Layoffs: Round 1
I was told by my management team to show up to work early today. They were going to be on a tight schedule, meeting with each and every employee separately in conference rooms throughout the day. Once behind closed doors you'd find out if you still had a job. When my turn came, I was real nervous. Can't lie about that.
One by one people were led off by a supervisor to have their turn at the chopping block. When they came back to the area, if they came back, everyone knew instantly whether or not that person had been kicked out. If you were cool you walked back in like nothing happened. If you had an oversized manila envelope in your hand that meant you were dust. The envelope contained a stack of paperwork that made up the severance package.
The intention was to try to be understanding of employees who broke down emotionally when given the news they were being let go. Managers attempted to be private as much as possible, but setting up execution rooms the way they did seemed even more stressful and scary for many. For those who got the bad news, they were told they could go home for the rest of the day no questions asked. Most people went home after their private meetings were overwith. I've seen people I know well leave completely shaken, and in tears carrying one of those manila envelopes with them under an arm.
Cutting deeply into our division we lost whole production areas. Micro was decimated. Support departments like Quality Assurance, Training, and Safety were wiped out. Older generation instrument lines instantly disappeared or were hacked to the bone. Lightwave, the division that manufactured fiber optic test and measurement gear is gone. I don't know how many hundreds of employees were affected. We lost a ton of people here in RF Sources.
As I expected it's mostly new hires that have been laid off but a number of employees who ran afoul of politics or had bad blood with particular managers at some point in the past are also toast. Potatohead has eliminated everyone on his line that he personally hated and kept his kiss asses. Much to my disappointment nearly all of the people I despise somehow survived the axe. It's just not fair. They whacked Dangerous D though. When some of the people on his line told me the news I did a little tap dance on the concrete floor which I call the "Good riddance to retards dance." The decision to kick him out of my place was wise. I feel like I just dodged a bullet because he'll be flat broke in no time.
On the line here we have a couple of people that are loose cannons. They're real weird, borderline mental. There has been some concern among us that guys like that may come in here with guns and start shooting the place to bits. A technician I like named Charles who works on the VXI sig gen was so worried about being bombed or shot at by psychopathic employees that he wore a bullet proof vest to work today. I laughed like hell when he showed me the vest. It's the real deal. A few people quietly told me later on that they though I might be one of those gun-toting bloodthirsty wackos. I was honestly offended. I admit I am an oddball kinda guy and yeah I own serious hardware... but I actually like most of the people I work with here.
A whole heap of line supervisors have lost their jobs. They have a few months left before their exit dates arrive. Others have been given a choice. Step down out of management back to a production job like instrument technician, or take the severance package. So far it sounds like the majority of individuals given that option are checking out with the package.
Greasy Guy and myself are cool. Apparently the work we are doing is so critical to the company's near future business plan that we aren't going anywhere. At least not this round of layoffs.
One by one people were led off by a supervisor to have their turn at the chopping block. When they came back to the area, if they came back, everyone knew instantly whether or not that person had been kicked out. If you were cool you walked back in like nothing happened. If you had an oversized manila envelope in your hand that meant you were dust. The envelope contained a stack of paperwork that made up the severance package.
The intention was to try to be understanding of employees who broke down emotionally when given the news they were being let go. Managers attempted to be private as much as possible, but setting up execution rooms the way they did seemed even more stressful and scary for many. For those who got the bad news, they were told they could go home for the rest of the day no questions asked. Most people went home after their private meetings were overwith. I've seen people I know well leave completely shaken, and in tears carrying one of those manila envelopes with them under an arm.
Cutting deeply into our division we lost whole production areas. Micro was decimated. Support departments like Quality Assurance, Training, and Safety were wiped out. Older generation instrument lines instantly disappeared or were hacked to the bone. Lightwave, the division that manufactured fiber optic test and measurement gear is gone. I don't know how many hundreds of employees were affected. We lost a ton of people here in RF Sources.
As I expected it's mostly new hires that have been laid off but a number of employees who ran afoul of politics or had bad blood with particular managers at some point in the past are also toast. Potatohead has eliminated everyone on his line that he personally hated and kept his kiss asses. Much to my disappointment nearly all of the people I despise somehow survived the axe. It's just not fair. They whacked Dangerous D though. When some of the people on his line told me the news I did a little tap dance on the concrete floor which I call the "Good riddance to retards dance." The decision to kick him out of my place was wise. I feel like I just dodged a bullet because he'll be flat broke in no time.
On the line here we have a couple of people that are loose cannons. They're real weird, borderline mental. There has been some concern among us that guys like that may come in here with guns and start shooting the place to bits. A technician I like named Charles who works on the VXI sig gen was so worried about being bombed or shot at by psychopathic employees that he wore a bullet proof vest to work today. I laughed like hell when he showed me the vest. It's the real deal. A few people quietly told me later on that they though I might be one of those gun-toting bloodthirsty wackos. I was honestly offended. I admit I am an oddball kinda guy and yeah I own serious hardware... but I actually like most of the people I work with here.
A whole heap of line supervisors have lost their jobs. They have a few months left before their exit dates arrive. Others have been given a choice. Step down out of management back to a production job like instrument technician, or take the severance package. So far it sounds like the majority of individuals given that option are checking out with the package.
Greasy Guy and myself are cool. Apparently the work we are doing is so critical to the company's near future business plan that we aren't going anywhere. At least not this round of layoffs.
posted by factory_peasant at 10:30 AM
2 Comments:
What was really sad about that was that many supervisors had to tell their employees that they were layed off. It was only after that, they were also given their walking papers. What a crappy thing for upper management to do.
Pretty bad sentence construction -there. Where is fugginwad?
TC
TC- post moved as requested.
wad- i'm glad you're still on the job as my trusty copy editor. good suggestions and nice typo catch. changes shall be made forthwith!
Post a Comment
<< Home