An Unexpected (or sorta Expected) Liberation
2024 has been a funny and weird year. For the most part, my creative desire had waned. And learning a new product was proving to be more challenging than I thought (I suspect largely because I was trying to learn to the level of what I knew before — which took 15 years). While I had lots of other avenues to tease my creativity with work on learning paths, working on process documents on video creation and actual video editing, it never really came about. I think I got frustrated because of all the work I put into them. And then I got laid off. In all the time I’ve worked, this was the first time I was fired/laid off.
As weird as it is (or maybe it isn’t), I wasn’t hugely upset at being let go. If anything, I felt relieved and freed. Sometimes we get so used to what we’ve been doing, we don’t see what else might be going on around us. Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved everything that VMware did and was proud of what I achieved at VMware (e.g., working on the VCDX-Desktop; VCI Program; VDI courses & official certifications; presenting at conferences; mentoring).
VMware’s Legacy
VMware was revolutionary at changing what the datacenter was/is. I think back to the height of what vSphere did from about 2006-2018. If VMware hadn’t existed, the growth of that time frame worldwide would have been far less than what we have today (good or bad). Virtualization definitely meant that datacenters weren’t as big nor limited by the boundaries of geography. Of course, this is being challenged by AI with the insatiable appetite for datacenters and power. Even with technologies like containers and virtualization, the amount of data processing required by AI is gargantuan compared to the daily requirements of the average IT department.
But one of the things that VMware did that wasn’t touted as loudly outside of the company was being a good company for employees. I mean, there were those managers who were micromanagers and such, certainly. However, the overall corporate culture was one that was positive. And the Education/Learning section definitely excelled at doing right. With that, I believe, VMware tried to balance doing well for employees while still making shareholders happy.
We had perks like Take 1, Take 2 and Take 3. Take 1 and Take 2 were where you can take a week or two to go to a conference or take some 3rd party training. Take 3 was longer at 3 months where you could do a role in another department for 3 months. I was able to leverage Take 3 twice for different projects and use Take 2 to shadow Support (to see how it had changed since I last worked in GSS). Other perks included an additional financial benefit to use for health (originally) and later expanded for any expense (I got a couple of monitors and a rowing machine with this).
We had great Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that helped employees find their tribe. This helped to share cultures across the company and understand where people come from. Compassion and empathy come from understanding others and the POD (Power of Difference) groups helped immensely with this. And a lot more.
Technologically, the products, vSphere and VCF, still remain great products. But the culture is gone. Which is a shame. I grieved for that earlier this year and came to realize that single piece, which to me was the core of what made VMware shine, was inside me much like it was inside many ex-VMware employees (I often use the analogy of a dandelion that has been blown in the wind — there are innumerable number of companies who will get a little bit of that culture from every former VMware employee they hire).
It was this grief that made me realized that I had learned so much more than just a technology. I’ve long advocated that one can learn any technology but creating a culture and finding the right people-fit is far more important. Except I often forgot to take that advice myself. By far, that was the biggest positive event for 2024: realizing that I was far more than just a technical instructor and that I have more than just VMware knowledge available for whatever company is willing to take the risk.
Looking Forward: 2025’s Theme of Creativity
So as 2025 looms around the corner, I’m going to continue to bring that part of VMware with me. Now, usually I make resolutions but I recently was introduced to the idea of using Themes for a season or a year (check out this YouTube on the idea of Themes instead of resolutions). As I mentioned, my creativity has waned over the years, largely, I suspect due to left-over burnout. So I figured that perhaps this upcoming year should be about creativity.
Having this as an over-riding theme will be great. I opens the door for creativity not just in work but elsewhere. I have a novel that I started back in my university days that I might revive and a latent artist in me — at one point I was invited to go to an arts-focused high school in Ottawa (I had foolishly listened to my step-father and didn’t pursue a career in fine arts). But I digress. I can add my video work for this blog and my newly started political blog (I try to keep work and politics separate) as creative avenues. Lastly, I’ve been more active on social media (LinkedIn and Bluesky) which is feeding my written word side of creativity. And there are probably avenues I haven’t even considered yet. Either way, 2025 looks so much more exciting than I would have imagined compared to the start of 2024.
So what is your theme for 2025? Leave a note in the comments section or on LinkedIn.
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