RE: Layoff logistics and etiquette

[bryan -dot- westbrook -at- amd -dot- com]

A few years ago, at a different job, there had already been some layoffs in the production areas, I came in on a Monday morning and heard several people in other cubicles complaining that they couldn't log on to the network.  I turned to my cube mate and joked that maybe that was how they were being told they were laid off.  You guessed it, I was right.  From that day until the next year's layoff I was paranoid every time I mistyped my password in the morning.

The following year, they did the cuts on a Thursday afternoon (the last day of our pay period).  I had already heard about a couple of people being axed and was filling in another cube mate (these were bullpen cubes) who hadn't heard yet when the boss came and got him.  As soon as he was gone, the network admin came in from the other direction, slipped into his chair, wrote down what files he was working on, removed his CD from the drive, shut down the computer, and disconnected the power cord.

A few days after that round, the boss called me into his cube to let me know that I was not in any danger of being cut because he knew I had been job hunting and must have thought I was dissatisfied with the lack of job security instead of the low pay and bad working conditions.  BTW, when I gave my notice they actually tried to get my ex-cube mate back.


-----Original Message-----
From: anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com [mailto:anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 9:38 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: FWD: Layoff logistics and etiquette

This makes me wonder - what have the rest of you experienced in the
wonderful age of layoffs? Any particularly smooth mass firings? Any
unnecessarily grueling head-chopping? Any suggestions for how to improve
the process, or at least make the process more endurable?


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