Yup, I’m unemployed. They fired 5 people yesterday for not meeting performance objectives over the last couple of months. This morning when I got to work I was sent to one meeting while the rest of my department was sent to another. They laid off 37 of us (20% of the company) all at once. One or two members of every department with the least seniority, and all of the administrative assistants. This was cause for some comedy, because the admins were the only people who know how to use the switchboard at the front desk, and nobody thought to ask them how to do it before they left. Oooops. Oh well, not my problem anymore, nobody will be calling for me anyway.
Hey, the same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I was 1 month into a new contract job, and one night I go in for work, and there’s a note on the cleanroom door telling everyone to go to the cafeteria for a meeting, and then BAM! everyone got the axe, with no notice at all.
Luckily, my old job was glad to take me back, with no loss of seniority or pay. whew!
I hope everything goes well for you, and that you get a new job very soon.
Thanks, for the well wishes. I did get one month of severence, and my benefits will continue until March 1. I’m a techie, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something new, it just sucks, because I really loved the company and had been preparing to make a lateral move and change career direction (into technical writing) in the next couple of months, I guess this is life’s way of kicking my ass and making me jump off the cliff a little sooner than I had hoped. I just finished updating the old resume. I think I’m gonna go post it and then go shop for interview clothes. It’s so comforting to know that I’ll have to lay out several hundred bucks I don’t have for clothes I’ll probably wear two or three times max.
Well, it sounds like you have plenty of time to look around, that is a positive part of it. It might have a silver lining, I mean, perhaps you will find a job hundred times better. With cookies in the break room every other day. Then on the other days they have mid day break were you get to watch old Muppet Show episodes.
So, chin up. In a few weeks you will be making lots of money and watching muppets.
sorry to hear it. I’m in the same boat; I loose my job at this dying dotcom in 50 days. The job market is really good for techs right now, so it shouldn’t take too for you to find a new job. Good luck and happy hunting.
After I finished posting I realized that they are probably going to want this laptop back. Unfortunately it will be kind of hard for me to conduct a techie job search without a computer, so I just had to drop $$$$ on a new computer. Isn’t it great that the big ticket purchases happen when you can afford them least?
I will now amuse myself by putting my spiffy new system together and try not to think about the fact that I just spent almost 2 months of living expenses on it. I think I’m going to go out later and find some Ben & Jerry’s for dinner.
Thanks for all the sympathy guys, you are the best.
Well, if you want to make a foray into consulting, send me a resume and I’ll pass it on to Mr. Duhnym.
BTW, If you need a printer to go with that spiffy new system, I have a B&W OfficeJet (printer/fax/scanner) sitting in the closet. For that matter, I have a B&W LaserJet 2 or 3 in the closet too.
I have been trying for the past month to find a new line of perm employment (trying to avoid contracts) and god are the lines toasted. I am getting recognition and getting the interviews I need but damn, talk about a slow process. Today for instance, I went on my FOURTH interview with this company. I mean I can understand 3 I guess but 4? I guess there is a lotta BS out there right now.
Slacker…don’t look for anymore .coms. Those things seem to be pure vaporware now. Myself, I am concetrating on finding one that does not depend on the VC trough…like medical companies, hardware firms, solutions providers. I been burned too many times to go back to a .com.
BTW…I think I will not get the job at the 4 interview company, the last one was with this guy who knew I was applying with rudimentary UNIX exp, yet kept asking me advance UNIX server programming questions. Really cheesed me to no end. I did so well in the others
I’m sorry. I hope your previous employers all get mounted by wild rabid monkeys and bear the horrible offspring from them. Good luck in finding a much better new job
OK, I’m feeling much better now. I rewrote my resume and submitted it to Dice, I am typing on my new keyboard and I got my DSL all hooked up and working too. I think I’ll enjoy the sense of accomplishment, and the fact that Snooooopy will be here within an hour, and try to go to sleep thinking happy thoughts.
Heath, you’re sooooo right about the .coms, however I’m trying to jump from QA to technical writing, and so I may take advantage of the instability by looking for short term contracts that will add specific writing experience to my resume. Either way I’m definitely going to be looking for long term permanent again within 6 months, because I cannot let my health insurance go, and nobody will insure me unless I’m employed.
Sue, you are the sweetest. I’ve already got a printer, but thanks for the offer. As far as consulting goes, I have got the most ridiculously broad range of skills ever, but I’m not sure anybody would want them. I’ll send it along for giggles tomorrow, I am definitely open to any suggestions that are out there, but I’m not expecting much in that vein.
And Zenster, don’t worry about the computer, it’s mighty generous of you, but I’ve really needed to buy one of my own for a long time now, I’m glad I went ahead and did it.
Thanks again for all the kind words, and best of luck to those of you in the same boat as me.
Funny thing is is that they said on the news that they need really experience people now to work for Dot Coms. They said that in the beginning the job was to get the Dot Coms broadcast far & wide & now they really need people to maintain them. In other words, there should be plenty of jobs out there for this kind of work. I don’t know if they were being honest about that.
