Today my former employer, Amgen Inc., announced for the first time in their history a layoff of employees. They’re cutting 2,200-2,600 or up to 14% of the workforce.

I feel a couple of things about this. As much as I enjoyed working there—I did spend the bulk of my career and over 12 years with them—it had truly become an entirely different place from when I started. It also had became an unfulfilling job in some ways. I also knew that there would be a rough road ahead for a while and it felt like the time was right to leave and move on.

Of course, the other thing I’m feeling right now is that if I had actually seen these layoffs coming and had stuck around for another two months, I probably could have left with a nice severance package. Sigh…

I’ll be interested in hearing from all the many, many friends I left behind how things have changed, and I expect a few of them will take the path I’m on (but with lovely severance packages…sigh)