April 27th, 2009
Disclaimer: This shorty is about real friends who lost their jobs. This situation is truly sad and disheartening; furthermore, I hope I never have to go through something like it again. That said… I have always found that humor is one of the best ways to express my unease and concerns.
Waiting can get to even the most patient of people, but waiting in a group can bring healthy functioning adults to a frenzy of hysterical rants and belief in the shadiest of rumors. I’ve heard it said that “a person is smart, but groups of people are dumb.” What I observed over the last two months confirms that statement to me. Rumor becomes fact and spin becomes law. People look for hints and meaning in a hand shake, head nod, even wording within emails, including those that are one on one and company wide. Whispering groups break up as others approach. Some people were even preemptively cleaning out their offices in anticipation of bad news being delivered. There has to be documentation on how to conduct a merger, or how to communicate when you can’t really communicate…yet. From my perspective, no one looked into it. Morale was already at an all time low and I have to assume we have further to drop before once again (if possible) coming together with smiles.
We all knew it was coming. That part was not shocking. I’ve been through two rounds of layoffs prior to this one. Besides the sheer numbers, the difference between this one and the preceding sets was the element of surprise. These layoffs were lorded over us for so long I’ve forgotten what it is like to feel safe at work. A ‘successful’ layoff is much like how an eagle grabs a fish out of a river. Imagine you are a fish for a second, swimming along with your school, chatting with the guy next to you…then he is gone. You don’t really know the details of how, what, or where he ended up; but what you do know is that he is gone and you will now have to swim with a different fish. People (fish in this case) ask fewer questions, take on new duties and find new avenues to continue until told what really happened. In other words the deed was done before the masses were cognizant of the event, just plucked out of the water, while the rest swim on.
Oh not this round …no eagles here. We discussed who was likely to be on the list. People were digging and conversing with those they thought might know something. When perception is lost the mind can no longer make decisions correctly; much like a long straight railroad with a solid line of trees on either side. Standing on the tracks it is very difficult to determine the train’s real distance or speed from one’s self (this Monday…no Wednesday…wait I heard it’s THIS Monday). Now imagine you realize that your foot is tied to the track. You have no knife to free yourself. There you stand, waiting for the train, you can feel the tracks start to rumble (or you receive an email randomly informing you to be at work, on a work day.) Watching the ‘decision’ chug its way steadily toward your location, everyone sees the train approaching. You’ve made provisions or you have not, but the result will be the same. On the list, or not on the list.
Those people not on the ‘list’ were left confused and wandering amongst the carnage of the day’s event. Did you have goat blood over your cube or office? Shell shocked, we walked down to have boxed lunches and learn about what is planned for our future. What it also meant was missing out on saying goodbye to close friends and co-workers (perhaps the timing associated with that part of the day was researched.) Slowly, a week later my head is starting to function again.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hey there,
I’m sorry about the lay offs at work. It is scary prospect and you have echoed so many people in their fears and anxieties. I am facing the same thing at my job and it is a very frightening idea of not knowing. Knowledge is power and power is control. When control or even the thought of control is taken away it leaves a void in a lot of people’s emotional life and seeing the effect of that can shake a person up just as much as actually being the one that has lost ‘control’.
I like your blog though, lol. If I was my hands, can I touch your stomach.
May 16th, 2009 at 4:39 am
Life is not fair! People are not equal. Management is not about the people, but about the business and there in lies the Rub!
The business or Corporation needs to make profit, but inorder to gain it’s Daily bread it needs the People to be productive, fruitful…in this case as a consumer of this Corps goods and services, the fruit had become stale and tasteless. The produce became that way not because of the efforts of the workers, management managed the process both internally and externally. The slow death spiral could be seen by all, one did not a watercooler chat to hear the rumors, not when a conference call would do.
Life is not fair…people are equal…just ask the CEO what their cut was and how is life treating them! Good luck…remember you have friends in low and high places! Keep the faith…