Check your email and see if you still have a job...



Article:
https://www.poynter.org/news/o...al-newsroom-staffers

Back when I was teaching high school, one of the other teachers came through the main office one day and noticed that his mailbox was gone. When he asked about it, the principal said, "Oh yeah, come on into my office: We need to discuss that..."

Ive seen it done with meeting minders at 2 locations. Some stay, some go.

Kinda like losing a job at the buggy whip factory. How do you not see that coming?

I can relate. My entire department of 100 people found out we had been eliminated during a conference call... while most of us were out of town at a training event.

"Good morning, how are you? Is that your lunch?Please come into my office, we need to talk"

I worked for a big snack food company years ago and the District Managers would have a big meeting at the home office once a year and our manager called another asking if they could travel together. The other one paused for a while and then said didn't he get the word? Cold baby.

I advised my Son-in-law to not get into Middle management in any Company. Sooner or later there will be a bullseye on your back to cut back in those positions. MM always gets bloated in every company.

Back in the telecomm crash I knew an engineering group manager who was told to RIF most of his people.
He didn't want to, but did as directed.

The next morning (a Friday) when he pulled into the employee parking lot his boss was waiting for him and RIFed him right there in the parking lot.

This happened about 15 yrs ago. My sister's neighbor worked for GM engineering and ready to retire in about 6 months. Mgr. called her group into conference room for pizza/Xmas party on last day of work before Xmas break. 1 hour into festivities announces all in attendance are laid off indefinately and not allowed to go back to their desks. Exit door was shown and their belongings were outside the door in boxes with ribbons attached.

One of the bad ones that I've heard is everyone who keeps their job called into a meeting and told everyone outside the meeting room door lost their job. If anyone in the room sets foot outside the conference room door they join the unemployed. The people who didn't pee before the meeting were in rough shape waiting for the rest of the building to get cleared.

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
Ive seen it done with meeting minders at 2 locations. Some stay, some go.

A few years ago I was consulting for a newspaper group (trying to teach them digital marketing) and one day I was at one of their main office when someone approached me and asked if if was there for the big meeting....I immediately called the person who brought me in and asked what was up and did I need to be in on said big meeting the not only was I nervously told no but to get out of their as fast as possible.

I left and found out they split the office up into 2 groups, one when to conference room, the other to training room. While one group learned of new ownership and the wonderful new things coming the other learned they were very unemployed

Seems to always happen that way. Same for me in 2007 - everyone (300+) called into a big meeting whereas we were told the facility would be closing at the end of the year (this was July).

Go home today, because as of tomorrow most would be let go with a severance package, the rest by the end of the year, and a handful would be offered jobs in other parts of the county. I made it to the end of the year at least. But I had just purchased my house 3 months earlier at the height of the market.

two very good movies have come out in the last few years dealing with this type of event:

Company Men - with Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck

and

Up in The Air - with George Clooney and Anna Kendrick

very entertaining and 'relate-able' if you've spent time in the corporate world

dealing with downsizing sucks - but you should always have an exit plan B no matter how secure you think you are

no one is beyond the ax - always be networking

i have been downsized twice in 20 years - once an entire business unit was shuttered - 200+ people and the second time a specialty sales / marketing group was deemed redundant - affected about 25 people

life goes on - both times was re-employed within 90 days or so

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And people want me to give notice before up and quitting.

I was with a sales agency, the principal sends an early AM email to have everyone meet in a single office for a conference call. With everyone in the agency in the office, the principal calls and lets everyone know he lost the biggest account fired him and everyone has lost their job. Didn't even have the guts to come in, in-person to deliver the news. That was a frosty morning.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
And people want me to give notice before up and quitting.

Or, laughably, expect any sort of loyalty to the company.

I'm seeing it now with Millennials in the workforce where I work. ZERO LOYALTY and why should they? They get in and keep moving.

quote:

Back in the telecomm crash I knew an engineering group manager who was told to RIF most of his people. He didn't want to, but did as directed.

My Manager RIFed me over the phone while I was on vacation. He had a deadline to meet.

That is one reason I am self employed. The corporate method of termination needs improvement.

No big deal. Two people on vacation were laid off while they were on vacation. Notified by email and I think a call.

One of the companies I worked for shut down after 3 years operations. We had people reporting for their first day when it was announced the company was shutting down. That's even tougher.