All's well that ends well, for the most part.

Around the end of March, my employer announced that we would have layoffs for FY09-10. Around the end of May, they identified the positions that are going away. I seem to be safe for another year, but about 15 people I work with got caught in the net.

One in particular bothered me a lot. M is a guy who just came to work for us last spring, so almost no seniority. He doesn't work FOR me exactly, but a lot of the work he does is to assist me. He's one of these people here who wears multiple hats. Although he doesn't present himself as well as some others might, it didn't take long to realize what an asset he is.

This guy can learn stuff so fast. One thing he does for me, I expected to have to monitor him (anyone) for 2-4 weeks after training them. M was doing it independently after only a week. And do you want to talk about reliable? When M says he will get something done, it gets done. Correctly. On time.

See why I didn't want to see him go? The first thing I did was try to see if there was ANY way we could keep him, as much for our benefit as his. We came up with several scenarios but all required extremely unlikely events to bring them about, so I began to accept we were losing him.

Then, over time, it became clear there was nothing for me to do but put on my big-girl panties and deal with it. So I asked M if he could use a letter of reference. He said yes, so I wrote one that practically sparkles, and every word is true. He came and got it from me last week.

This afternoon he came in to tell me he'd gotten another job. Essentially the same pay, same benefits, same hours, and frankly, will look better on his resume than the job he's losing will.

He wins. His new employer wins. We lose. Damn recession.