Layoffs
No, not at my job. The layoffs were at Not Big Blue, the slowly expiring mainframe company I worked at during the '90s. The director at my new job gave me the news since she worked there at the same time I did and keeps in touch with people back there. The company did their usual pattern of doing a voluntary layoff then doing the big bang layoff. People were dumped all across the facility and part-timers were forced to full time.
I watched the corporation shrink from 120,000 to 42,000 people during the nine years I was at Not Big Blue as a contractor (four years) and captive employee (five years). Most of that happened when I was a contractor. They always kept us contractors and dumped the captives by the dozen. Every month a new section of the large building would empty out as whole groups were disbanded. After a while it was kind of creepy to walk through the darkened areas to the cafeteria.
Later, when I was a captive at Not Big Blue, I was much more part of the general anxiety when layoff rumors started. That's funny isn't it---when I could lose my job with a day's notice I was relaxed. Contractors expect that, it comes with the job. When I was a captive waiting for the layoff announcement I joined the rumor circles that dotted the cubicle city and worried.
The anxiety is pervasive. People worry about losing their job AND they worry about keeping their job and having a ton of additional work dumped on them to cover for everyone that is laid off. Younger employees worry about not having enough experience to get another job and the high seniority (mostly middle managers) worry about ever getting another job. Managers worry about being demoted to workers or being given one of the "difficult" groups to manage.
I left Not Big Blue at the end of a period of relative stability. We had a new CEO who was one hell of a PR and finance guy. He had hyped the stock price from $6 to almost $50 a share, had increased our benefits, and was heavily promoting new products and a services organization. I left about the time it was revealed that creative bookkeeping was responsible for the wonderful quarterly reports and the stock price fell from 48 to 9 in two quarters.
I think it was the beginning of the company's latest skid. Big Blue had wonderful technology and "resilient" software but they got stuck in the 60's and 70's. (Is that punctuation correct, daughter?) They never got a foothold in the Unix world and completely ignored the Internet. A large installed base is out there but it's not enough to support a large company. I fear the future is all about anxiety and layoffs.
I watched the corporation shrink from 120,000 to 42,000 people during the nine years I was at Not Big Blue as a contractor (four years) and captive employee (five years). Most of that happened when I was a contractor. They always kept us contractors and dumped the captives by the dozen. Every month a new section of the large building would empty out as whole groups were disbanded. After a while it was kind of creepy to walk through the darkened areas to the cafeteria.
Later, when I was a captive at Not Big Blue, I was much more part of the general anxiety when layoff rumors started. That's funny isn't it---when I could lose my job with a day's notice I was relaxed. Contractors expect that, it comes with the job. When I was a captive waiting for the layoff announcement I joined the rumor circles that dotted the cubicle city and worried.
The anxiety is pervasive. People worry about losing their job AND they worry about keeping their job and having a ton of additional work dumped on them to cover for everyone that is laid off. Younger employees worry about not having enough experience to get another job and the high seniority (mostly middle managers) worry about ever getting another job. Managers worry about being demoted to workers or being given one of the "difficult" groups to manage.
I left Not Big Blue at the end of a period of relative stability. We had a new CEO who was one hell of a PR and finance guy. He had hyped the stock price from $6 to almost $50 a share, had increased our benefits, and was heavily promoting new products and a services organization. I left about the time it was revealed that creative bookkeeping was responsible for the wonderful quarterly reports and the stock price fell from 48 to 9 in two quarters.
I think it was the beginning of the company's latest skid. Big Blue had wonderful technology and "resilient" software but they got stuck in the 60's and 70's. (Is that punctuation correct, daughter?) They never got a foothold in the Unix world and completely ignored the Internet. A large installed base is out there but it's not enough to support a large company. I fear the future is all about anxiety and layoffs.
posted by changingagain at 9:00 PM
1 Comments:
I believe the apostrophes are not technically neccesary but not really incorrect, if that is what you were referring to.
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