A strange thing happens to the atmosphere when you tell folks at a company that the current structure of the organization is too cost heavy and that lay-offs are coming, no matter how motivated and dedicated the workforce was previously. It is an interesting intellectual study.....
Initially, you get either the optimist or pessimist reaction. Some remain optimistic that the changes will not effect them, their group is really important to the well-being of the company. Or you get pessimists who are sure that fire and brimstone are coming any day now....
And then the rumors start.... When are you going to find out, how many people are going to be affected, when they are affected what does that mean? Do they leave immediately, or at a later time? What is the severance package? And all this has an impact on productivity. Some just walk around talking about it, others get heads down, either because they have dusted off their resume and have already started their job search, or because they are working hard to make whatever impression they can while it still makes a difference.
And when the employees have a date by which they will know, things get more and more tense as that date approaches. Everytime the EVP comes downstairs, he is watched to see where he goes and who's office he goes to, what mood he's in. And when rumors spread that the word on who is being cut is already known, just not being communicated yet, well then forget about it! And then when people, who are supposed to know, start asking questions about and wanting to know status about projects that they never cared about before or where never their responsibility, people start to get suspicious. Is this person going to be your new boss or is his existing group getting ready to take over the work of your group?
Can someone just drop the shoe so we can get this over with!?!?!?
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2 comments:
Terrible isn't it.
I lost my job in March, and it was a similar situation. Our department downsized from 45 people to a skeleton crew of 8 over a period of 3 months.
It was UNREAL.
And you thought you knew who your friends were and who you could trust, until everyone's jobs were on the line.
I keep in touch with a co-worker who keeps in touch with OTHER co-workers I no longer see (who still work there), and she says sometimes she can see the shame in their eyes over the lies they had to tell us and there's a strange distance and evasiveness even now that most of us have moved on.
Oh yeah, some DIRT went DOWN! I know it's a tough spot to be in, but management did NOT handle it well.
I'm generally optimistic, but I could tell that it was out of my hands. I would either get the axe or I wouldn't.
There was a certain degree of favoritism combined with a randon x-factor in the selection of who would stay and who would go and in what order.
Read: whether I would stay or go had nothing to do with my job performance.
So I chose to show up every day and do my work and not complain or live in fear.
I was in the middle of some things I wanted to finish because I had started them, but when I walked in one day and was summoned to a meeting an hour after I got there and told to hand in my security key card and clean out my desk, I didn't CARE how many man hours it would take them to figure it out without me!
Unfortunately, I worked for a company that told us in a meeting that no one would lose their jobs any time soon.
This was about 3pm. At 5pm, a middle manager who had been with the company for 15 years was gone.
It was a Wed.
On Friday 5 more people were cut. Granted, they were temps, but they were all temps who were just about to be hired on full-time.
I was dismissed 2 weeks later with 7 others. I was in good company with the supervisor who hired and trained me and had been there for 7 years and several other workers who had been there for 5+ years. I had only been there for 1.
But I was SO glad to leave. People who stayed longer said the atmosphere only got more suspicious and mistrustful, more stagnant and oppressive, more fearful, yet strangely apathetic as time went on.
And I knew it would.
If we were going to be fired in stages and were not going to keep our jobs, if it was not just rough waters that needed to be skillfully navigated...I was glad to have been in one of the earlier groups to go.
I got to move on with my life sooner than most, and I am now doing something else that I enjoy much more.
Unfortunately it doesn't pay as well and isn't as steady, but I AM happier.
I have always wanted to work for myself because I have an entrepreneurial spirit. That was the second time in 18 months I had had the rug pulled out from under me like so when my position was eliminated.
It made me more determined than ever to work for myself. That cannot happen to you when you work for yourself. The business can fail, but that is not the same as being laid off.
I'm working it out. I have a plan. In 3 years I hope to be making more money than I would EVER have at said company. It was just a landing on the stairway of life anyway. I never meant to stay there and hence was NOT sorry to leave, but I did want it to be on my own terms and at MY chosen time.
But such is life...
How are you? Which category do you find yourself in? Optimist or pessimist?
You strike me as one who would have dusted off her resume, but perhaps you don't want to post about it just yet, since the outcome is not final.
Forget I asked (unless you want to e-mail me... ;-)
Anyway everything I know of you from your blog says you are confident and competent and will have no trouble dealing with this situation no matter what.
Hmph. Here at my office, it's simpler. there is this dude in HR we call the grim reaper. If he starts making too many trips to the CEO's office, hold on to your knickers, folks... you know what's coming!
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