Have you ever...
- Thread starter Janimal
- Start date
greenfreak
New Member
Jan, when the time comes, will they know that you kept it from them? It's a tough spot, I don't envy you. 
HomeLAN
New Member
Janimal said:I've had to keep secrets before, and plenty of them.
This is a little different though. This is stuff that will directly effect the people I have to keep the information from.
Yep, that bites. Being the HR guy around here, I face that one 4-5 times a year, and it never gets easier.
greenfreak
New Member
You really multitask Steve, huh? Is there anything you *don't* do there?
greenfreak
New Member
I didn't know it was a small company, for some reason, I always thought it was a really large company. Now I know why they call you "The Controller".
greenfreak
New Member
I was thinking about this today-so Jan, how did it go?
Janimal
New Member
Oh girl you would NOT believe...
So, here's the whole scoop. I get pulled out of a meeting one day by the VP and Senior VP of R&D (gods I do hope no one here works for the company I do, that would be bad). Anyway, they sit me down and say, "there are going to be changes in your department and you don't have any choice about them".
The "changes" were going to be a sizable layoff, roughly 1/2 my department, including my boss. They were telling me about it because they were going to give me his job. And they tell me I've got a week to fret over it. Then two weeks because Good Friday and Easter were coming up, yada yada yada.
So, all Easter weekend, I'm having nightmares about this stuff. How am I going to pick up the pieces, how are we ever going to get all the work done, hell, I don't even WANT my boss's job, you get the picture. So the poo is supposed to go down on Tuesday. The VP calls me into her office on Monday and guess what - the whole thing was called off. At least our part of it anyway. They did end up closing down one of the smaller satellite offices, but they nixed their larger plans.
Turned out that a "restructuring" (that's what they were calling it, a "restructuring") wouldn't sit well with the analyst community, so they decided not to do it.
Further, we got an email from the CEO later in the week that our 3-yr salary freeze was being lifted.
Sheesh what a ride! It all turned out for the better (although there were some on the list I would not have minded being rid of - not my boss though, I prefer to keep him around). But that whole spinning me around thing was for the birds.
And so that's how it turned out. Now I get to keep the secret forever, or at least until they decide to reimplement the plan.
So, here's the whole scoop. I get pulled out of a meeting one day by the VP and Senior VP of R&D (gods I do hope no one here works for the company I do, that would be bad). Anyway, they sit me down and say, "there are going to be changes in your department and you don't have any choice about them".
The "changes" were going to be a sizable layoff, roughly 1/2 my department, including my boss. They were telling me about it because they were going to give me his job. And they tell me I've got a week to fret over it. Then two weeks because Good Friday and Easter were coming up, yada yada yada.
So, all Easter weekend, I'm having nightmares about this stuff. How am I going to pick up the pieces, how are we ever going to get all the work done, hell, I don't even WANT my boss's job, you get the picture. So the poo is supposed to go down on Tuesday. The VP calls me into her office on Monday and guess what - the whole thing was called off. At least our part of it anyway. They did end up closing down one of the smaller satellite offices, but they nixed their larger plans.
Turned out that a "restructuring" (that's what they were calling it, a "restructuring") wouldn't sit well with the analyst community, so they decided not to do it.
Further, we got an email from the CEO later in the week that our 3-yr salary freeze was being lifted.
Sheesh what a ride! It all turned out for the better (although there were some on the list I would not have minded being rid of - not my boss though, I prefer to keep him around). But that whole spinning me around thing was for the birds.
And so that's how it turned out. Now I get to keep the secret forever, or at least until they decide to reimplement the plan.
greenfreak
New Member
Unfortunately, one of the reasons why I thought of you was because my company also just announced a "Reorganization".
All Customer Service--outsourced to a company in Canada. All Credit and Collection--outsourced to a company in the states.
Changes all over every region, including putting main departments in one major location. Such as, instead of having Dispatch in each branch, they're moving all Dispatch to one branch in New England.
All in all, 250 people are going to be without jobs come August. I was naive enough to think that because it involved Customer Service people primarily, and because there's such a high turnover rate in that area, that I wouldn't know that many people personally that were getting laid off. My company has 45+ locations so that idea was feasible.
Today I found out just how naive I was. I know of at least 6 of my own "system people" (the main person we contact when there's anything to do computer related at these sites) that have lost their jobs already, and I'm sure I don't know the half of it.
People who made it through the layoffs we had two winters ago, when it was so warm, that the company took a major hit. Some people who have been around 10+ years and who figured since we followed the warmest winter in NY history with the coldest winter in NY history, they were safe.
No one is safe, not even me. And there is crap out there right now, I feel so sorry for these people. There are no plans (at least I'm told) to cut anyone from our Computer Center where I work, but that could also just be a matter of time.
*sigh* Anyway, I'm really glad you didn't have to go through layoffs there. It's tough to be in the know and be forced not to tell anyone.
All Customer Service--outsourced to a company in Canada. All Credit and Collection--outsourced to a company in the states.
Changes all over every region, including putting main departments in one major location. Such as, instead of having Dispatch in each branch, they're moving all Dispatch to one branch in New England.
All in all, 250 people are going to be without jobs come August. I was naive enough to think that because it involved Customer Service people primarily, and because there's such a high turnover rate in that area, that I wouldn't know that many people personally that were getting laid off. My company has 45+ locations so that idea was feasible.
Today I found out just how naive I was. I know of at least 6 of my own "system people" (the main person we contact when there's anything to do computer related at these sites) that have lost their jobs already, and I'm sure I don't know the half of it.
People who made it through the layoffs we had two winters ago, when it was so warm, that the company took a major hit. Some people who have been around 10+ years and who figured since we followed the warmest winter in NY history with the coldest winter in NY history, they were safe.
No one is safe, not even me. And there is crap out there right now, I feel so sorry for these people. There are no plans (at least I'm told) to cut anyone from our Computer Center where I work, but that could also just be a matter of time.
*sigh* Anyway, I'm really glad you didn't have to go through layoffs there. It's tough to be in the know and be forced not to tell anyone.
