Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop

Obviously our economy has seen better days.  It has gotten to the point where everyone knows someone or several people who have been laid off.  I am no different.  As a matter of fact, my sister’s boyfriend just got laid off from his company.  I am also unenthusiastically awaiting the next round of layoffs where I work.  What I cannot help but wonder is what will it take to wake people up and make them realize any of us could be next.

For me it all started just before Thanksgiving 2008.  We had some plant-wide employee meetings during which they announced there would be 125 people laid off within the next couple of weeks.  Rumors of layoffs had been floating around a few days before the meetings but you could still see a lot of shocked faces in the meeting.  It was as if each employee was calculating where they stood in seniority compared to everyone else in their department.  If I am not mistaken we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 employees at our plant before this first round of layoffs.  Sure enough, over the next week we heard of more and more people who had been called into a meeting in the big conference room and were handed their walking papers.

After Thanksgiving the dreaded Layoff Monster began stalking once more.  This time it was primarily in the offices and not the shop floor.  Again, we heard tell of several names we recognized that would no longer be showing up to work.  Up until the middle of December my department had remained untouched.  This was about to change.

We had been planning on visiting my family up in Illinois from December 17th to the 21st so I took a half day off work on Tuesday the 16th and went home at noon.  Shortly after getting home our phone rang.  Looking at the caller ID, which identified the number as belonging to my work, I couldn’t help but wonder what I had worked on that was now irrevocably screwed up and needed my attention.  The good news:  it was not anything that I had messed up.  The bad news:  it was my boss letting me know that tomorrow (the 17th) they were going to have a department meeting to announce we were losing two people.  He asked me not to tell anyone else until after the meeting that I would miss but had the courtesy to let me know that I was not one of the ones being let go.  Of course, the smart aleck in me couldn’t help but think, “I’m not one of the ones being let go.  But am I the other one?”  Luckily I was neither. Also, in my humble opinion, neither of the two that were let go would have been my choice.  I get the impression that our management was somewhat hamstrung by Human Resources regarding who they could lay off.

Here we are a couple of months later.  We just had some more meetings a little over a week ago and learned that the brilliant forecasters for our business over the next year might have been a bit optimistic in their determinations.  Instead of orders picking up after the 2nd quarter of this year the prediction is now that they will remain at about the same level they are now.  It was at this same meeting that we were told there would be another 45 people laid off within the next week as they eliminate the skeleton second shift we have been operating and move all activity to first shift.

After hearing this announcement I think it became pretty apparent to many of us in the offices that, before too long, it would be our turn on the chopping block again.  Even with this realization there does not seem to be much more effort being put forth by our employees (myself included).  What is wrong with us?  Well, I suspect the answer to that question may be twofold:  denial and apathy.

Denial.  We have that unique ability to tell ourselves that we couldn’t possibly be the next ones cut.  We are worth much more to the company than most of the other people in our department.  As I stated before you could almost see people calculating their seniority within their department to determine where they stood in the firing line.  We all have this running tab in our heads.  I have even entered into discussions with other people in my department about where we might stand.  It is pretty obvious to me that I wouldn’t be the next one to be cut.  I have too much seniority within our group.  Now, I think I need to wake up and smell the roses.  When it comes right down to it the company can justify its layoffs in any way that seems to fit the situation.  You may have more seniority but your last couple of reviews were not fantastic.  Maybe you haven’t been badging in and out at the gate or the doors like you have been told and it appears as if you have not actually been putting in your full 40 hours every week.  Corporate America has a great track record of justifying its actions in any way that seems appropriate.

Apathy.  After the first of the year the announcement came out that we were heading for some cuts in salary and benefits.  10% reduction in gross salaries and loss of 401K match and 401K profit sharing bonus.  Just recently we also learned that the company is withholding the annual allotment that is supposed to reimburse us for the steel-toed shoes that are required to be worn.  Times are getting tight.  I believe that a great many employees feel that they have been screwed over by the company cutting back in these ways.  These employees must be under the impression that if the company can cut 10% of their salary they only have to put in 90% of the effort they used to.  That kind of thinking is going to result in a very rude awakening before too long.

I don’t mean to insinuate that every employee is refusing to put in more effort.  I know of at least two that are working as hard or harder than before.  One of them has been through this same situation at a previous company.  He learned quickly that the troublemakers were the first to go.  After that it was the slackers.  He is definitely keeping his nose to the grindstone.  The other guy I have spoken to laid out his thoughts very clearly:  He intends to put in as much effort as he can.  When things start to go sour (moreso than they already have) he will know, without a doubt, he was in no way to blame for the situation. I would say that’s a pretty good philosophy to have right now.

What it amounts to is this:  we all need to wake up and shape up. There isn’t a single employee that is indespensible, myself included.  It doesn’t matter whether you are black, white, red, purple, man, woman or what kind of degree you have.  The biggest mistake any of us can make right now is saying, “I’m not going to be the next one to go.”  Starting tomorrow I’m going to try to do a little less chatting and internet surfing and get a little more work done.  I just might surprise myself by how much more I can accomplish in 10 hours than I have in the past.

What are you going to do differently?

PS.  Feel free to comment and let everyone know how things are going in your neck of the corporate woods.condron.us