A Humble Apology

Today we were called into a special closed door meeting with the Bossman. Rougly 40 employees are all that remain now thanks to nearly a dozen rounds of heavy job cuts. None of us knew what our supervisor wanted to talk with us about and as I looked over people's faces I could tell who was nervous, those that didn't give a shit, and a few employees who appeared to be having a good time. I was somewhere inbetween the nervous and didn't give a shit crowd.

After waiting for everyone to settle down the Bossman began to speak. He was having a difficult time choosing his words at first. Obviously something had been troubling him. It was apparent from the tone of his voice and long pauses between what he was trying to say. Basically, he told everyone in the room that he was truly sorry. He was sorry for the way our employees had been treated by the company, he told us this was not the way Bill and Dave would have conducted our business, and this was not the way he would have chosen to handle downsizing our department. I got the feeling from his demeanor that my boss was disgusted with the way things had turned out.

The Bossman apologized to everyone sitting in that conference room. Especially to those who had just lost their jobs and would be leaving in three months or less.

I was amazed. He didn't have to do this.

Continuing on the Bossman told us that trying to meet production goals with such a drastically smaller staff was going to be difficult. He wasn't sure if we'd be able to pull it off or not. A plan was still forming in his mind to try though. In coming weeks he said some of us would be asked to transition into other jobs. Work that some of us might not prefer to do but there was a need there nonetheless. He specifically asked employees who were being severed out to try to do their best with training replacements. The Bossman knew that would be a tough thing for some people to deal with.

I had already been approached by the boss to head over to Button Up. While I wasn't happy about making that move I realized I still had a job here. That was the important thing. I would not have chosen to make that transition on my own and it wasn't the kind of work I wanted to do anymore. Been there, done that years before. It was what I had been tasked with doing though so I would make the best of a bad situation. Just because it wasn't technical work in nature didn't mean the job was any less important. In fact staffing MI/EI is probably even more critical than anything I had been messing with back in the lab. Since Button Up is the last stop in our production area everything on each box has to be perfect before shipping out. Those guys screening for defects have to be on it mentally during their entire shift. Their attention to detail has to be exceptional. Nothing less. It's up to them to catch electrical failures, cosmetic damage, assembly mistakes, discrepancies in paperwork, and all sorts of random unpredictable bullshit.

It's an important job. With one shot we lost our Button Up experts B-Rad and Garden Gnome. There wasn't anyone left after that. The Bossman announced that both myself and Boozealler were tapped on the shoulder to train with B-Rad and Garden Gnome as their replacements. I think he was trying to use us as an example of the kind of job shifts our crew would be facing from now on. That was when Boozealler decided to open his big stupid mouth.

Boozealler abruptly announced into the room, "I don't think I should have to do that kind of work. It's beneath me." He continued running his mouth after that but I tuned him out.

Instantly I glanced over to where B-Rad was sitting. I could see he was angry. I mean who wouldn't be? He just lost his job after working here for over twenty years and he's got some punk saying the work he did that whole time is unworthy. That's what Boozealler was telling everyone whether he meant to or not. Big Dog was sitting to my left and he started making wisecracks about what an asshole Boozealler is. People started snickering. Treehead and EH weren't impressed with Boozealler's comments either. The boss remained quiet and let Boozealler dig himself in deeper and deeper. I think everyone in the room at that moment lost any and all respect they ever had for Boozealler, if they had any to begin with.

Rather skillfully, the boss made his response to Boozealler very clear. If you weren't willing to roll with the punches like the rest of us you wouldn't continue to be employed here for much longer.