So theres a bit of wisdom in this article on employee turnover: for employees to say to themselves: "I know that I will quit my job, and there's nothing wrong with that" and employers to say "I know that my employees will quit, and there's nothing wrong with that."

The article also posits that a company with this culture doesn't have former employees, it has alumni.

The article has a several other insights, but this one might be the most important for a tech company. I kind of wished I knew about it when I had employees: it might have changed, at a very high and abstract level, how I dealt with everybody.

Shortly after I let "everybody" go in 2005 I created an email folder in Mailsmith: "WD/Alumni". So maybe I was thinking that way, a little bit.

Between 2005 and now I've had two more part time people, at various times, doing bits and pieces of stuff for me. I consider them alumni too.

Part of me would like to find another part time, secretarial-type, person. Maybe sometime in the near future.