Layoff Meeting From Hell

[JamesD]

I work for a mutual fund and things have been so bad the past two years that my floor has gone from 145 people at the end of 2007 to 69 people today. In November 2008, rumors were flying around work that a 'second phase' of layoffs was underway. The first had been in the summer of 2008 when they let 40 folks go.

So, one Monday morning in November, I get an email to report to a conference room two floors up from my workstation. It was sent to a master list, so I could not tell who else it was sent to. Real clever, the bastards!

We all pile into this conference room and I tried madly to look around and determine who was in the room and what the likelihood was that THEY would be fired. Our department Vice President stands up and puts up a slide of a revised org chart. Before he can say anything, everyone is leaning forward and squinting at the ridiculous small font.

"I am sure that you all have heard that we let another 30 people go this morning."

I took a huge breath because it sure seemed I had been saved. But I still had no idea what this new org chart meant, but I could see that I was now off to the right, reporting to someone new.

In the end, I was given twice as much work as before and had to take a 5% pay cut. THANKS! At least I still had a job, though. We haven't fired anybody in a year but our culture sucks big time and upper management could care less.

[badass]

sounds like your heart must have been beating a mile a minute during that walk to the conference room

[Haywood]

I had a college buddy once that reported to a guy in another city and got laid off via email. No phone call, face to face....just a plain 'ole email. He says he picked up the phone and called his boss who was able to confirm the bad news. The call ended poorly, apparently

[Janet Rice]

I've been in one of those meeting twice, one walking out happy, the other REALLY PISSED. The latter one, I thought for a second that the poor VP delivering the news was going to get attacked

[Large05]

Janet, workplace violence is way up. At least that's what I heard on some NPR radio program. Many companies bring in security guards in stressful times like mass layoffs. That's the smart thing to do.

[Bill Naster]

That Wells Fargo announcement a few weeks ago got people in my office buzzing about yet another round of corporate layoffs. Talks of a double dip recession are all over the headlines these days.

[BeerMe]

The big business news yesterday was CAT's announcement to hiring thousands of workers, but 2/3 of them are going to be hired abroad. Sensing a trend here. There has been a seismic shift in business productivity and economic rationale, and all of it translates into needing millions of fewer workers in the US