Layoffs: Round 2
During the second round of layoffs (which happened to coincide nicely with end of quarter earning results) I was genuinely worried they would hit me with the axe. At work I made jokes about it like the whole thing was no big deal, rolling off of me like nothing but that wasn't really the case. I was deeply concerned. I'm not sure how good of a front I kept up when I was around Autumn. Another aspect of the situation causing me a great deal of stress was how would Autumn react to having an unemployed boyfriend? I was unsure about that. Something told me our relationship wouldn't last long if I lost my job.
Months of restless waiting later I finally got my turn in the execution room. That day I was particularly angry about the overall workplace situation. Things had become so toxic and unfun at work that I decided to take a risk and wear my "Revenge Is Easy" T-shirt with a silhouette of an M4 carbine plastered across my chest. I wanted to let the management chain know where I was coming from if things didn't personally work out for the better. Stepping into the room I was greeted by Halfshirt and a department manager that I didn't know well but had heard he was a fair man. As I sat down he started to speak, and then hesitated for a moment while he stared at my shirt. On the inside I was laughing.
The department manager was still off guard after seeing my T-shirt. With a stuttered pausing between his words he said, "Peasant, you are going to be part of the Go-Forward Team." I'd heard that was the latest corporate-speak for "you still have a job with us." I was relieved, but agitated. I responded to him as Halfshirt looked on, "Okay. So how many more times do I have to go through this junk? You guys already said no more layoffs would be necessary and yet, here we are. More layoffs." He didn't say anything. Neither did Halfshirt.
I walked out into the hallway. A group of nosey employees were not even trying to hide out further down in our building watching like hawks to see who came back out carrying a package of paperwork with them. They were making comments amongst themselves as I walked past. Assholes. It was mostly a crowd of those shit eating busybody dingbat housewives. I hate them.
As the day wore on and I went back to business as usual I had to walk around the factory from building to building on errands. Pick up parts from stores, talk to so and so in engineering, that sort of thing. Everything was subdued. Quiet. I passed a random handful of people from hallway to hallway. Some people looked at my shirt and shook their heads in disgust, others felt the way I did I guess and laughed while giving me a thumbs-up. One guy whom I never saw before or since stopped me in the hallway and said, "YOU wore that shirt today? You got BALLS, man!" We both laughed and went on our way.
Everything wasn't all doom and gloom though. News reached me through the evening about individuals that I wanted to see thrown out. Super Shopper and many of her cronies were given the front gate. Awesome, and about god damned time. A number of substandard line supervisors were given a choice of either stepping down out of their management positions back to production like being a tech or taking the package. Potatohead was rumored for weeks to be one of those underperforming supervisors given this option. I whole heartedly hoped he would choose stepping down to tech because the moment he did, I'd be up on my old line harassing the shit out of him. I was licking my fangs in anticipation of making his life a miserable hell the likes of which he had never dreamed possible. I know others were thinking of doing the same thing to him as well. Unfortunately Potatohead made a wise decision and decided to take the severance package. I think he knew what was going to happen if he stepped down and hung on for dear life. It would be like putting a bad cop behind bars with the inmates he had been fucking with for far too long a period of time.
Halfshirt was also demoted, in a way. He's been kicked off the NPI team and given the task of being nothing more than a production line supervisor. I think he's real bitter about that but I don't have much sympathy for him. Apparently he's really bungled the handoff of new product designs from the R&D lab to the line here. If I were him I'd just be thankful I didn't get thrown out.
Months of restless waiting later I finally got my turn in the execution room. That day I was particularly angry about the overall workplace situation. Things had become so toxic and unfun at work that I decided to take a risk and wear my "Revenge Is Easy" T-shirt with a silhouette of an M4 carbine plastered across my chest. I wanted to let the management chain know where I was coming from if things didn't personally work out for the better. Stepping into the room I was greeted by Halfshirt and a department manager that I didn't know well but had heard he was a fair man. As I sat down he started to speak, and then hesitated for a moment while he stared at my shirt. On the inside I was laughing.
The department manager was still off guard after seeing my T-shirt. With a stuttered pausing between his words he said, "Peasant, you are going to be part of the Go-Forward Team." I'd heard that was the latest corporate-speak for "you still have a job with us." I was relieved, but agitated. I responded to him as Halfshirt looked on, "Okay. So how many more times do I have to go through this junk? You guys already said no more layoffs would be necessary and yet, here we are. More layoffs." He didn't say anything. Neither did Halfshirt.
I walked out into the hallway. A group of nosey employees were not even trying to hide out further down in our building watching like hawks to see who came back out carrying a package of paperwork with them. They were making comments amongst themselves as I walked past. Assholes. It was mostly a crowd of those shit eating busybody dingbat housewives. I hate them.
As the day wore on and I went back to business as usual I had to walk around the factory from building to building on errands. Pick up parts from stores, talk to so and so in engineering, that sort of thing. Everything was subdued. Quiet. I passed a random handful of people from hallway to hallway. Some people looked at my shirt and shook their heads in disgust, others felt the way I did I guess and laughed while giving me a thumbs-up. One guy whom I never saw before or since stopped me in the hallway and said, "YOU wore that shirt today? You got BALLS, man!" We both laughed and went on our way.
Everything wasn't all doom and gloom though. News reached me through the evening about individuals that I wanted to see thrown out. Super Shopper and many of her cronies were given the front gate. Awesome, and about god damned time. A number of substandard line supervisors were given a choice of either stepping down out of their management positions back to production like being a tech or taking the package. Potatohead was rumored for weeks to be one of those underperforming supervisors given this option. I whole heartedly hoped he would choose stepping down to tech because the moment he did, I'd be up on my old line harassing the shit out of him. I was licking my fangs in anticipation of making his life a miserable hell the likes of which he had never dreamed possible. I know others were thinking of doing the same thing to him as well. Unfortunately Potatohead made a wise decision and decided to take the severance package. I think he knew what was going to happen if he stepped down and hung on for dear life. It would be like putting a bad cop behind bars with the inmates he had been fucking with for far too long a period of time.
Halfshirt was also demoted, in a way. He's been kicked off the NPI team and given the task of being nothing more than a production line supervisor. I think he's real bitter about that but I don't have much sympathy for him. Apparently he's really bungled the handoff of new product designs from the R&D lab to the line here. If I were him I'd just be thankful I didn't get thrown out.
posted by factory_peasant at 2:13 PM
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