Lovely Week at Work
9.26.2005
So last week we had a layoff at the company. This despite projected revenue growth for this fiscal year of 20-30%. Why, you may ask? Because of poor financial planning, and blowing flipping great wodges of cash on new buildings, new office space, and hiring an entire phalanx of administrative assistants, not to mention having hired a number of people into imaginary roles in the first place (Office of Organizational Development, anyone?).
Despite the fact that our little group is way, way, way in the black on our budget this year, we were asked to cut back our budgeted expenses by a painful amount, which at the end of the day amounted to gacking somebody. So we ended up losing this lady who worked for me. There are other circumstances that surround this woman, but let's just say that she got sacked because the Director wanted to end up with the best team after the cut (meaning, the group of people most likely to be team players).
The whole affair was bloody, partly because of the person's personality, and partly because she was going through a difficult personal time anyway (sick and dying relatives), and because she was physically ill during the two days we were going to let her go. Because the CEO wanted all layoffs completed quickly, the Director was more or less ordered to complete the layoff over the telephone.
Ugh. Ugh, I say.
So I called my ex-employee the next day to check in and see how she was holding up. She then proceeded to hold me up over the phone for the better part of an hour, reaming virtually everyone at the company in absentia and spewing bile and venom all over the mouthpiece. Turns out that everybody else in the department deserved to get sacked instead of her, and that the Director was and is an idiot, a liar, and an all-around bad person. And we should be ashamed. And she hopes we fail.
Oooookeydokeeeeey.
In case you are wondering, Gentle Reader, Yours Truly spent the duration of this call punctuating her rant every minute or so with a well-timed "ohh.." or "tsk...gosh, (employee's name)," all in the name of tea and sympathy. Man, being empathetic sucks sometimes!
Later that afternoon she called back, this time in tears, to thank me for my earlier call, and to melt down on the phone. This time it wasn't hard to feel sympathy.
But I sure earned my big beer at the end of the day. Layoffs are just nasty business.
Despite the fact that our little group is way, way, way in the black on our budget this year, we were asked to cut back our budgeted expenses by a painful amount, which at the end of the day amounted to gacking somebody. So we ended up losing this lady who worked for me. There are other circumstances that surround this woman, but let's just say that she got sacked because the Director wanted to end up with the best team after the cut (meaning, the group of people most likely to be team players).
The whole affair was bloody, partly because of the person's personality, and partly because she was going through a difficult personal time anyway (sick and dying relatives), and because she was physically ill during the two days we were going to let her go. Because the CEO wanted all layoffs completed quickly, the Director was more or less ordered to complete the layoff over the telephone.
Ugh. Ugh, I say.
So I called my ex-employee the next day to check in and see how she was holding up. She then proceeded to hold me up over the phone for the better part of an hour, reaming virtually everyone at the company in absentia and spewing bile and venom all over the mouthpiece. Turns out that everybody else in the department deserved to get sacked instead of her, and that the Director was and is an idiot, a liar, and an all-around bad person. And we should be ashamed. And she hopes we fail.
Oooookeydokeeeeey.
In case you are wondering, Gentle Reader, Yours Truly spent the duration of this call punctuating her rant every minute or so with a well-timed "ohh.." or "tsk...gosh, (employee's name)," all in the name of tea and sympathy. Man, being empathetic sucks sometimes!
Later that afternoon she called back, this time in tears, to thank me for my earlier call, and to melt down on the phone. This time it wasn't hard to feel sympathy.
But I sure earned my big beer at the end of the day. Layoffs are just nasty business.
