We're still here. I don't know why.

After a flurry of activity last week that had us working late on rush projects, we once again are still here but idle. I don't know how long that can go on. Don't really want it to go much longer, as we're getting close to the time of year where you want to land a project that will take you through the first of the year. The last thing a temp wants is to have a project end right about mid-November. The odds of finding another project starting up during the holidays are not good. You could easily find yourself not working again until January. That would suck. Anyway, the swordfish was last heard from trying to find some medical marijuana in D.C. Maybe the swordfish is really sick, or maybe it just wants to get hammered. You never can tell with swordfish.

I'll be damned if that swordfish doesn't look pretty good

We have weathered all the gloom-and-doom talk that came with the client being purchased and it appears that the swordfish is looking pretty damned good. No telling how things can change from one day to the next, but it looks right now as if the new firm in charge won't be replacing people who leave, but also won't be cutting people or hours. Works for me. On top of the, scuttlebutt is that this project still has a long way to go. That also works for me.

Of course, everything changes in Temp Town, so I could be unemployed tomorrow. But right now, doesn't look that way. Hell of a way to live your life.

Jeez, Louise, I hate being right

When they announced a cut in Friday hours last week, I worried that the project might not have the legs everybody seems to have thought it did. No defiitive word yet, but my pessimism might be well-placed. The law firm for the new owners of the company is getting a presentation from the lawyers from the old company on options on what to do with this document review. I don't know what the options being presented are, or who favors what, but I know this: the only possible options are leave the review as it is (same number of people, 60 hours a week max); cut the hours; cut the people; end the review until there are new developments in the case.

I think the first and last options are the least likely. So we sit here not knowing what is going on. If I had to bet, I would bet on the review continuing with the same number of people at 50 hours. Alas, I was not consulted, so no one knows what the fuck is happening. The project might be over, it might go for years.

The whole situation has entered the swordfish scenario:

A document review project is like a swordfish on the hook. At first, it's running strong and fast, no end in sight. Soon, though, it starts to get tired, and it starts leaping out of the water, thrashing around in the air and generally getting chaotic. Then, out comes the gaff hook, and the swordfish is on the deck of the boat, almost done. There is still more thrashing around, more chaos, and with that sharp sword-like bill, somebody is bound to get hurt.
And then the damn thing is just dead.

This swordfish might have a lot of life left in it. But it sure is acting sluggish at the moment.