Metaphorical bullets at my workplace, today

[Totally Anonymous Guy]

Today, we were all told whether our positions are eliminated.

I made it, but not everyone was so fortunate. :-(

My thoughts are with all of you confronting this situation.

[lipskidder]

Like I posted a couple weeks back this totally sucks. It's not like you're reading about it in the papers, you are feeling it in the cube next to you. Good people, experienced higher paid people, all gone instantly. I just found out a good coworker friend was gone a couple weeks ago. I thought we would never get let go.

Sorry you had to feel this too but glad you are still employeed.

[kap]

Our department manager and assistant director had a looooong meeting yesterday with the power that be. We'll know soon enough if anything. We have been assured that the budget is good until June 2010.

[cbelt3]

Been there. Last week. We're down over 1,000 "FTE" (Full Time Equivalent) from November. This includes cutting hours, executive pay (yes, really, they all got a massive pay cut), voluntary retirement, etc.

We're OK now for the level of business we've got, but we've got to get better. Oh, the stimulus ? China's stimulus will help us MORE than the US stimulus. They buy our stuff for infrastructure projects.

Back to work..

[ztirffritz]

My company was just sold for a bargain bin price of $115 million. The site that I work at is valued at $40-50 million, so they must have VERY low opinions of the other 6 sites.

[lost in space]

Eccchhhh. I hate that feeling, even though you survived, the morale there must be in the dumps. Same thing here, but being a university, the full professors with tenure are safe, but us administrative types can be dropped with two weeks notice. No changes here until the end of the school year. I might be safe for a year or so but other positions are getting the axe.

Big layoff I was in took 2500 people. In our department, they took us, managers and their managers, which was just about all of Apple's manufacturing R&D. Product life cycles were getting so short they decided all the R&D expenses could be outsourced, picked up and dropped as needed. But that was in the days when Apple built computers here stateside. I don't know if A even builds them anymore.

The day the news came, it was like we were all cowering in the henhouse with a hawk circling overhead. Never will forget that.

Best wishes to you if you've been axed.

[Jack D.]

I got dumped last July. Yesterday I went back to deliver a product I produce (I am also one of their vendors) and met the new Indian gentleman that has taken over my job. He is being paid $12.50 per hour instead of my $25 and has no experience. The print shop was a mess, ruined product all over and he was trying to figure out how to run the press. Several supervisors were there also trying to figure out how the process worked and wanted me to train them for free! I said "No speaky Engly" and left. Yessir, they are really saving a bunch between rejected product, lower productivity and the cost of the supervisory "baby sitters" salaries. Funny how the bean counters see cost savings.

[JoeH]

Should have quoted them a training fee of $1,000 a day, that sounds about right for consultancy work.