That ax is out there somewhere . . .

. . . but nobody knows when it is going to fall. Speculation on the end of the project is rampant, with estimates ranging from tomorrow to two weeks from now. I think tomorrow is possible, but unlikely, although I believe some of the 300 or so folks remaining on the project will get cut tomorrow night. I still think it all comes down Sunday night. A guy I know who is usually pretty plugged in says Friday close of business. Not unreasonable, I think.

The takeaway here is no one knows -- or at least no one who knows is talking. The firms know, but they won't say for fear of  everybody jumping for other projects while the firms still need some warm bodies here. That rationale doesn't really apply, though, if the project is ending anytime before, say, Monday. There are a number of projects starting Monday people could try to get on, but none starting before then. Obviously, if people know the project ends this weekend, they can apply for another project to follow this one. Equally obviously, people can apply for a Monday project even without knowing -- hell, I've applied to three.

That means there is a decent chance I will be gone from this project Monday even if this project continues. The firms could have avoided this result (in general, not just specifically my departure) by sharing some information. As it is, even the project managers at the agency are being kept in the dark, probably on the assumption they would tell us, and the firms don't want that. Personally, I hope everybody finds something for Monday and the project goes on for another couple weeks, completely unstaffed. It would serve the firms right.

My God, it's worse than Saturday night in Chicago!

Another 50 people got whacked from the project tonight. Even by Chicago standards, that's a lot of people getting whacked in one day. Also, turns out the 40 people who got cut the other day were actually 80 people -- the 40 I knew about, and another 40 from a different review location a few blocks away. Took awhile for the news to trickle over to where I am. That makes 130 people cut this week, roughly, and leaving us with about 300. I told you it was a big project. Anyway, this is definitely end of days, so I will go ahead and predict that nobody is still working on this project past Thursday. Come August 1, we'll all be gone. It was a good run, but it is coming to an end.

Hard to complain, what with the bunches of overtime we got over the last six weeks. Market still looks busy. Hope that's still true in a week.