October 23, 2008

  • work for a relatively small lab company - 25 people or so. I've been
    here for about a year and a half now and while there are days that it
    is stressful and I hate it, I really do enjoy what I do as well as
    really appreciating the benefits. Now, since we're small and we don't
    actually make money (we have a wealthy benefactor who keeps us in the
    money usually), closing is a concern we've had before but...
    eesh, now I'm sure you're thinking the economy...but not so much. I
    actually WISH it were the economy as that would be less upsetting.
    We got called into an emergency meeting by the CEO, whom we all know
    fairly well, to tell us that he (the CEO) has esophageal cancer that
    they just found on Tuesday and that it has metastasized (SP?) and
    spread to his liver, kidneys and lymph nodes. It is inoperable and he
    has already decided he won't do radiation treatment or chemotherapy.
    They are going to try some tumor target therapies....but we're talking
    months....
    ANd while I'm upset enough about this as I know him and he's a very good person and no one deserves to die like this...
    part of me is TERRIFIED about my job. This CEO is the connection to our
    wealthy benefactor as well as the passion and the motivation behind
    almost everything we do. Without him....I just don't know what the heck
    we are going to do...
    And I feel guilty about being concerned about my job when he's talking about tying up loose ends before he dies...