Yesterday, during the quarterly company wide conference call, EFI announced that they are closing their Vancouver office. While the Splash product continues to be profitable for the company, our OEM isn’t introducing any new products for at least 18 months. Our office will be open through August and the team will be wrapping up operations during that time. EFI is providing everyone with a very generous severance package, even for the guy that’s only been there since January.
Because our team just shipped a new product in May, EFI will need to provide support for any customers that buy the new product. In the past, we’ve done most of the support out of our office so there will need to be a transition to the headquarters in Foster City, CA. Because of that, several of the employees in our office have been offered the chance to work from home in support of our products until that transition is complete. I am one of the employees that has received that offer and I am mulling it now. In addition to support duties, I would also help develop the Mac OS version of one of their strategic product lines. That product is scheduled to ship in March so my employment can continue until then if I choose to accept the offer. Assuming I do, I would still receive their generous severance package starting in March.
I’m also looking at a couple of other opportunities of which I have become aware recently but the EFI offer is frankly quite attractive to me right now. If nothing else it gives me many months to find a new job and provides some well-needed, if only temporary, stability for us. I need to decide by Friday of next week.
Sorry to hear about the added stress. Good luck.
Yea sorry to hear that Mick. I didn’t realize you blogged too until I saw your link at BikePortland.
Is it Vancouver, Washington or the bigger, better Vancouver? =) We’re down here in the PMA.
Working from home is always great if you have the self-control to separate personal time from job time. I’d do it if I was a smaller operation and hadn’t expanded into needing an office building.
No, it’s just little Vancouver, WA.
Yeah, I’m thinking about the self discipline angle a lot. I’m not terribly productive in my off hours so it will be a challenge to be work-productive at home.