A couple of days ago my entire work group was laid off except for myself and one other person. As I type this, 9 very good engineers are joining the job hunting multitudes.
My group took the fall for some very bad management decisions that set us up for failure. A cornerstone of the philosophy of the late, great Demming was that people could only perform as well as the system let them. Let me just say that Demming was right, and it sucks mightily to be the living proof. My co-workers are heading out into a depressed economy with families to provide for and mortgages to pay. They have degrees and education and experience, and they are scared.
Now here I sit, unable to concentrate, nursing a case of Survivor’s Guilt the size of a bus. I was spared because they still needed one person to move to another work group, and I was the top ranked person in my group. The other person spared the axe was already on her way over the wall to yet another work group. I realize, on an intellectual level, that I earned this reprieve by my hard work, as evidenced in my top dog ranking, but emotionally, I want to follow my soon to be ex-colleagues around crying , “I’m sorry, I’m SORRY!” This would be most unprofessional of me, so I try to bury the guilt. Then it comes popping up the bodies in Poltergeist. I did not sign up for a round of Survivor, for crying out loud.
Aside from my guilt at the being the last person standing, there is the dread feeling that while I have had a reprieve, this is not a rescue by any means. The division I work for is flailing like a drowning man, so my time is limited too, my co-workers just know their end date is closer. I hear the foot steps behind me loud and clear.
And then is the fact that not only am I losing a wonderful group of people to work with and around, I must maintain my professional veneer and keep on working. I wish I had taken Drama in college, I could use acting lessons right now. I don’t want to be professional, I want to scream, cry and hurt the drooling morons who threw my friends under the bus to save themselves. I am angry, yet I must be polite and professional to the very people whose I think deserve an express trip to Gitmo.
I am supposed to work on transitioning my current project and moving over to my new project, but I’m not supposed to affect the schedule of either project. I can not shake the feeling that yet again, I am being set up for failure.
Oh, look, there’s writing on the wall, and it’s not gang graffiti.
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Im going thru something similar right now and it is just so depressing to have your co-workers being laid-off..and just biding your own time...
As Charlie Brown said "I only dread one day at a time"
Julie, hopefully your friend is happier now. This company used to have team building events as well, used to be noted as a great place to work, as a matter of fact. Now, it's just another company making huge profits and screwing the employees every way they can.
Two of my bothers worked for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), do you even know who that is? Years and years, and buyouts and buyouts later, one is still with HP. He survived it all by being the best at what he does. He works at home in Mass and travels to Cal when needed but he is a lone remaining DEC employee with a great job. Keep being great at what you do for now, and forget the distractions. The best are always taken care of. Forget the guilt, it's not like you don't deserve to be retained, right? Good luck!
I did deserve to be retained, but so did the rest of the team. I'll work my way through it, but I am trolling for another job. I simply can not trust the management team after this.
I spent seven years working as a contract I/T employee in a fortune 500 company well-known for their storied layoffs. I watched several waves of layoffs lap across the division I worked in, thinking that I was safe since I wasn't an "employee". I started looking for other work in my sixth year because I was drowning in stress, but nothing comparable was out there. Then suddenly, about 6 months after my seven-year anniversary, I got a call at home at 6 o'clock on a Friday to be told I no longer had a job. But, could I come in for the next 3 days and train the "employee" taking over my responsibilities? I said yes - hey, why burn bridges?
The following Tuesday, I got called in for an interview for a job I had applied for weeks earlier. A month later I was on the job there, and I'm still doing it.
We all have families to support - and I feel absolutely terrible for your co-workers, I've been there but not in such dreadful economic times. Hang in there, things will start looking up again. I mean, hopefully this is the bottom of the barrel and there's nowhere to go but up, right?