> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
> [mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net]On Behalf Of andy levy
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 10:40 PM
>
> Our last round of layoffs cut about 1/4 of our IT staff. Less than 2
> weeks after one of our top-level management sleazebags told someone I
> know "we absolutely will not lay people off during this time period."
>
> That time period was the holidays. The layoffs were 9 days before
> Christmas. One of the people let go had only been with us 6 months and
> I think she was mostly nailed because they needed a mid-20s female web
> developer to cut loose (gotta make the demographics), and the other one
> had quit the previous Friday.
>
> I felt sick that whole day, in part because I knew one of my friends was
> getting let go 3 hours before he did.
>
> Is it really good for the bottom line? The one-time cut on payroll looks
> nice, but the drop in productivity and the people leaving because morale
> keeps sinking when management pulls stuff like this can't be worth it in
> the long run.
>
> - --
> - -andy
I sure know the feeling Andy. I left the company because I couldn't handle
working thru the wee hours of the night with my boss, to come up with the
next batch of names for the following Friday's big layoff. I was literally
sick. Especially when I saw a friend's name on the list. So I completely
understand what you felt. But even worse was letting people go that were
close to retirement. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that
they'd have an extremely difficult time finding a new job. I know that age
prejudice isn't legal but it still happens. Sad to say.
I guess I'd be less cynical if I hadn't seen as much as I have. I don't
think I could ever work for a large corporation again as I just can't stand
sacrificing my morals and values to suit the company policy of the day.
It's hard not to feel this way as it's happened just too many times. Here's
a list (legally I can't name one of the companies as I signed a legal
document when we settled out of court.)
IBM - was working there when they had the massive layoffs. Then I watched
them rehire people as contract. One of the reasons for this was a cost
cutting measure. Basically saying, "when we hire only contract, we won't
have to pay their benefits or severance pay when we let them go again".
It's pretty much their policy now to not hire full time as much as possible.
Motorola - I already mentioned the massive layoffs.
S***t - I can't mention the name of this very large US telecommunications
company that has a division in Canada for the legal reasons I mentioned
earlier. This was a double whammy from both the company and my auto
insurance company. After my accident with my Dak I was on long term
disability from work. When I was feeling better, my doctor gave me
permission to go back to work only on a part time basis as I still needed
physio therapy. I made the appointment to meet with my boss and that same
day, I found my job advertised on the internet. Wow.. that was a surprise.
At the meeting, one of the Vice Presidents met with me and a HR
representative and laid me off as the company is a fast paced organization
and they didn't feel I could keep up. Those were their exact words, but
what was shocking was that the VP that gave me that speech was also the one
that just returned to work from a long term disability as he had cancer and
was now in remission. What a hypocrite. They got away with it partially by
changing my job description to now require a University degree even though I
did that job for 7 years. Nice! Needless to say, I filed an appeal with
the Federal Government for wrongful dismissal. Most companies are governed
by provincial labor laws except a few that are governed by the Feds. I
grabbed myself a Wall Street type Labor lawyer from downtown Toronto (Bay
Street). Paid a fortune for her, but she got me what we fought for. A nice
lump sum settlement and one hell of a letter of recommendation (made me
sound like I could walk on water), which made them a look like a fool for
letting me go. As soon as I was laid off, my insurance company decided that
I was totally recovered and ignored my doctor's recommendations and cut my
"lost wages pay". I won't even go into what the Insurance company's
"so-called" doctors put me through.
That's just 3 of the large corporations I have worked for. I'm not even
including Pitney Bowes, Glidden Paint, or Metropolitan Life. So if you
think I don't know what I'm talking about, you can see that I have actual
personal experiences with this crap. And if you thing that "Merge and
Purge" is just an expression and isn't real, I can tell you that it's not
only real, but standard business practice. I am not against capitalism,
what I'm against is de-humanization. People are not a resource like water,
gas, and electricity. They are living, breathing people with OMG.. do I
dare say it... feelings, families, personal lives, and emotions.
Sorry for rambling on and on about this and for even posting this on the
DML. I wanted to take it to the Off Topic list but I knew that not everyone
was on that list that had read the previous posts.
Norah Bleazard http://www.bleazard.net Burlington, Ontario
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