When Good Companies Go Bad
Monday, we get an email from the CEO saying she's stepping down and giving the company to Big Stuff.
Today, we get an email from Big Stuff saying we're restructuring, people are getting laid off TODAY, sorry 'bout that, it's all for the company.
And then the firing started.
(It was laying off, but "firing" is shorter.)
When a company is public, there are ways to check on it - namely the stock market. When it's private...you have to rely on the CEO to be truthful with you.
Apparently, ours wasn't. Turns out we're millions of dollars into the red when we all thought we were doing fine. Board of Directors ousted her. I suspect when Big Company left, it left a gaping hole in our budget and we couldn't fill it with direct sales.
So...people got sacked.
Creative (us). Sales. Accounts. HR got gutted (fuckers arguably deserved it, there were WAY too many of them).
We all spent much of the day waiting in dread.
For now, I am safe. Tomorrow they are continuing the layoffs. Creative Dev leader called a meeting and said "two more of you will be laid off tomorrow" - how fucking cruel, making us wait, save us the gas money and fire us, jackasses...
I think we're cutting 40-50 people. That's a lot, when you've got under 300. At least, I think it was under 300...
We grew too fast.
There's no real pattern to the layoffs. They're definitely going after the ex-CEO's core group and getting rid of people who've been there for years. So obviously seniority hurts here. But aside from that, the names seem to be drawn out of a hat. Some of the most random people went poof.
It was a horrible morning. I spent it exchanging IMs with writers I don't routinely speak with - everyone in varying states of panic. I flat-out don't care if this job keeps me (I like the money, but that's it) but I hate being kept in suspense - just fire me and get it over with, you know? People were scared. And there's something awful about watching people I know pack up their boxes and leave...
I guess this is survivor's guilt. I don't like the place. I stay because I can't find anything else. Yet there were people leaving who maybe liked it, or at least NEEDED it (not that I don't need a job, but...you know), and here I am, not liking it and still there.
Weird feeling.
Head of our department came to fetch one of the writers.
"They got J," I hissed to L. "They got J!"
He bought a condo last weekend.
Another guy just had a baby.
"That's corporate America," head of the department said, rather patronizingly.
The vast majority of our group is fresh out of college and has no fucking clue how the business world works, so this is a huge shock for them. But a few of us are veterans of the corporate wars - four of us are straight out of folded/downsized magazines - and frankly, I've been through this before. Once the rounds of layoffs start, rarely do they improve. I survived several general rounds at the last gig. Wonder how far I'll make it this time.
I do think those of us who remain were brought closer together by this incident. Nothing like a panic to make people talk to one another.
Meanwhile, we're still wondering what tomorrow brings. Who's next?
It's like a really sick game of musical chairs.
Today, we get an email from Big Stuff saying we're restructuring, people are getting laid off TODAY, sorry 'bout that, it's all for the company.
And then the firing started.
(It was laying off, but "firing" is shorter.)
When a company is public, there are ways to check on it - namely the stock market. When it's private...you have to rely on the CEO to be truthful with you.
Apparently, ours wasn't. Turns out we're millions of dollars into the red when we all thought we were doing fine. Board of Directors ousted her. I suspect when Big Company left, it left a gaping hole in our budget and we couldn't fill it with direct sales.
So...people got sacked.
Creative (us). Sales. Accounts. HR got gutted (fuckers arguably deserved it, there were WAY too many of them).
We all spent much of the day waiting in dread.
For now, I am safe. Tomorrow they are continuing the layoffs. Creative Dev leader called a meeting and said "two more of you will be laid off tomorrow" - how fucking cruel, making us wait, save us the gas money and fire us, jackasses...
I think we're cutting 40-50 people. That's a lot, when you've got under 300. At least, I think it was under 300...
We grew too fast.
There's no real pattern to the layoffs. They're definitely going after the ex-CEO's core group and getting rid of people who've been there for years. So obviously seniority hurts here. But aside from that, the names seem to be drawn out of a hat. Some of the most random people went poof.
It was a horrible morning. I spent it exchanging IMs with writers I don't routinely speak with - everyone in varying states of panic. I flat-out don't care if this job keeps me (I like the money, but that's it) but I hate being kept in suspense - just fire me and get it over with, you know? People were scared. And there's something awful about watching people I know pack up their boxes and leave...
I guess this is survivor's guilt. I don't like the place. I stay because I can't find anything else. Yet there were people leaving who maybe liked it, or at least NEEDED it (not that I don't need a job, but...you know), and here I am, not liking it and still there.
Weird feeling.
Head of our department came to fetch one of the writers.
"They got J," I hissed to L. "They got J!"
He bought a condo last weekend.
Another guy just had a baby.
"That's corporate America," head of the department said, rather patronizingly.
The vast majority of our group is fresh out of college and has no fucking clue how the business world works, so this is a huge shock for them. But a few of us are veterans of the corporate wars - four of us are straight out of folded/downsized magazines - and frankly, I've been through this before. Once the rounds of layoffs start, rarely do they improve. I survived several general rounds at the last gig. Wonder how far I'll make it this time.
I do think those of us who remain were brought closer together by this incident. Nothing like a panic to make people talk to one another.
Meanwhile, we're still wondering what tomorrow brings. Who's next?
It's like a really sick game of musical chairs.