When Bad Gets Worse

Two weeks ago the principals (I guess that's a fancy word they use for managers) were called into an emergency meeting to discuss the state of the company. We were told that we had to gather our "people" and let them know that there will be 5 people laid off in the next two days. As I'm sure you can guess - that was great fun.

The next day - another emergency meeting . . . . this time to inform us who those people were and that they were going to be told now. To be completely honest, I knew it wouldn't be any of my "people" and I knew it wouldn't be myself, so I wasn't too concerned. I watched as several of those people made the long walk down the hallway already knowing what the outcome was going to be. I have to tell you . . . it was horrible - more horrible than I ever imagined it would be. I saw one person make the walk - I knew he had just bought a new house . . . I thought about how he'd have to go home to his wife and tell her that he no longer had a job. I cannot express how bad I felt for him and for all those people.

Fast forward to this week. Now it's a company-wide meeting . . . and I can see from the scratchings on the white board at the front of the room that this was not going to be good. MANDATORY LAYOFF - oh great. Each of us has to take one week off in May - unpaid. The good news - we get to pick from three weeks being offerred. Whooopeee!

During the meeting my boss tried to lighten the mood a little . . .

"Well, think of this as one extra week of vacation . . . . . without the pay." Ha, ha, ha . . . except no one was laughing. I was livid.

That was three days ago and I'm still mad. All along my thought process about this whole situation was just to try and stick it out as long as possible. I didn't want to have to get a new job - job hunting is no fun. After this - I think I'm throwing in the towel . . . want ads here I come.