Well, the Australia job has dried up for now. The two principles and I know we will all work together at some point, but their needs right now do not correlate with my skills quite right. It'll happen. Just not this year.

The EV company job doesn't exist ... yet. But they are hiring rapidly, growing, just got a big VC capital injection, and my friends there are still interested in finding a role for me. So probably nothing before January, but the ball is still in play there.

In the meantime, it is clear my current (new) management has no idea what to do with me, and no plans for me at all. My direct manager has just decided we need to have a "summit", where all 6 people on the team fly to the same location in mid-November to have in-person meetings for 4 days. IN FLORIDA. I asked him WTH they are thinking, having our team congregate in the COVID petri dish of Florida? What's the business case for that location?

He said, "It's OK. You don't need to come. If there are meetings you need to be involved with, we can set up a Zoom for those."

WTF?!?

So my whole team is getting together for 4 days of intensive meetings, and "if" there are any meetings I need to attend, they'll set up a Zoom?

And one of the guys on this team has just recovered from COVID.

I'm baffled. And done. Sent an email to HR to talk about these issues and how I separate from the company, if that's the right path for me to go.

Which means I'll be out of work for the rest of the year, because nobody hires during the holidays. And they especially don't hire generalists (like me) during that window.

But I'm going to Sedona, AZ tomorrow to sit at a pool at a resort in 70+ degree weather and look at night skies with zero light pollution and drink mai tais (or whatever the AZ equivalent is) around the pool, and get massages, and get as far away from this work/mental state I can.

So that's nice. :-)