We hear about "the economy" every single day in the news. How bad it is. How this business is filing for bankruptcy. How this store is closing. On and on and on. If there were a drinking game where we had to drink every time we heard the word "economy" we'd all be wasted, all the time. Hmm... we might be onto something here...
Anyway, I realize that things are pretty bad, but it wasn't until today that it actually hit home for me. Let me preface. I work for a privately owned corporation that prides itself on it's honest and compassionate treatment of it's employees. They don't fire or layoff employees in order to downsize, instead they downsize through attrition. This basically means that instead of firing or laying off employees they reduce numbers through retirement or resignation. Once employees move on from a position they just don't fill that spot, therefore making the department smaller. Today that all changed.
I got to work this morning and soon after my arrival received an email from the Vice President of my department. It said that we would be receiving an email from the President of our company discussing the state of our company and the future of each department. Additionally we would be required to attend mandatory meetings which would occur anytime between 8:30 am and noon. We were to clear our schedule during that time and would receive an email 15 minutes prior to our mandatory meeting. Immediately everyone started panicking. We had absolutely no indication that something would be going on today. Nothing... Five minutes later a handful of my coworkers got their email invitation. In the email they were instructed to go to the 5th floor and someone would meet them and tell them where they needed to go. Two of my good friends were to attend this meeting. One of them left without saying a word, another left, fearful, with tears in her eyes.
A half an hour later they were still missing, then I received my invite. Please go to the 2nd floor conference room. Luckily one of my friends was to attend the same meeting so we walked down together. As we walked into the room my manager and our VP were both standing outside of the conference room, talking quietly. Neither one of them greeted us as we walked in, which is totally out of character for both of these friendly, outgoing women. We walked in and had a seat in the silent room filled with eight other visibly nervous employees. Shortly after taking a seat my manager entered the room, shut the door behind her and had a seat. She looked stressed, a little frantic and sad. We had no idea what was coming.
Basically, our company has decided that it's time to react to this economy accordingly and in order for us to survive as a stronger, more successful company it was necessary to make cuts. There are going to be between 550 and 750 cuts in my company, and 26 of them were coming from my department directly, 6 of which were my coworkers. Luckily, my nervous and shocked group was safe, but for those that weren't, today would be their last day with us. I knew as soon as she said there would be cuts that it would be the first group that had their meeting. I knew my friends were gone. My manager read the names of the 6 team members that we would be losing. As she reached the last few names she started crying. Everyone started crying.
After she gave us all of the information she had some people asked questions, some people were angry, others were just quiet. At the end of the discussion she told us to take the time we needed if we just wanted to stay and talk or just sit, or we could go back to our office. Nobody moved but me. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to see my friends. I wanted to make sure they were ok.
When I got back to my office the first group still wasn't back from their meeting. About 20 minutes later they finally returned. I heard my neighbor packing up his office and I didn't know what to do. What do you tell your friend, your teammate, that just lost their job. No advanced warning, nothing that was deserved due to their poor performance or conduct.
One of my friends was recently married. Her and her husband just bought a new house. I just hope so bad that she can find happiness and not have to worry about her new home or her family's well being. My other friend... him and his wife have been trying, unsuccessfully, to have a baby. A few months ago they started in vitro and he told me how expensive it is. Their first attempt ended in a miscarriage. He told me today that they were planning to start trying again this Sunday, but now with 1/2 the family income, that won't be possible. Another one of my friends that were let go has 2 kids, both of which are on her insurance plan. The other one that was let go has been gone from work for a week... because his wife just had a baby.
It was a really tough day at work. Everyone was crying, whispering, ducking, packing. Everyone has questions. Nobody has answers because nobody knows. As much as I complain about my job I'm thankful that I wasn't one of the people who had the rug pulled out from under them today. Supposedly my department was one of the first to get the cut and after today we should be safe, but who knows.
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