I may be out of a job by the end of the year. Why such a shocking news all of a sudden? I have always boasted to my friends that I enjoy a great deal of job security working at this company. So what happened? Well, the culprit is the all-too-familiar Technology Replacing People scenario.

My company has a nationwide satellite station based in LA, a local cable station in the LA area, and a local cable station in SF. To date, the 3 stations run rather independently of each other. Each station has its own Programming Department to take care of its own program line-up and signal transmission to viewers' television sets. During the past year however, the company has been investing a lot of money into upgrading its system with hopes of integrating operations of the 3 stations into one centralized location. Soon, programs seen on all three stations will be transmitted out of the same playout center located in LA. As a result, the Programming Department of 2 of the 3 stations will become obsolete. What used to take 3 teams of people working in 3 separate locations can soon be done by one team working in one location. I will be one of those to be axed once such upgrades are completed.

My colleagues and I here at the SF station already sensed this is to happen somewhere down the road. This sort of thing is imminent. We just never knew when it will hit. Today we got word through the grapevine that the day is drawing near.