Black Thursday

Arriving to work on a Black Thursday is an indescribable feeling, somewhere between denial and nausea. I kept telling myself that I didn't care either way and that I would prefer to get laid off, that this would be the kick in the ass that I needed to find something better and more meaningful.

Most layoffs happen in the morning and it goes like this: You get a call from your department head to meet. In the office is the HR Manager, waiting to tell you the good news that you no longer work here.

If you don't get this call, consider yourself a fixture until the next layoffs.

Our department is spread between 2 sites. The other site had 7 department layoffs by 1030AM. We had none. By 2PM, we had one. That's it. All in all, it was more than a 20% reduction but one-sided.

In another department, only 4 of 20 people remained. In other departments, no one remained. I kept tabs all day and counted roughly 80-90 people who were let go, immediately. But every site and every subsidiary of our company was affected and we are in about 5 different cities, so the number is much much higher. To quote a colleague who was laid off (to my shock), "It's a blood bath."

Needless to say, I have kept my job. The next step though is to find out what I will be doing, because all jobs will be reorganized with the remaining staff. So it's a mystery what they have in store for all of us. Only time will tell.