Do You Remember Me?

It’s been three years since I was laid off and although I’ve found another job (for the time being anyway) and have (somewhat) gotten over it, there’s a question I’d like to ask my former bosses and co-workers:

Do you remember me?

…or am I just another nameless, faceless former colleague who was let go while you stay employed and so the company could still stay in business?

I haven’t reached out to many of my former co-workers very much. Too much resentment (on my part) and awkwardness (perhaps on their part). It’s a sticky situation for all involved and I must be mindful of that. While I can badmouth my former workplace to other colleagues who were laid off, it’s a bit trickier to do so with those still employed there. They may feel some measure of loyalty to the company and don’t want to hear anything negative about it. I have to be respectful of that. For that reason, I’ve kept my distance and would not badmouth my former company to anyone still working there. 

The few times recently when I did reach out to former colleagues still employed at my former company via Facebook, the response has been, well, underwhelming. I’ve gotten no response at all, to be honest; a resounding thud of silence. I thought I was back in junior high. In fact, two former colleagues un-friended me on Facebook?!

Not sure why. What did I do to them? Did my getting laid off to save their jobs somehow offend them? I have never mentioned anyone by name and never will in this blog. So what did I do to make them turn their back on me?

I have also never badmouthed my former company on Facebook. The only time I contacted my former boss was to tell him a former colleague plagiarized an article I wrote. Looking back, if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have done what I did. But the person in question got another job and appears to be doing fine. The whole incident had nothing to do with anyone else who still works there. Why treat me like a leper?

Would they feel uncomfortable talking to me? They don’t have to. I don’t hold what happened to me against them. (Well, except for the head of the company, a thoroughly despicable person devoid any redeeming qualities.) Perhaps it would help my healing process if I did hear from them from time to time. Apparently, they do not wish to do so and I can’t force them.

It's sad. For years, I exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts with these people, attended their bridal showers. Now? I'm nonexistent to them.

And another question occurs to me:

Was it all worth it?

Did all those layoffs done in the name of saving the company really save the company? Yes, my former workplace is still in business and people are still employed there. But it’s doubtful the company is wildly profitable. No company is in our industry.

My former boss used to say, “We want to thrive, not just survive.” What an idiotic saying. Well, it doesn’t look like the company is thriving. From what I can see from the outside, management is doing everything they can just to hang on by their fingernails. It’s barely surviving. They are too busy saving themselves and their lapdogs to find new sources of revenue or do anything innovative to expand the company. 

But I’m glad that people I once worked with whom I liked and respected and who did good work are still employed there.

Further, the former head of the parent company of our company lost his job. So did hacking away at our department ultimately save his job? No.

And what about all of us who were let go? Don’t we deserve a bit of acknowledgement for our hardships? Some of us have gotten jobs and are doing fairly well. Others are still struggling. One lady had to sell her home. Some were near retirement age and with no hope of getting another job have managed to patch together an income.

So you can understand why when I was told I was let go to save the company I was royally pissed off. That’s hollow comfort to us, or anybody who has been laid off.

I don’t think anyone of us who were let go was treated fairly. We were just unlucky to no longer be of use to our bosses. But as the hoary cliché goes, that is neither here nor there. What is done is done.

Yet I would remind my former bosses that just because you have the right to make staff cuts doesn’t mean that it is the right decision. Are you so sure the people you kept on staff were the best people for those jobs? Or were you simply judging by salary and favoritism?

It was clear the company was struggling financially. But as a long-time employee, maybe I would have liked to be a part of the company’s revival by staying on during the tough times. Instead, I was seen as nothing more than an impediment to the company’s future. I was worthless to them.

And it pains me still to think that other people with less experience in the industry and fewer years at the company were retained while I was kicked to the curb. My self-confidence will never recover from that blow.

It’s easy for those who have never been laid off or whose jobs were saved during massive layoffs to dismiss our feelings as nothing more than bitterness and sour grapes. To them I say, Wait till it happens to you.

And I’d also like to ask them, without any bitterness or resentment:

Do you remember me?

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Life…

Hurricane Sandy. Superstorm Sandy. A tropical storm on steroids. The biggest storm to ever hit the metro New York City area and New Jersey.

By whatever name, Sandy lived up to the hype. I should know. I live in the area Sandy crushed. It whacked the Jersey Shore, Staten Island and parts of Queens like a mob hit in broad daylight.

I was without power for a week, and I was woefully underprepared for it, like many others. But I’ll leave the “I told you so’s” to my bossy older sister.

If I had had a full tank of gas, I would have hightailed it to my sister's house in Pennsylvania, which escaped the storm’s wrath. Alas, I didn’t and so I stuck it out in my cold, dark apartment.

But I was so much more fortunate than others who lost everything. My roof held (despite a thrashing from a neighbor’s tree) and I was able to heat some canned soup and could take a shower. My greatest hardship was having to trash a refrigerator full of groceries. Irksome only because my Italian heritage hates to see food go to waste. But several stores in town were open so I was able to eat.

Since I’m a tech dinosaur, I still have a land line that miraculously worked. I did become something of a charging station zombie, going from one place to another to charge my smart phone…my only connection to the outside world (although I was glad to see I wasn’t the last person on earth to get a smart phone).

It was, to say the least, disconcerting and sometimes depressing. I spent way too much time thinking back to when my college boyfriend dumped me, and rather brutally, too. He and his crew of friends tore me to shreds for whatever reason I'll never know. Not good for the soul.

The whole experience also got me thinking about how we react when our daily routine is suddenly, and through no fault of our own, torn asunder.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we humans are creatures of habit. We like the routine of going to work, shopping on certain days, watching our favorite TV shows, having a roof over our heads. But we hesitate to confess that because it makes us seem, well, rather dull and boring. We should embrace change and be spontaneous, right?

However, I think when people talk about change they mean the good kind of change, the change that is self-generated: You quit your job for another better one; you decide to leave a relationship; you pack up and move of your own accord. Or you win the lottery. That’s the good kind of change.

What they don’t mean is when a storm leaves you without power or worse, homeless. Or when you get laid off and are jobless for a long stretch. Or when your partner leaves you. That's a change you didn't want or ask for.

When that kind of change happens, we are left feeling helpless, frustrated, sometimes depressed and downright cranky. (I only broke down once when I complained to a utility person. She hung up on me. Otherwise, I was pretty calm.)

We like to think we are in control of our fate, but, sadly, we are not. We cannot predict how severely a storm will hit our homes, or when our bosses will decide to terminate us for economic reasons (or whatever reason they can think of).

Nevertheless, we like to feel like we are in control and perhaps having a daily routine gives us a sense of comfort that we have a good life that nobody or nothing can take away from us. That if we do a good job, our companies will keep us. That if we are good people, the people we care for won’t hurt us.

Sorry if I’m getting too sentimental and philosophical. But I do believe that we thrive when we do have a routine. A life of constant change would be too chaotic to endure for very long. We all need some semblance of stability.

Yes, we do like to change it up a bit. We go on vacations. But when we return from the tropics or a trip around Tuscany, think how good we feel when we get back home and get to sleep in our own bed again.

Yet even when harsh change is forced upon us, we find a way to survive. Eventually, we find another job or another way of making ends meet. We brave another relationship even after somebody has hurt us.

And homes will be rebuilt, although not as swiftly as we’d like. The Jersey Shore will be restored and come back the way it always was: lovely (in its own way), a bit tacky and a heck of a lot of fun; it truly is the soul of the state.

When I was sitting in my dark and cold apartment, I would curse myself for not being better prepared. But now I’m kind of proud that I did stick it out. That I made it through a tough time, just like I did when I was laid off and found another job.

So while my douchey former bosses and nasty ex-boyfriend may have wounded my soul, I still survived.

Although I don't think I'll be eating peanut butter or canned soup any time soon.

Bitterness is My Brand, Part 2

Maybe it’s because of the oncoming “Frankenstorm” in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, maybe it’s because of the side effects of the antibiotic I’m taking that range from mild to you don’t want to know, or perhaps it’s because my job is making me an exhausted wreck, but I’m cranky, real cranky.

So what better time to whine about my layoff one more time…

Really, I’m getting over it little by little. But some days I think back to that day I was told to pack up my desk and leave or I get a picture in my mind of my former boss smirking and acting smug and I know he’s still there, well, I can’t help it, I get angry, real angry.

Perhaps it’s time I reveal why I’m so bitter so maybe you’ll understand.

I’m a cancer survivor. Been in remission since 2004, but is anyone truly cured of this terrible disease? It’s not something I like to talk about. Honestly, I’ve found that most people want to talk about their problems, not yours.

The cancer recurred twice, so I’ve had three major surgeries, the last one was one of the most radical a person can undergo. Yet every time, I healed and went back to work.

I even went to work every day when I was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. I was tired and sick, but I put in a full day’s work. (OK, I had to go to the bathroom a lot, but I worked harder than most healthy people I know.)

Now, I’m not saying that my former company shouldn’t have let me go me because of my cancer. It was a business decision, right? No special treatment, right? No personal feelings or loyalty to our employees, right? It’s all about the bottom line, right?

But if my working during treatment for a serious illness didn’t engender any loyalty on the part of my former bosses, well, there wasn’t much more I could do for that godforsaken company, was there?

When I’ve mentioned how betrayed I felt when I was laid off even after dragging myself to work during cancer treatment, I’ve gotten mostly indifference.

Yet I don’t feel angry at my bosses so much as myself. What a fool I was!

I remember one time they took us to a skybox at old Shea Stadium (what a dump that place was, but oh, the memories!). Knowing my cheapo former bosses, they probably got some kind of a free deal to take us there.

When they flashed the name of our company on the giant scoreboard, I cheered. Every time I think of that, I get sick to my stomach. I cheered the very same company that I worked so hard for, for so many years, even during hellish cancer treatments, that eventually laid me off! What a stupid fool I was! What was I thinking?! Never again will I be that loyal or trusting of a company.

But, hey, who’s bitter?

Déjà vu All Over Again

Some things never change.

The day after our company-wide meeting, our CEO sent around a rather exasperated email in response to office gossip that more staff cuts were coming. He said there wouldn’t be, but surely he could understand why there would be talk of such things. After he clearly stated during the meeting that positions were being eliminated, it’s understandable other employees would think their jobs were in jeopardy as well. He was naïve to think there wouldn’t be office gossip about more layoffs, especially after so many have either experienced a job termination firsthand, or seen friends and relatives and co-workers laid off.

Yet, I think it’s unrealistic to think company brass is going to announce who is being cut during a company-wide meeting. Those people deserve privacy in such a personal, sensitive matter. Eventually, we will all find out.

(As a side note, one of the people who was let go was a woman who argued against my being hired…what goes around…)

And—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—I think the CEO was wrong to say no more layoffs were coming. Yes, on that day, no more staff cuts were planned. But what about six months from now? Economic conditions can change swiftly, and no CEO should make promises he cannot keep. I don’t want to lose my job or see anyone else lose theirs, but the reality is no one is immune from a layoff.

I recall three months before I was laid off being told by the head of the company that our jobs were safe. A month later he stopped talking to me, and a month after that, I was gone. Was I lied to? No, I don’t think so. I think at the time he believed what he told me. But then the head of the parent company ordered him to make cuts or the entire department was gone. And, well, you know what happened after that.

I will give this new CEO props for being as candid as he can be. At least he and upper management have a plan for the company, a vision. My previous company really didn’t have a proactive business plan or a blueprint to where the company should go. Therefore, they were always making moves in reaction to something else…the economy, what a competitor did, etc. Hence, they made panic moves, like cutting half the staff and killing products that were relatively profitable.

After having been through that experience, I wasn’t really upset by the swirling gossip about possible cuts. I have no reason to think at this date that my job will be eliminated. Maybe I just can't put myself through that emotional drain again. But who knows what will happen a month or six months from now? I also know that if management has targeted you for a layoff, there really isn’t much you can do to save yourself.

Will it be, like Yogi Berra said, déjà vu all over again?

Corporate Doublespeak

Just today, we had one of those company-wide meetings about the new direction the new corporate brain trust wants to take the company.

It can pretty much be summed up thusly, “Blah, blah, blah…consolidation…blah, blah, blah…more profits (we hope)…blah, blah, blah.”

Now, I’m not complaining. At least this company and the new CEO are more open and candid than my other workplace and its executives who were so secretive they would make the KGB look like a girls’ night out.

Nevertheless, there is only so much they are going to say outright. And basically, as workers, we only want to know two things:

1. Will we be getting raises and bonuses this year so I can buy that new jumbo flat-screen TV and move to a new apartment? 
2. Is my job being cut?

Somebody actually asked about staff reductions and to my surprise the executives were fairly candid…up to a point.

They said they wanted to grow the company not downsize. However, later they said because of the new direction/strategy, positions will be eliminated and people will be let go. So which is it? Typical corporate doublespeak.

I understand they were not going to say the names of the people who are about to be let go during a company-wide meeting. Yet judging from my own experience, those people probably already have an inkling of their fate.

They did say those poor sops were going to be treated respectfully. Nice to know. Still, it’s never comforting to know your company is contemplating layoffs (although they will never use that word.) And it's sad for employees to learn that the job they were hired for and did well for so many years is no longer of use for the company. They did nothing wrong, but are being let go because of a business strategy that has no guarantee of success.

At least I can take some solace that by being cut, the jobs of certain people I liked and respected were saved. Not that those bloody ingrates will ever acknowledge it.

It also got me thinking…Which is worse: To lose your job because of a nebulous corporate strategy that may or may not boost profits? Or to lose your job because of a bad economy and stupid bosses who wouldn’t know a business strategy if it bought them a drink in a bar?

The answer? It really doesn’t matter. You are out of a job and no amount of corporate doublespeak is going to make that better.

The Corporation Made Me Do It

Back in the ‘60s there was a TV show called “Laugh In.” (Yes, I’m that old.) It was basically a quick comedy-sketch show; think of “Saturday Night Live” on speed. It was also the show that launched Goldie Hawn’s career.

The program spawned a number of popular catch phrases, like Here comes the judge! Another one was, The devil made me do it.

In 2012, I think we can change that to, The Corporation Made Me Do It. Because in our No-Fault times, somebody else is always to blame for our failings, be it cheating, deliberately hurting another person, or running a company into the ground and having to lay off scores of workers.

Soon after I was laid off, an acquaintance who gave me freelance work told me my former boss told him that he really didn’t want to lay me off. The implication being that somebody else higher up in the company forced him to do it. In other words, The Corporation Made Me Do It.

Well, as my late mother would say, bull throw.

I’m sure our parent company told him to cut staff and products, but it was up to him and the other managers to decide who stayed and who was cut. From what I saw, they pretty much kept their drinking buddies and handpicked lapdogs.

He could have kept me if he wanted. But he chose to keep another editor with less seniority and less experience in the industry. Why? Because she is, like him, a heavy drinker and somebody he knew would never question his edicts.

The whole thing stinks of what Jacqueline on the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” calls blame shifting. Like blaming a bad economy for layoffs. Or too much regulation...or my mother was a bitch. Somebody or something else is always to blame for our failures. It's time we took responsibility for our actions and accept the consequences. 

Yes, the recession forced a lot of companies to cut staff. But not all did. My former boss was too busy going to happy hours to figure out a way to save the company. When the economy crashed, he simply took the easy way out and cut staff.

Yet simply cutting staff only eliminates expenses; it doesn’t automatically make a company profitable.

And if a company like the one I used to work for depended on advertising revenue, why not try to find new sources of revenue? Or perhaps what they really needed was new ad salespeople.

But, no, only one low-level salesperson was let go. The blithering idiot who is supposed to be the head of sales was kept because–you guessed it—he was the boss’s favorite drinking buddy.

There is also this theory that it is just as hard for companies to let go of workers and how painful it is for managers to let go of staff. Again, bull throw.

I can understand how it would be difficult to tell someone they are being laid off. But to equate it with what the dumped employee is going through is a stretch. For what is merely a bad hour or so in your day can lead to months and years of unemployment for the person you are terminating. There is no comparison. You still have a job, health insurance and the possibility of getting a raise.

And to act like we’re not supposed to be upset about it is also unrealistic.

But I’d like to tell you a God’s-honest, swear on my parent’s gravesite true story. The head of the parent company of my former workplace used to write a blog. Soon after I and others were laid off, there was an item about the cuts in one of those media gossip sites. (I didn’t give them the information, but my former boss blamed me anyway.)

Someone in the larger company saw the item and commented about it in the CEO’s blog, asking if cuts were coming in her department, too. (Such empathy! I mean, who cares about the poor slobs who were laid off. What about me?)

The CEO wrote back that no one else was going to get laid off. (Whew!) That our department was hard hit by the economy and he was sorry to see so many talented people let go.

Oh, yes, by all means, dump the talented workers and keep the morons.

But that isn’t what bothered me the most. What really irked me was his false sympathy for us, the people he threw out of jobs. He obviously didn’t care. He wanted to get rid of the entire department, which sent my immediate boss into a panic of willy-nilly staff cuts to save himself and his drinking buddies.

Like my boss, he wanted to protect his larger part of the company, which wasn’t doing very well financially either. It must be grand to get other people to take the fall so you can save yourself and don't have to assume responsibility for your poor decisions. My former boss is still there. Any other CEO who presided over the near collapse of a company would have been long gone.

Ah, but there is the Rule of Karma. About two years ago, that CEO resigned from the company. No specific reason was given (there never is), but it was pretty obvious he was forced out because the company was doing poorly.

So what goes around, comes around…

The Firing Season

Ah, fall. A time of tumbling orange leaves, pumpkins and apple cider, tweed and corduroy, cooler weather (except somebody forgot to tell the humidity here in the mid-Atlantic), and football (go Jets!).

It’s a time of crisp bright days that seem to close in as the daylight sneaks out earlier and earlier.

It’s also a time of hurricanes and mass layoffs.

It’s true. Nearly every time my former company undertook layoffs it was during the fall season, usually around Thanksgiving (as was the case with my sister), or in my case, Christmas.

It makes sense: The All White Males Club at every company is currently budgeting for next year. What better time to get expenses down by laying off employees now so they don’t have to pay them into the new year.

So watch the employment numbers that come out in the next few months. Don’t be surprised if the unemployment rolls suddenly spike.

I used to love the fall. It was always my favorite season; never could get adjusted to the heat of summer or driving in snow in winter.

Now, while I welcome the cooler temps, I wonder and worry: Will it happen again this year? Will I be one of the workers deemed expendable by my employer?

Because although autumn has many admirable qualities, it does portend that winter is coming.

And it just may be a long, cold winter for many of us.

Confessions of a Free-Food Junkie

I admit it. I’m a shameless whore for free food.

I cannot tell you how many times I have embarrassed myself, family, friends and co-workers with my uncontrollable urge to get any kind of vittles gratis.

Now, that doesn’t mean I steal from the office fridge. Never. And I always pay my own way when having lunch or dinner with a friend.

What I’m talking about are scarfing down free food samples at grocery stores and the mall food court. Whatever they offer, I’ll bite. Even if I don’t particularly like it. Cause, hey, it’s free!

Now what does this have to do with employment (or unemployment) in the 2010s? Well, it goes back to a previous post on how my employer is too cheap to let we mere cubicle serfs have free water bottles. Oh, no, those are only reserved for upper management and visitors.

So the other day, the All While Males Club at my office had a meeting. Because it would be too much to ask the big kahunas to go out and pay for their own lunch, a platter of sandwiches was ordered. Heavens! We can’t let them get too peckish while they decide who stays and who gets laid off.

I was working late that day. And I saw the half-full sandwich platter in the fridge. Being hungry, as I always am, yep, I took half a sandwich. I ate it. For free.

No one noticed, and the next day the platter was left out with a sign inviting everyone to take a sandwich if they wanted. A day later. Just enough time for the salmonella to set in. I didn’t take one that day, although I availed myself of the fruit that was also ordered along with the sandwiches.

But it got me thinking again how cheap employers are. Why not order two or three platters for the entire office? Would it have cost that much more? Maybe, or maybe not.

It also reeks like rotten cheese of the disdain upper management has for their workers. We don’t even deserve an occasional free lunch? Only the high and mighty, the ones with the highest salaries, get that perk?

So next time you see leftover food from one of their silly meetings, I say, go for it. Grab that free food with gusto. It may be one of the few benefits you will ever get from those cheap bastards.

Burp!

Workplace Tragedy

This is a very difficult entry for me to write.

By now, most everyone has read about the laid-off worker who killed his former colleague outside the Empire State Building in New York City.

This is a tragedy for the victim’s family, of course. I don’t want to minimize the pain they must be going through.

However, the minute I heard this story, I thought (selfishly, I admit), “Oh, no, now everyone is going to assume that all laid-off workers are crazy. Just another reason for companies not to hire unemployed people.”

But let’s get the facts straight. From what I read, the person who did this shooting obviously had mental problems. He and the person he shot had had physical altercations at the workplace in the past. So my question is, did someone from the HR department try to mediate that situation? I cannot hold an HR person responsible for spotting an unhinged employee who may be prone to violence, but if two workers have a physical altercation in the office that is a pretty obvious sign there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

It also seemed, from the stories I read after the shooting, that he was an isolated person. Perhaps if there were a relative or friend he could have spoken to about his upset after the layoff, he may have sought counseling, or gotten help in finding another job.

It further seems to me that this was a troubled man who was possibly pushed over the edge by losing his job. We can never know for sure. The man was laid off a year before the shooting, which would indicate his life was in a downward spiral for quite some time.

But to lump all laid-off workers as crazy because of this one incident is wrong and an unfair slime on the millions of good workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It reminds me of movies back in the ‘70s and ‘80s when all the villains were crazed Vietnam veterans.

Nearly every laid-off worker I know simply packs up their desk, applies for unemployment and tries to find another job. They did not buy a gun and shoot up their former workplace. (The incident also points to the need for better gun control, but that’s for another blog.)

Of the people I worked with who were laid off, the only one who came remotely close to doing anything hostile was a jettisoned co-worker who wrote nasty emails to a former boss. His actions were unfortunate and ill-advised and he was slapped with a cease and desist order. I agree, he should never have written those emails. But I don’t think his actions ever crossed over into threatening or violent. I think he was more angry and frustrated and expressed it in the only way he could.

For the record, I do not condone physical violence of any sort and will never own a gun. Verbal snaps are about as far as I’ll go and by any standard, my heated comments are rare, pretty mild and never insulting. And no, despite my anger over being let go, I think unfairly, I never wrote any nasty emails to former co-workers. What would be the point?

But back to the shooting in New York City. Several articles after the incident did say that losing one’s job is a traumatic experience and care should be taken when letting workers go. Companies, though, seem to think it's not a big deal and is only being done to save their own skins. They don't care what laid-off employees think or feel. So who's really the bad person?

Yet I concede it would be hard for any HR person to know which employee will snap and resort to violence after they lose their job.

Nevertheless, in this instance, there were some definite indications this man was troubled. As I said before, this man got into a physical fight with the co-worker he eventually killed. How could an HR person miss that sign? Part of their job is to handle workplace disputes; it involves more than just making sure forms are signed correctly so the company can legally lay off employees. Most employer health plans have mental health hotlines, so why wasn’t this man referred to one after he got into that fight?

As far as workers having grievances against their employers, one commentator pointed out that most workers today are being mistreated and overworked by their companies. Yet nearly all do not snap or resort to violence.

And if companies are so worried about violence against them by the people they so callously dump, there are some very simple solutions to that potential problem:

• Make sure your company is run properly so there is enough revenue to keep good workers employed.
• Treat us with respect.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Buddy, Can You Spare a Water Bottle?

Something happened at work recently that was a stark and rather sad reminder of how dismissive employers are of their workers.

There was a stack of water bottles in the kitchen. Thinking said water bottles were meant for the staff, I put two in the refrigerator to cool. But when I went back later, there was a sign on the rack of bottles:

Please do no take. These bottles are only meant for meetings and visitors.

Oh, now I get it. When the big kahunas have meetings or a visitor comes to the office, they get the water bottles, but the rest of us mere cubicle dwellers cannot.

So I apologized to the office manager and put the water bottles back. But I was steamed.

Aren’t we part of the staff? Are visitors more important to the company than we are, the people who are actually putting together the products and services that are generating the firm’s revenues? It just says to us that management does not think we are very important.

Yes, we have a water cooler in the office. Why can’t they just get a cup of water from that? It’s good enough for us, but not for upper management and visitors?

Despite the tone of this blog, I actually do understand why companies have to make personnel cuts in choppy economic times. I understand why they cannot give out raises or year-end bonuses in certain years.

I don’t expect much in the way of extras. I can do without summer company picnics and pizza Fridays.

I also believe that the biggest (non)perk of all should be outlawed: the company holiday party with an open bar. I have been to too many of those where I’ve been ignored by the cool kids and watched co-workers get drunk and nasty. Ug. Then there was my all-time low point for a company holiday party: The time a crazybitch colleague screamed at me because she thought I somehow messed with a CD she wanted to dance to. Yes, she was drunk. For the record, I was simply retrieving a CD I brought to the event and had no idea she was waiting to dance. But what really got me was that she was going to dance with a bunch of other women. George Clooney wasn’t out there waiting for her.

I’d rather go for a root canal.

But water bottles? Come on. We workers put up with a lot…no raises, crappy health plans and double workloads, all for the sake of a steady paycheck. But this is so, well, cheap.

Are things that bad, or does the company think so little of us, that they cannot give us bottles of better water? 

Loyalty is a One-Way Street

We are in the dog days of summer and my beloved Mets are doing their annual second-half flop to last place. So naturally my thoughts turn to football, and that brings me to…Peyton Manning.

Yes, the same Peyton Manning who was unceremoniously dumped by his former team, the Indianapolis Colts last year. Even after he brought the team a Super Bowl title and did nothing but play like a superstar for the Colts, management decided to go with a younger quarterback.

Not that I can’t blame the Colts. Manning is, after all, well into his 30s and coming off neck surgery. In sports, younger is better. And there was the not insignificant matter of a $28-million bonus the team would have owed him had they kept him on the roster. (Odd isn't it, that the same management that agreed to that ridiculous clause used it as a reason for not keeping him.)

Yet I can’t feel too sorry for Manning, either. He signed on with the Denver Broncos for about $90 million. Not exactly chump change.

Nevertheless, the whole incident shows just how little loyalty employers have toward their employees, even the great ones. Loyalty between employers and employees is a one-way street nowadays. Employers expect workers to be loyal to the company yet they give us no loyalty in return.

Companies know employees can’t move easily to others jobs; therefore, they know we must put up with little or no raises, bad working conditions and high-deductible health plans. Really, some deductibles are so high that the only way anyone could meet those numbers is to get hit by a truck.

If we complain? Too bad, say bosses. If you don’t like it find something else. But they know we can’t. The general attitude is we are lucky to have a job.

And what are companies giving workers in return?

Cue the sound of crickets chirping…

Not much. Companies have made it very clear they will cut workers en masse when it suits them, even if we are doing a good job. Their loyalty is to the bottom line, not us.

So we sit in our cubicles and seethe, waiting and hoping for the economy to turn and create more jobs.

Because when the economy does turn, and eventually it will, it always does, how much loyalty do we think we are going to show our employers?

Good Review. So What?

After 16 months out of work and 16 months into my new job, I finally got a performance review. You know, those employee-crushing exercises in management power plays in which you are told nothing you did is good enough and impossibly high goals are set for next year. What a joy!

Fortunately, I’m happy to report, my most recent review was quite good, glowing even. Hey, after my brutal layoff and some nasty, nitpicking performance evaluations in the past, I’ll take it. The opposite is too unpleasant to think about.

I even got a raise…2.5%. Not much, but anything helps at this point. I can’t keep dipping into my savings every month.

Nevertheless, as my best friend would say, “So the fuck what.”

I’m no longer naïve enough to believe doing a good job will save my position when cutbacks come. Right now, I know at my company, the All White Males Club is evaluating the entire organization. Who knows what positions they will decide to hack? Will they keep the good workers or save their cronies?

I will say this again, in today’s workplace doing a good job is no guarantee you will keep your job. Unfair? Yes, but that’s the way it is.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to do good work. In my new job, I’ve worked my formerly unemployed butt off, been helpful to co-workers, kept my mouth shut and haven’t make any major mistakes. I came close to getting reamed out once, but it didn’t happen because I happened to be working on what the manager wanted. Whew!

Yet, if they decide to eliminate my position, it won’t matter one iota.

Which brings me to the subject of an upcoming post: Loyalty—A One Way Street.

Bitterness is My Brand

As any reader (hello, are you out there?) of this blog has probably surmised by now, I’m pretty bitter about my layoff. OK, a lot bitter.

Please, bear with me and hear me out about why I still have lingering bitterness over my layoff.

In our society, we are not supposed to be bitter or angry. We’re supposed to forgive those who have wronged us. Get over it and move on is the advice most people would give you after something bad, like a layoff, has happened to you. If you are angry or bitter, it will only hurt your long-term happiness, so said one guy I used to work with (who wasn’t laid off). Easy for him to say; he still had a job. What about my long-term happiness without an income stream?

Yet I wonder if that is the best or most realistic advice. It’s easy to say the words “I forgive you,” but unless you truly feel them in your heart, you cannot heal and you’re just fooling yourself.

That old saying, “Time heals all wounds” is certainly true. Why should we be so quick to forgive anyway? It’s almost like a double-hurt: You want to forgive and get over it, because that’s what everybody says you should do, but you can’t. The pain is still there. Then you feel bad because you can’t forgive.

You feel like a bad person because you cannot forgive, at least not yet. No, you are not a bad person. You are merely dealing with a painful situation in your own way, in your own time.

For some people, it may take only days or weeks to forgive. For others, forgiveness may take a much longer time, possibly years. It’s really up to the individual and how they process the hurt and pain of being thrown out of a job and being unemployed for a long stretch of time.

And do we have to forgive everything? Yes, I forgive the young driver who skidded on a wet road surface and dented my car. It was not done intentionally and it really wasn’t his fault.

Forgiving my douchebag former bosses for putting me out of work in favor of people with less experience and higher paychecks is taking a lot longer. Perhaps if I knew the true reasons behind my layoff I could understand why they did what they did and forgive them. But I doubt I’ll ever get a truthful answer, so I’m left to wonder why and that’s hurtful.

Maybe if the actual termination had been handled a bit more humanely I would not feel so, well, bitter. No I was essentially told I was there too long, making too much money, so clean out my desk and leave. No thank you for 16-plus years of hard work.

Yes, I’ve thought long and hard about what I did that may have led to my layoff. Were my poor tech skills to blame? Maybe. Did all those petty tiffs I had with co-workers finally come back to haunt me? Possibly.

Although I’ll never know why, I have taken my new job as a second chance and tried to upgrade my tech skills, making better progress than I would have ever thought (although I will never be a tech person). I’ve worked hard to get along with co-workers (even when they really should be bitch-slapped) and have been quite successful. Whenever I’ve felt myself falling back on bad habits, I’ve quickly changed my behavior.

And I can honestly say that the bitterness over my layoff is peeling away from me, thin layer after thin layer. I’ve forgiven most of the bosses and co-workers who threw me under the bus. I understand why they did what they did and I forgive them and wish them well. I don’t want anything to do with them anymore, but I do forgive them.

The only one I cannot forgive is the head of the company, a truly despicable human being who uses his position to abuse other people to compensate for his own unhappiness and shortcomings. Instead of trying to make the company more profitable, he preferred to go out drinking with his buddies and lay off other people to save himself. Someday, he will be held accountable for his actions.

For many months, I wished the company would go under. But not anymore. That doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon, so why hope for it. Besides, I don’t want to see the many good, hardworking people I used to work with out of a job. Yes, they choose to stay, but I don’t want to see them unemployed because the head of the company has no clue how to make the business profitable.

As far as me being bitter, well, most of my bitterness has been expressed to former co-workers who were also laid off. Those were private conversations between colleagues and it went no further. During job interviews, I certainly never expressed any bitterness toward my former company. I simply said I was let go for economic reasons.

The only time I let my bitterness and anger get the better of me was when I told my former boss one of the editors used a story I wrote a year-and-a-half earlier. But that was clearly plagiarism. I also felt they kicked sand in my face by letting her do that. I mean, if my work wasn’t good enough to justify continued employment, then why was a story I wrote being used again?

What happened to her? I regretfully report that she was let go. I don’t feel good about getting someone fired, but even she later admitted she was the cause of her termination. (Yes, I told her what I had done and apologized. I honestly felt they would simply give her a slap on the wrist.) I still feel awful about it, although she quickly got another job (helped by the head of my former company who wouldn’t lift a hand to help me) and seems happy.

Still, I learned a valuable lesson. When we take action out of bitterness and anger, other people can get hurt.

All the more reason I need to forgive my former bosses…and maybe, just maybe, myself.

Burning Bridges

I have a very bad habit. I know I should stop, but I can’t.

What is this bad habit? Do I drink too much? No, just a glass of wine on the weekends.  Spend too much on clothes? You betcha. Eat too much chocolate? Guilty pleasure.

No, the habit I refer to is my strange fascination with articles on how to deal with a layoff. You know the kind: All sorts of original advice like you should network to get another job after being laid off. (Really? You mean I can’t rob a bank.)

I know it’s silly. All it does it bring me back to that awful day and the 16 months I spent lonely, stressed and unemployed.

Maybe I do it because I’m looking for some comfort or explanation of why I so rudely treated by former employer.

No, instead I get nuggets like this: “You should know it’s just as embarrassing and gut-wrenching for the company: They don’t have the money to pay you.”

Oh, right: Corporations are people, too. I’ll go out on limb and bet the writer, Rebecca Thorman of U.S. News & World Report’s Money page, is going to vote for Mitt Romney.

My first thought was, has this chick ever been laid off? Does she know how it really feels? Probably not.

And that wasn’t the only advice this moron gave that got my blood boiling. She said that we shouldn’t burn our bridges with our former employer. Hey, I think my former bosses burned their bridges with me when they laid me off.

Yes, I understand we should be calm when our world is collapsing around us. I’m not advocating any kind of verbal or physical violence. Not at all.

I admit, I did snap a bit when I was brutally told I was being laid off. But I never raised my voice or swore at anyone. I told my boss I didn’t want to talk to him, and I also snapped at a former co-worker who I later found out threw me under the bus to save one of her office buddies. Even then, I said, “Don’t talk to me. You have a job.” Not that bad, really.

My biggest issue is with the advice that we should take our layoffs lightly and go quietly into a long stretch of unemployment, a severe drop in income, possible foreclosure and bankruptcy without so much as a peep of protest. Not bloody likely. I say, make your displeasure known to your douche-bag former bosses. It’s probably the last chance you’ll ever get. They've already laid you off, so they can't do anything else to you.

What about how the layoffs were handled? Why was I laid off when people who had less time in the company and made more than me kept on? I’ll tell you why: Because managers are allowed to cherry-pick who stays and goes and that’s extremely unfair.

But how can I expect someone who has never been laid off but yet gets to tell us how we’re supposed to feel to understand?

Corporate Feudalism

Since the GOP seems ready to nominate the ultimate corporate overlord, Mitt “I like to fire people” Romney, as its presidential candidate, it’s time to discuss Corporate Feudalism.

What is Corporate Feudalism? It’s the concept (invented by me, of course. I have a lot of time on my hands) that companies in the U.S. are built not innovation or inventing goods and services that can help society in some way, but on the perpetuation of their own dominance and oversized paychecks. It’s all about keeping themselves and their handpicked cronies in power so they can rake in mega salaries and big fat bonus checks every year. Just like Feudal Lords of yesteryear.

Even after taxpayers, their serfs, had to bail them out from their own stupidity, Wall Street hucksters shamelessly pocketed six-figure bonuses. This after many had thrown workers out on the street to keep their own jobs so they could continue their own lavish lifestyles. Not one has been held to account for their criminal actions. That’s despicable.

Oh, Republicans say this class warfare, that we’re jealous of their wealth. Not so.

All of us know rich people. We work with them, are friends with them and they are members of our families. Good for them if they have beaucoup bucks. I always say, if you are going to be jealous of what another person makes, you will be a very unhappy person.

No, we irritates us is the power their money gives them. The power to change laws in their favor, the power to hire us and then dump us when we become “surplus.” (If we were surplus, why did you hire us in the first place?)

Name one U.S. company that consistently comes up with innovative products? Apple is the only one I can think of. (Although I wish they innovate a little slower. I just bought an iPhone 4 and now the company wants to come out with an iPhone5.) Of course, Apple has managed to steer away from paying most of its U.S. taxes.

I saw this at work at my former workplace. They cut us to reduce expenses, yet are they profitable? From what I can see they haven’t come up with anything new or innovative. It’s just the same old, same old from the same drunken morons who have always run that place and a bunch of new hires getting overworked for a pittance.

And I don't buy the theory that just because someone ran a successful business they can run the country. Sure, in business, you don't want to run a deficit. With a country, sometimes you have to in order to provide essential services to its citizens. What's Romney going to do when he sees how much Social Security is costing the country? Fire everyone over age 65?

For most American corporations, it’s about keeping upper management in power and living in luxury while the rest of us can barely afford to pay rent and keep our families fed and housed. There is no balance. The entire system is tilted in their favor. It's never good for any civil society to have so much power rest with one, relatively small group.

Corporations whine about too much regulation, but with so many politicians of both parties beholden to Wall Street dollars, it’s unlikely they will get more regulation.

And it’s not as if regulation has stopped them from raking in record profits while discarding workers in record numbers. What are they worried about?

Look, I understand companies have to make profits and to make money you have to take risks. I get that. But when they take risks that fail, they cannot expect taxpayers—the same people they jettison when it suits them—to pay for their mistakes.

The most surprising aspect of the JPMorgan debacle was not that those boobs actually managed to lose $2 billion in a scheme even they couldn’t comprehend—it was that upper management actually acknowledged their fault (albeit not right away) and that some high-ranking executives actually took responsibility and resigned. (One of them was a woman from New Jersey. Perhaps now she can go on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. They need someone to smack down Teresa.)

We all must pay taxes if we want a country with a top-notch military, good schools and solid infrastructure. But all corporations want to do is avoid paying taxes. Have we become Tax Dodge Nation? It’s not like they are using the money they would have paid in taxes to fund some great new product that helps people live better lives or puts more people to work. No, instead the money is going for obscene salaries and bonuses.

Well, enough of my rant about Corporate Feudalism. Let me check my wallet to see if I have enough money to buy lunch at McDonalds.

Here We Go Again…Part 2

It was on the printer near my office cubicle. It was an agenda for a big meeting the big kahunas at work attended recently.

Naturally, my nosey nature took over and I glanced at it (hey, who left it there for all to see?). Not for long, but long enough to see some interesting agenda items, such as reviewing staffing levels to see if any positions needed to be cut (and to be fair, if positions needed to be added and where).

No, I haven’t mentioned to this anyone else in the office. For one, the deadline for these decisions, if any, aren’t until October.

Reality Check: I can’t say I’m surprised. We have a new CEO and of course it’s his mandate to review the entire company structure to ferret out inefficiencies and find areas where money can be better spent to boost revenues. Frankly, if he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be doing his job.

Or it could be mere busy work for upper management types. What better kind than screwing around with the lives of underlings. Gives them a sense or power, I guess. They get to play God.

Nevertheless, at this point, it’s in the discussion stage. Who knows what will happen between now and the fall? He may make radical changes, or none at all. And no one knows where those changes, if any, will occur. And it’s pretty obvious that management is no rush to make these decisions, that these discussions are not being done out of desperation and panic as it was at my former employer.

So getting worried at this time is probably premature. Yet it’s just another disheartening reminder that our professional fates are being discussed in some meeting room somewhere by a group of mostly white, middle-aged males. Not very comforting.

The best we can hope for is that any dismissals are done in a respectful, thoughtful manner for the individuals whose jobs are on the line. That those of us who may lose our jobs aren’t being laid off because some douchebag supervisor wants to get rid of us for personal reasons so he or she can keep his or her incompetent lapdogs or drinking buddies on staff.


Reality Check Again: Let's not get too negative. Negative thoughts can become negative reality. There may be massive layoffs, there may none. No one, including the new CEO, knows at this point.

So what can I do? Well, this may just be the push I need to update my resume.

Weekend Work

It sat on my outdated and way-too-large printer for a day. It was the folder of work I brought home over this holiday weekend.

Yes, folks, I brought work home. Just finished what is the start of a project I must complete by the end of this shortened workweek.

With friends and relatives either busy or feeling unwell, I had time to spare over this three-day weekend.

Still, I wonder if I did the right thing. Yeah, I know I must meet my deadline; don’t want to fall too far behind or have my tardiness impact what others need to do. If working for just an hour or so can help me do that, it’s a good thing, especially with more and more duties being thrown my way.

Still…why did I do it? At my previous job, I routinely worked overtime and brought work home on the weekends. And what good did that do me? I was laid off anyway.

It’s a balancing act. Trying to make sure you get your work done in a timely manner, yet ensuring your free time is not encroached upon by perhaps overly burdensome workloads.

And do bosses even notice how much we sometimes sacrifice our free time to get our work done? That’s doubtful. It certainly didn’t matter to my former bosses who terminated me without a second thought.

At my new job, I’ve been careful to balance what needs to get done with my need for free time, time I need to recuperate from an increasingly hectic workweek. I think I’ve been good about doing that.

You can’t refuse to do your job when asked, especially if another person has to pick up your slack. That’s unfair. You never want a colleague who depends on you to get them the material they need to do their job to be put behind by your actions. That is wrong and disrespectful.

Just like working hard, even on the weekends, and getting laid off anyway is wrong and disrespectful.

But now, it’s time for me to get away from work and this computer and enjoy the rest of the weekend! Happy Memorial Day!

Taking One for the Team

An interesting occurrence happened during a recent NY Mets game, something that could only happen in the bizarre world of MetsLand.

Manager Terry Collins removed star player David Wright from a game, fearing the third baseman would get hit in retaliation for some soon-to-be-demoted Mets pitcher plunking the Milwaukee Brewers’ star player, PED-abusing scum Ryan Braun (how is this guy still the MVP?). Collins reasoned the Brewers were unlikely to hit his replacement, bench player Jordany (“I’m the Man Right Now.”) Valdespin

Wright objected to the move, arguing he was more than willing to take one for the team. Commentators applauded Wright’s toughness and Collins’ honesty. But several also questioned why the manager would protect a star (Wright) while letting a lesser talent (Valdespin) take one for the team, thereby letting the entire ball club know who he thinks is important and who he thinks is not.

I agree with both assessments. Of course, any manager wants to protect his star player, and I can’t fault Collins for holding back Wright after witnessing so many Mets players get hurt in the most bizarre ways in recent years. There was a real chance Wright could have gotten hit in the head (concussion) or hand (broken bones). Collins is the boss, so Wright has to obey his orders.

But we don’t know if the Brewers would have retaliated against any Mets player. And what if Valdespin got hurt? So it’s OK to lose a bench player?

The discussion about “taking one for the team” got me thinking about my layoff. When others and I were laid off so that others more favored by management could keep their jobs, we, in essence, took one for the team.

Face it, there is favoritism and a pecking order in any office, just like there are stars and bench players on a sports team. It was pretty obvious by who was let go and who stayed that my former managers were cherry picking their lapdogs and drinking buddies for continued employment, while dumping otherwise good workers to save themselves.

Now, to be fair, in previous rounds of layoffs my job was spared. So there were times when others took one for the team so I could continue to have a job. I did feel bad for those let-go workers and expressed that to them. Maybe it was just my time to take one for the team.

Yet never once has anybody whose job was spared while I was laid off expressed any gratitude to me or the others for what we were forced to undergo (a long stretch of unemployment) so they could continue to have a paycheck. Not once, not by anyone of them. The few times I did bring it up with my former colleagues my feelings were dismissed, like they didn’t care or didn’t want to hear about it. Well, don’t call me up when it happens to you.

None of us were given a choice of whether or not we wanted to take one for the team. No, we were just told to pack up our desks and leave, while later being informed that we were laid off to save the company. At least David Wright got to plea his case and Collins, to his credit, let him have his say.

The incident further provided an interesting window into management’s thinking, how it values some people over others. On a sports team, it’s easy to see who the stars are, and who are not. In an office rife with petty politics and behind-the-scenes maneuverings, those designations are blurred and difficult to see clearly.

So while we may think we are doing a good and vital job for the company, our managers only see us as an expense that must be cut during times of poor revenues so they can save themselves as well as their sycophants and lapdogs.

To them, we are just another Jordany Valdespin.

So It Begins…

A while back I mentioned that our company hired a new CEO, and that personnel changes usually accompany such a move.

Well, so it begins…

Several high-ranking execs at my company recently got the boot, replaced by others probably more to the new CEO’s liking. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s his prerogative to bring in people more in tune with his vision for the future of the company. Let’s hope, however, he handled any dismissals with respect for those individuals, who worked hard and have families to support. It’s always difficult to lose your job.

Of course, we don’t know why they were let go. They may have decided it was time to move on of their own accord. Perhaps they were asked to relocate and didn’t want to move their families. It may have been a mutual decision. As the old saying goes, did they jump or were they pushed? We don’t know.

And at this point we don’t know how far those changes will filter down. Will the entire upper management structure be overhauled? Will he replace every low-level clerk and IT person? That would be foolish, and overly disruptive to the running of the company on a short-term basis.

I don’t think economics is the reason behind these changes. The company made some cuts in products and people before the new CEO came onboard, and I don’t think they would have hired this new guy if all the board wanted to do was slash staff and products. They didn’t need a new CEO for that.

Contrast to that my former workplace. Revenues were down, the parent company was threatening to pull the plug on the entire unit and my former managers panicked and started slashing staff in a willy-nilly manner, all in the name of saving of a company that was sinking anyway.

Yet in both instances, favoritism comes into play. The new CEO and my former managers are simply hiring or saving their handpicked lapdogs, cherry-picking who stays and goes. It’s a form of corporate feudalism. (More on that later.)

How this all impacts the lowly serfs working the fields is hard to say at this time. But I do know one thing: We’ll be the last ones to know.

Healing the Wound

I was talking to a friend the other day about some silliness at work (you know what I mean; basically, the boss, being a jerk, criticized me for something I said, which was rather mild. Believe me, I’ve said much, much worse).

What probably upset me, I said, was that it reminded me of my painful layoff. And she replied, “The wound is still there.”

I agreed, and then she said, “You have to heal that wound.”

But how? Putting aside the lingering hurt over my layoff, how can any employee at any company feel secure in their jobs anymore? Companies can and will terminate you at any time for any reason without any foreknowledge or say from you. So it’s not surprising that I, like many other employees, are unnerved by any slight or criticism by someone in upper management decides to throw our way, justified or not. It’s not hard to make the leap to, “Oh, no. Better start cleaning out my desk,” whenever a critical remark is said to us.

Yet I often think a lot of my hurt stems from how my layoff was handled. So much in life depends on how we are treated and how we treat others. Treat others well, and they will respond in kind. Treat them poorly…well, you get my drift.

I understand the basis (or the excuse) for my layoff was economic. The company was downsizing, cutting products and people, my salary was too high, the economy is bad…blah, blah, blah. Yeah, WE GET THAT!

Nevertheless, I was a long-time employee. I spent many years there, loyal to a company that apparently had no loyalty to me. At no time during my forced exit interview did my boss say, “Hey, this was a tough decision for us. We’re sorry to see you go.” Or even, “Thanks for all the hard work you did for us.”

If either one of those statements were said to me, I honestly believe I wouldn’t feel so bitter now.

Instead, it was essentially, you’ve been here too long, you’re making too much money (although I wasn’t the highest paid editor on staff), so pack up your desk and leave. Nice, huh? And what kind of message does that send to other employees? That if they decide to stay with the company for a long period of time, they will get laid off like I was?

Contrast that to my sister’s situation. She knew layoffs were coming, so she took early retirement. She had a say in her fate, and she even got a retirement party.

Me? I got a cardboard box to my pack my stuff in and an offer of a car to drive me home. Yeah, they couldn’t wait to get me out of the office. Why didn’t they shoot me out of a cannon? It would have been faster.

I refused both of their generous offers.

So you can see why I’m still hurt over the layoff and the way it was handled, or bungled in my mind. I understand it’s never an easy task for management to let people go, but where does it say that they cannot treat outgoing employees properly? Is there a rule against thanking laid-off employees for their hard work? You know, treat us like human beings, not outdated office furniture.

My friend summed up my feelings best when she said I was feeling rejected after I got laid off. Yep, that pretty much nails it. That’s never a good feeling, and it’s one that takes a long time to, yes, heal.

My company is still in business. In a sense, our misfortune has enabled their continued success. But do they even remember any of us who were let go to make that possible? No, we’re all forgotten, like deck chairs on the Titanic. Knowing the personalities involved at my former office, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m routinely badmouthed, if I’m acknowledged at all. In that way, they can justify the nasty way I was treated.

I know that several of my former colleagues have gotten fat raises. Good for them. Yet I wonder, how much money did the company really save in the long run by letting so many people go? Eventually, their workers are going to demand salary increases and at some point, they are going to have to spend money if they want to expand.

While they were busy congratulating themselves on their clever moves to save the company, going to happy hours and parties, and doling out raises, we endured months and months of unemployment in the worse recession since the Great Depression.

What was it all for? Couldn’t they have seen a way to hold onto to us, instead of discarding us like so much trash?

But, hey, who's bitter?

Flashbacks, Part 2

It happened on Friday. A woman in the office was let go.

She worked in another department, so my contact with her was minimal. However, one of her co-workers told me her job was in jeopardy for some time because the boss was displeased with her work. Since I didn’t work directly with her, I cannot pass judgment on her efforts.

Yet the “official” reason was that her position was eliminated in favor of a lesser job title. In other words, her boss took this opportunity to get someone else in the job at a lower salary while simultaneously ridding himself of a person he considered a troublesome employee. So she was sacrificed at the altar of profits and a supervisor’s power trip.

Now, to be fair, he may have done her a kindness by saying the position was eliminated, thereby enabling her to collect unemployment, something she would not have qualified for if she were dismissed with cause (poor productivity).

But I do wonder if she was given a fair chance to improve and possibly save her job. And there is no guarantee the new person will do the duties any better. You get what you pay for.

She knew it was coming. The few times I passed her in the office in the preceding weeks she had the glum expression and slumbering gait of someone who knew the fate that awaited her.

So now she must look for another job in our supposedly recovering economy (more on that later). I wish her luck.

But what happened to her is a stark reminder to all workers that people with their own hidden agendas decide our professional fates behind closed doors without any input from us.

Very scary indeed.