[321] in iswork
Kevin Cunningham's Status at MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin M. Cunningham)
Thu Oct 30 19:16:21 2003
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Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 19:16:06 -0500
To: infosys@mit.edu
From: "Kevin M. Cunningham" <kcunning@MIT.EDU>
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To: My Colleagues, Clients, and Customers at MIT
From: Kevin Cunningham, Information Systems
RE: Change in My Status, and Its Impact on Your Projects
------------
Dear friends and colleagues,
I'm writing to let you know that, as of October 1, I have been laid
off from my position in Information Systems (IS). I have been working
since that time to wrap up critical work, take stock of all my
projects, and start thinking about my career.
(It would be difficult to get into the reasons for the layoff, since
no really adequate explanation has been provided to me that does not
defy MIT's layoff policies, an understanding of the resource I am for
MIT, or common sense. The obvious financial explanation does not
begin to cover the convolutions of this situation. Suffice it to say
that I was pretty shocked. But that's a conversation for another
time...)
I will not be taking on any new projects during my remaining time
here. (At MIT, a layoff is undertaken as a "notification period", not
an immediate separation, so I'll still be around for some time,
although of course I'll be focusing on my career needs.) In any case,
I want to responsibly hand over my projects and not leave my
customers in the lurch, if possible. It's particularly difficult in
my case because there is no obvious resource inside IS to which to
hand off FileMaker work now that I'm going. But I am confident we can
determine a mutually acceptable future for these projects.
I have engaged Lorraine Rappaport in Delivery and Jane White in
Support to help me effectively devolve my projects. Greg Anderson,
Bob Ferrara, and others may also be able to help me resolve basic
issues about the future of FileMaker support in IS (for example, will
we continue to host databases, which I have been informally doing for
some time, or will that have to be discontinued?)
TO MY CUSTOMERS: I will be contacting each of you individually to set
up meetings over the next few weeks where we can discuss the future
options for the work that relates to you. It is my commitment that,
to the extent that I can, I will work with you, IS, and others to
responsibly hand over my work.
TO MY COLLEAGUES: I have tried earnestly over the course of 15 years
(in Project Athena and later IS) to create robust, scalable systems
in support of IT and training information. I hope you continue to
work strategically in these areas and build on the foundation I have
helped put in place (in a new technology, if need be), rather than
sink back into the isolated stovepiping that I have been trying to
address, often singlehandedly in the face of decided apathy. It would
be very easy to see my work as some kind of "FileMaker tinkering",
but I hope you realize it was all really exercises in information
architecture, using the tool I happened to have at hand when no other
resources were available, to address the needs before us. I at least
am clear what I was trying to do and how far I succeeded.
TO ALL: I have suffered over the last few years from having simply
too many projects on my plate -- indeed, since about 1997, I've been
trying to manage the equivalent of at least four separate full-time
positions (trainer/curriculum designer, technical communicator/web
site contributor, database developer, and system administrator). This
overwhelming amount of work in turn exacerbated an
already-problematic tendency of mine to get caught up in the infinite
details of a project, to the neglect of deadlines and responsible
communication. At a certain point (I think it was the birth of my
second child ;-), this cycle became hopelessly intractable, and, try
as I could (allnighters, time management efforts, and all), I
couldn't escape the recurring problem of disappointing client after
client. For this I am truly sorry and apologize to all of you for
being such a poor correspondent and unresponsive helper. It was
always my intention to meet, not disappoint, your expectations, but I
know I failed, and failed often. I'm sorry.
I have enjoyed working with people at MIT. It is very much a home to me.
I should still be reachable in all the old ways. (And of course, if
you know of any job opportunities, be sure to send them my way... ;-)
Thanks,
--Kevin
--
-Kevin M. Cunningham | 77 Mass. Ave., Room N42-240f,
Cambridge, MA 02139
Senior Computing Consultant | (617) 253-0177
MIT Information Systems | kcunning@mit.edu
