Once I got rid of all the pine needles and glitter I turned to the exterior and swapped out the multi-colored lights for white. Denuding the house of Christmas was a solemn but energizing affair. But living in the Northwest… Read More ›
Memoir
Little star
In December of 1987 that second-hand Kashmir coat was already 20 or 30 years old. And I was a budding young punk, an emo, or Goth, I don’t know what. But I’d just turned 17 and discovered cigarettes, and long… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 8: Improv Editor’s note: this is the last post in an eight-part series about work-life identity in high-tech America. In the dark on my morning walk I’ll pass by the horse farm on the outskirts of our neighborhood. It’s… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 7: Pipeline Editor’s note: this is the second-to-last post in an eight-part series. After months of trying to persuade Microsoft to renew their investment plans with HPE they chose not to, and my contract ended. But it was July… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 6: Opaque Three years after meeting my old client Jackie and I was starting a new gig with her again, meeting at our usual Starbucks. We’d become friends, to the extent we could be as contractor and client. She’d… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 5: Accountable My contract with Microsoft ended after 18 months. I’d gone to work for one person who’d handed me over to another, whose boss had turned against his boss with me caught in the middle. The volatility made… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 4: Heaven Audrick’s boss Gianna had a Mercedes too but hers was a model I’d never seen before, matte-black like the Batmobile. Gianna wore tight jeans and lots of make-up and jewelry, perfect hair. A decade earlier she could… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 3: Separating When Audrick fired me he did it through his business manager Dale. I knew Dale was up to no good when I got the meeting invite with the fishy subject line. Dale and I had never met… Read More ›
Lessons in corporate cruelty
Part 2: Retaliation I got the contract work at Microsoft through a friend of Dawn’s we ran into named Lindsay. It was going on two years since I’d been out of work. My run at Starbucks lasted almost 20 years… Read More ›
Don’t fall on me
If there’s any month in Seattle I really struggle with the rain it’s November. It’s not a mist or a drizzle but full-on sheets of rain, sideways rain, cold, blowing rain. Rain that gets through old roofs and runs down… Read More ›
Bill Pearse 