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This morning I went into work roughly on time. I have to admit that since I've been working under my new boss, Ed, it's been a little more difficult to be prompt getting into the office since he comes in after me. When I came in today, already all of my reps were a buzz with the rumor that the ax was falling.
Yesterday a new divisional chart came out with many structure changes, many different departments were being merged. As an added bonus, many people quickly realized that two of the department heads, assistant vice presidents, were gone. It immediately put everyone on edge and there was a ton of speculation as to what would happen and what it meant to all of us. Ed and I were working hard to quiet everyone down and to tell them to let things be what they were going to be.
This morning I was greeted by john and Yohan in the elevator who looked nervous. They had already been in the office for a while, and apparently the word had it that some changes were already taking place in some departments. There was a lot of talk on the floor, but things didn't start to really get crazy until Ed entered the office this morning.
Almost immediately he was in Gina's, his boss', office, and then he was headed downstairs. I started worrying about our jobs, since usually they take people down to another floor to let them go. I was thinking that they had told Ed to go down there to start letting us go. It wasn't until I saw Rob being lead off by Gina that something was definitely up.
Then there were more. Tracy was being led off by another VP, crying and people from the department that we are scheduled to merge with were coming up, going into meetings and then being walked out, one by one. The deal was, they were all in management, a level or two above me. Many of these people had been with the company for years and they were being mowed down, quickly.
There was a couple of problems. The group next to me was wondering what was going on as much as mine was, but their supervisor was on vacation. Rob would have been who they reported to, and he was gone. My whole side of the floor was looking to me for answers, and upper management, what was left of it, wasn't talking. I told both groups that i would try to find out what I could, but for now, everyone just needed to get back to work as best they could. Rob's group asked me how I could say that and I told them, "What else could I say?"
( Here's a picture of the devastation the events caused. )
Normally Ed, Rob, Christina and I have a Wednesday morning meeting with Gina. I went to her office and asked if we were going to have it...meaning just her and I. She said no. I said that there' s a lot of speculation going on, and people are looking for some answers that I don't have. Gina took that under advisement, and after a few minutes there was a meeting between the supervisors and upper management.
Official news wouldn't be sent out to the associates until the last person on their "hit list" (my words, not theirs) were taken out both here and in our Denver office. What it had come down to is that they were asked to cut cost in our increasingly corporate tightwadedness, and since the people who have left the company weren't management level, we were extremely top-heavy. To change the ratio, they took out the exempt-level members of management they didn't need. The supervisors are hourly, so we were spared.
I being the inquisitive one asked if there would be further layoffs. The answer was no. I asked if we still planned on hiring more hourly reps, and the answer was yes. I also asked about a rumor about moving all of our functions to a third party group, and our department leader admitted that it was a consideration, but they decided to keep it in house. It scared many of us that we were that close to all being laid off. joe admitted it was his first time to do forced layoffs, so he wasn't very comfortable talking about this.
I went back to the teams and disseminated as much news as I was given. I also told them that an email would be coming out later in the day from the division president. That message was very vague, and just said that we were right-sizing the company. Very Dilbert. Finally at about 3:00 Gina has a meeting with all of our associates to explain what I had pretty much already talked to them about, but sometimes it's just reassuring to hear it from a higher source. Still, i knew i did my job when there weren't any questions submitted to her.
So you might think that my stock in the company just went up, and you'd probably be right, but part of it depends on what they decide to do with my specialized team, and which one of the remaining managers they pair me with. It really sucks because i had just gotten Ed trained, you know?
They laid off about 45 people, some with no rhyme nor reason that we could tell. We thought it was cruel that they fired both the pregnant Tracy and her husband. They took out people who had just become managers and some who had been there for years. They gave them a pretty generous severance package and the help of a headhunter. I have to admit, that I'm envious of this.
Out of those of us left, I know of several who would have gladly traded places with those who were forced to leave. I certainly could have used the the money, time and insurance coverage to put a full-fledged effort into moving on, and away from this company. I know that top-heavy management was one of the biggest concerns in the recent associate opinion groups we've had, but instead of reassuring people, I'm sure that this will do nothing but make people feel less secure about the health and security of their job. We'll probably see more people leave, even though the associates are needed more than ever now.
One of our former managers, Abdul, who moved on to another area about a year ago, came by at 5:30 this evening and packed up Ed's desk, since those laid off weren't allowed to take anything with then as they were escorted out of the building. For most, an HR person will come by, pack and mail the items left over.
We'll just have to see if the new leaner, meaner management can manage to clean up their act and communicate the new strategies to their staff. They will need to prove that the company is worth sticking with. unfortunately, they lost me a good while back.
Yesterday a new divisional chart came out with many structure changes, many different departments were being merged. As an added bonus, many people quickly realized that two of the department heads, assistant vice presidents, were gone. It immediately put everyone on edge and there was a ton of speculation as to what would happen and what it meant to all of us. Ed and I were working hard to quiet everyone down and to tell them to let things be what they were going to be.
This morning I was greeted by john and Yohan in the elevator who looked nervous. They had already been in the office for a while, and apparently the word had it that some changes were already taking place in some departments. There was a lot of talk on the floor, but things didn't start to really get crazy until Ed entered the office this morning.
Almost immediately he was in Gina's, his boss', office, and then he was headed downstairs. I started worrying about our jobs, since usually they take people down to another floor to let them go. I was thinking that they had told Ed to go down there to start letting us go. It wasn't until I saw Rob being lead off by Gina that something was definitely up.
Then there were more. Tracy was being led off by another VP, crying and people from the department that we are scheduled to merge with were coming up, going into meetings and then being walked out, one by one. The deal was, they were all in management, a level or two above me. Many of these people had been with the company for years and they were being mowed down, quickly.
There was a couple of problems. The group next to me was wondering what was going on as much as mine was, but their supervisor was on vacation. Rob would have been who they reported to, and he was gone. My whole side of the floor was looking to me for answers, and upper management, what was left of it, wasn't talking. I told both groups that i would try to find out what I could, but for now, everyone just needed to get back to work as best they could. Rob's group asked me how I could say that and I told them, "What else could I say?"
( Here's a picture of the devastation the events caused. )
Normally Ed, Rob, Christina and I have a Wednesday morning meeting with Gina. I went to her office and asked if we were going to have it...meaning just her and I. She said no. I said that there' s a lot of speculation going on, and people are looking for some answers that I don't have. Gina took that under advisement, and after a few minutes there was a meeting between the supervisors and upper management.
Official news wouldn't be sent out to the associates until the last person on their "hit list" (my words, not theirs) were taken out both here and in our Denver office. What it had come down to is that they were asked to cut cost in our increasingly corporate tightwadedness, and since the people who have left the company weren't management level, we were extremely top-heavy. To change the ratio, they took out the exempt-level members of management they didn't need. The supervisors are hourly, so we were spared.
I being the inquisitive one asked if there would be further layoffs. The answer was no. I asked if we still planned on hiring more hourly reps, and the answer was yes. I also asked about a rumor about moving all of our functions to a third party group, and our department leader admitted that it was a consideration, but they decided to keep it in house. It scared many of us that we were that close to all being laid off. joe admitted it was his first time to do forced layoffs, so he wasn't very comfortable talking about this.
I went back to the teams and disseminated as much news as I was given. I also told them that an email would be coming out later in the day from the division president. That message was very vague, and just said that we were right-sizing the company. Very Dilbert. Finally at about 3:00 Gina has a meeting with all of our associates to explain what I had pretty much already talked to them about, but sometimes it's just reassuring to hear it from a higher source. Still, i knew i did my job when there weren't any questions submitted to her.
So you might think that my stock in the company just went up, and you'd probably be right, but part of it depends on what they decide to do with my specialized team, and which one of the remaining managers they pair me with. It really sucks because i had just gotten Ed trained, you know?
They laid off about 45 people, some with no rhyme nor reason that we could tell. We thought it was cruel that they fired both the pregnant Tracy and her husband. They took out people who had just become managers and some who had been there for years. They gave them a pretty generous severance package and the help of a headhunter. I have to admit, that I'm envious of this.
Out of those of us left, I know of several who would have gladly traded places with those who were forced to leave. I certainly could have used the the money, time and insurance coverage to put a full-fledged effort into moving on, and away from this company. I know that top-heavy management was one of the biggest concerns in the recent associate opinion groups we've had, but instead of reassuring people, I'm sure that this will do nothing but make people feel less secure about the health and security of their job. We'll probably see more people leave, even though the associates are needed more than ever now.
One of our former managers, Abdul, who moved on to another area about a year ago, came by at 5:30 this evening and packed up Ed's desk, since those laid off weren't allowed to take anything with then as they were escorted out of the building. For most, an HR person will come by, pack and mail the items left over.
We'll just have to see if the new leaner, meaner management can manage to clean up their act and communicate the new strategies to their staff. They will need to prove that the company is worth sticking with. unfortunately, they lost me a good while back.
