so

September 19th, 2003 | Category: General

So…approximately fifty people were laid off at my company this week. I was not one of them. I am not sure whether to be happy that I still have a job.

Highlights:

  • EVERYONE knew about the layoffs all week long, before they actually happened. As a result, everyone was super jittery the entire week (including me), which made it hard to concentrate. I saw people lose their cool, who I’ve NEVER seen lose their cool.
  • At the beginning of the layoff announcement meeting, the person who was doing the layoffs sized up the audience and said, “This is just like theater in the round!” Then someone gave him a look, and he said, “Oh…no…it’s not like theater in the round.” Do you think it’s appropriate to make jokes after you’ve just laid off a bunch of people? I don’t.
  • I also heard a rumor that a couple of pregnant women got laid off, 2-3 months before they were due. Well….
  • One of the people on my team was laid off. She was a really hard worker, never complained about staying late. I could always depend on her to do some stuff for me when it came down. Nobody asked me my opinion.
  • I also heard a rumor that we will be outsourcing some of our stuff, India-style. I have mixed feelings about outsourcing. I’ve always felt that if you could outsource to a better product, then do it. But it just reminds me of the scene in “Good Will Hunting” where Matt Damon goes off on the NSA people about the effects of him breaking a code.

The odd side of things is now that everyone’s been fired, I’ve been asked to take over what is probably a critical piece of the company product. I have not worked on the company product in quite some time. I don’t know whether to be happy about that or not, since I certainly don’t trust the new senior management and wonder if there’s some ulterior motive. I’ll probably end up doing it anyway since it’s an interesting problem to solve. I probably shouldn’t be a dick about it.

As of tomorrow (the 20th), I will have been with this company for four years. It’s a pretty amazingly long time to have been with a dot-com.

This entry was posted on 19.September 2003 at 20:32 and was filed under General. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.