hired as a senior data analyst, and I was overjoyed to get this job. I live in rural MN and there are not a lot of jobs doing data science. I would have had to drive to Minneapolis, which is 70 miles away. This job was only 30 miles away, and it was doing something I love, which is playing with data.
Over the next couple of years, I was amazingly innovative. I created several mission critical systems.
- A complete Medicare ACO management system
- A complete Medicaid management system
- A world class population health ranking system
- A grant management system
- A system for program evaluation using propensity score matching
- More custom deliverables
The problem was that I was the only one who knew how all of these systems worked. I was becoming a data technician instead of a data scientist. What was worse for them was that if something happened to me, they would not be able to keep these systems running.
I told them two years ago that this situation was a ticking time bomb and they had two choices.
- Hire more people internally to support my systems.
- Hire an outside firm to manage these systems.
They chose option 2, hiring an outside firm to help them manage their data analysis, and I fully support their decision. Rural MN does not have the talent pool that they needed. Building an internal team would have been very difficult.
It took them two years to find, hire, and get the outside firm up and running. They are using a company called LightBeam and it seems to be working for them.
I became redundant, and I was fortunate to be laid off gently. So, thanks for any concerns.
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