Operational Efficiency.

“At OpTeq, we don’t just help your business excel; we build the future, together.” The room broke out in applause as the presentation drew to a close and the well-groomed North American executive smiled brightly, her smooth, honeyed voice flowing like melted butter through the rapt audience. Frictionless.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”, boomed Homespun Analytics’ bombastic CEO, Nathan, as he walked out into the glow of the spotlight, microphone in hand. “I hope you’re all as excited as I am to see the value we can add to the company through this great partnership and maximise operational efficiency for our clients!”. Celia looked around at the sea of beaming faces around her: marketing people, managers, engineering leads. All were dazzled, some beginning to whisper excitedly amongst themselves. Celia already had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was her fellow software engineers Celia was most surprised by. Didn’t they realise what it would mean for them? She caught the eye of a peppy young graduate named Jamie, who had only been with the company a few weeks but was already endearing himself to everyone on the team. Even the CEO knew his name. In Celia’s experience, a general rule of thumb was “last in, first out”. She wondered if Jamie was at all worried. But he just grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

As she walked back to her desk in the spacious, open plan office the company shared with three other local businesses, Celia reflected on her job and what had brought her here. She had joined Homespun Analytics five years ago as a Senior User Interface Engineer, with 15 years of experience under her belt. Mostly it was a pleasant enough company to work for, and the work was interesting and engaging. She loved the complex puzzle of marrying human needs with the intricate and thorny challenges of programming. Her colleagues were nice, and her experience and diligence had earned her respect and autonomy. She was generally left to her own devices when it came to her own work — mainly because, as the only specialist, no one else really understood what she did. They sort of just expected well-designed, beautifully-crafted interfaces just to happen, and although they were appropriately wowed when the software products materialised, they didn’t see the layers of research, requirements analysis, client conversations and endless debugging that went on underneath. She didn’t mind this so much — after all, it was a privilege to get paid to do a job that was on the whole fairly enjoyable. She hadn’t had a promotion in the entire time she’d been there and, at times, felt kind of invisible. But she had a good work-life balance and wasn’t expected to work out-of-hours or stress herself out over work, so she counted her blessings.

Celia had a bad feeling about this OpTeq, though. The presentation was slick enough. A “a fully automated, data visualisation and analytics platform that works at scale” sounded very promising, no doubt, to the executives and upper management charged with selling Homespun Analytics services to industrial clients. The software looked visually impressive too, with a huge array of options for clients to choose from that would take Celia months, if not years, to build out from scratch. It would almost certainly cut their project delivery time and would free up engineers to focus on the complexities of secure deployment and integration. It was a stark contrast to their own bespoke software, carefully crafted in collaboration with clients and built to meet their precise needs but which, after all, came at a considerable cost. Celia could see the limitations of the software, but on balance, would those limitations really matter to those responsible for budgeting and selling them?

It was a few weeks later that Nathan gathered everyone together in the conference room for a surprise announcement. He’d only been with the company six months and was fond of big announcements. “I’ve very pleased to announce that we’ve signed a contract with OpTeq”, he declared to the packed room. “We’ll be rolling out staggered integrations, beginning with GPK contract starting in July. I’m convinced that this will be the best way for us to expand our offering to our clients and deliver operational excellence better and faster.” He sounded a lot like the OpTeq presenter.

Celia was due to start work on the GPK project but felt a little apprehensive. “I’m not technically sure what my role is anymore”, she relaid to her line manager, Greg. She couldn’t imagine how her work designing and developing the UI was going to fit in when the new platform gave clients a ready-built solution. “Leave it with me”, he replied. “I’m sure there will still be plenty of work for you when it comes to integrating it into client workflows.” Celia was not exactly reassured.

The OpTeq software integration path was clunky and not really designed for the kinds of specialist industrial clients Homespun Analytics worked with. Celia’s work involved many frustrating conversations, and she often felt like a mediator between the client and OpTeq. She came across plenty of bugs in the software but had no idea who to report them to. “It feels like we’re telling clients what they want instead of asking them”, she complained to Jamie in the break room. “They all just get the same solution in the end.”

“I don’t know”, replied Jamie, uncertainly. “They do seem to love it.” It was true. Clients were impressed with how quickly the team could put something interactive together, and the other engineers were happy they no longer had to deal with another complex step in the design process, one that involved messy interactions with human beings. It hadn’t been long enough to see whether the solution would really stand the test of time, but it appeared everyone was already sold.

Celia started to hear rumblings of financial concerns though. Apparently after the initial discount period had expired, subscription fees for OpTeq would increase. The company couldn’t justify passing the additional costs onto clients. Savings would have to come from elsewhere.

It was late October when Celia was finally called into Nathan’s office. A representative from HR was already there. “We just don’t have the work for you,” said Nathan sympathetically, explaining why she was being laid off. “The platform does it all, and it’s really everything the clients need.” Celia nodded numbly, holding back tears. She wasn’t surprised. “I just thought I had a little more time”, she thought to herself.

The job market had changed since last time Celia had been seriously looking. Before, she had been head-hunted by companies competing to offer good money for her prized expertise. Now the only jobs on offer were poorly paid and sounded depressing, soul-destroying even: babysitting an AI agent rather than using her creative brain for problem solving. She applied for them anyway. Sometimes she received a polite rejection letter, clearly written by a chatbot. Mostly she was simply ghosted.

One day, wandering the aisles of her local supermarket, idly perusing the discount shelves and wondering if she could still afford the expensive coffee, a familiar voice shook her out of her reverie. “Celia!” It was Jamie. “It’s great to see you”, she smiled genuinely. “Are you on your way into the office?” He blushed, looking down at his feet. “No”, he replied. “Didn’t you hear? I got laid off too. OpTeq bought the company. They just wanted our sales team’s experience working with industrial clients. They didn’t need the rest of us. I guess you could say I’m on my way into work. This is where I work now.” He gestured to the surrounding aisles, and Celia spotted the bright green logo on his polo shirt, half-hidden beneath the flap of his black bomber jacket. “I’m so sorry”, Celia said, with feeling. She had hoped at least Jamie, with his willingness and optimism (and yes, youthful naivety), would have landed on his feet. “Don’t worry.” He flashed his winning grin. “I’ll be fine. I’m going back to school. I’m going to study regenerative agriculture. I’m getting out of the tech industry. It’s not what I thought it was.”

Celia thought wistfully about Jamie’s bright future while she paid for and bagged her groceries. She was still crushed that a career she’d once loved had been ripped out from beneath her when she’d invested so much of herself in it. It still hurt that her hard work, creativity and expertise had meant nothing in the end. But it occurred to her that it didn’t need to define her. Maybe it was time to draw a line under that chapter in her life. To cultivate new relationships. To discover who she was, not what she was. The ground felt a little more solid under her feet as she stepped out into the sun.