Big announcement -
Today … I was laid off from my job.
Now before everyone goes beserk, let me tell you the whole story.
Today, my business reached a point where our owners decided to break up the company and sell the parts off. Not everyone at my work knows this (and I didn’t either), but I got that dreaded call from my VP to please come to his office. I knew when I walked in that there were layoffs happening.
I got that call to come to his office around 10, and I knew at that point that we were going to lose someone. He put two folders on the desk, and my only thought was, “Oh shit, two people???“
“This is going to be a really hard decision, and I want you to think hard about it,” he told me, “I hate this – I have to let either you or this other guy go.”
Now, the other guy is presently having a lot of issues. He has five kids, a wife who’s on the edge of divorcing him due to money, and a lot of debt. The other reality is that in April, they are going to fire everyone else anyway. My VP is leaving the company in the next month or so to avoid the death of my corporation. So these two things popped into my head:
1. I could not live with my conscience if the other guy’s life imploded from losing his job now (of all times).
2. I wanted to leave with a severance package while the company has money to give severance packages.
So I took the bullet for the other guy. It was actually harder on everyone else in my team than me when I packed up my belongings and walked out the door. The lady learning how to be a manager from me told me she has no direction, no idea what to do now. My coworkers felt their morale plummet, and they now have to do everything I was doing on top of what they were doing. One lady wouldn’t stop hugging me. “You can’t go,” she said, “There’s no more happiness in the office without you here.”
I feel worse for my coworkers, honestly. I didn’t like my job much, so it won’t hurt me as much. I have 21 weeks of severance starting in December, and I’ll switch to COBRA for awhile to keep my insurance. I have friends and connections to turn to to get another job. I have a lot of fight left in me, and I want to do something different.
I’m actually free now, so I’m going to use this as a positive experience to go on and actually get a job I like better than the one I had. And hopefully get paid for the work I do.
Don’t worry about me – I’ll be fine.
Regardless, it’s not a good time to be jobless. That you’ll have severance pay is good, though. Best of luck.
It’s either get laid off now, while I can get a severance, or 4 to 6 months later when everyone in my office is laid off and maybe they won’t get severances.
I know it’s not a great time to be unemployed, but I know a lot of people here in Omaha who work in companies that hire people laid off from my company. I have at least four to five pretty sure bets, and a dozen of other places if those don’t pan out.
Trust me – I thought about it for longer than 30 minutes. I didn’t want to throw someone under the bus that I may have to work with 6 months later anyway.
Oh, I’m sure you thought about it a lot. But I also kind of think it was a dick move of the VP to leave it up to you, like…sounds like he looked at his options, saw “Okay…Guy with five kids, financial issues…Or guy with a newborn and a mortgage. I can’t make this decision, so I’m going to let one of them choose.”
Hodang, man. Did the office switch finish before this happened?
>.> So, does this mean moar or less idling on IRC in the near future?
Also, good on ya for stepping up to it. Hope it all turns out well.
This is happening six months before they actually break up the offices. One of the companies buying a piece of my company is Bank of America, and the people who own my company are trying to trim the books to make the parts appealing to potential buyers. It’s how KKR works.
On IRC? Most likely. At night now, too. Just until I find a job again, which will be pretty soon, since I can collect severance even while employed elsewhere. I could use the extra money.
Good luck Ducky. Hopefully you’ll find someplace you enjoy.
Wow, just wow, Nice move on your part and all. Especially having a newborn and such. But as you said you got the severance pack, cobra of a little while. Hope you’re hitting craigslist too while you’re at it. But like I said if comcast has an opening? See if you can grab it.