This week, we had a coworker take one for the team and ask for a package. She was done. Time to retire and do something else. Why not go out with a little more cash? Turns out, we have another dude going as well, this one a pay grade above me. He was invited to a team meeting coming up and said thanks-no thanks he’s being WFRed. I didn’t get the sense he volunteered.
That’s workforce reduction.
Lucent used FMP – Force Management Plan.
I prefer more concise language. Fired or laid off works. To be fair, my company is choking on the last acquisition, which was in the neighborhood of $8B. The bloodbath last month was mostly souls from that company. We apparently are going back to our core products and shedding all else. My old company was $40M when it was acquired. They paid $75M, making me wonder just how this company made money. Doesn’t look like they do, so much. So basically, we gobbled up a bunch of companies we shouldn’t have, ruined the products, and cut loose all the people. Top men on the job. Top. Men.
As for me? I don’t care. I’ve been through it before and know how it works. Sucks. Now you have to find a new gig. What do you do? For most, it’s to try and get right back on that ratwheel. The way the economy is, that’s a tough road. From my observation, it takes six months, at least, to get a comparable gig. Sometimes more. I’ve known guys that suffered for a year or two before finding comparable work. Honestly, what happened to those guys was that the economy recovered to where those positions opened up.
What you are probably going to have to do is go on sale. I’ve had more than one dude I know on the bench that I tried to hook up with my company (at the time), who said “I’m gonna need $100K base”. Yeah. Well, here’s the dude’s name. Good luck with that.
How you deal with this depends on your state in life. If you are younger and have kids, you need to monkey-branch to another company at the first whiff of the blades sharpening for layoffs. I wish I had done that last time I got laid off. If you can’t endure six months to a year on the bench, you need to make some plans. You need to size up the market and decide where you’d fit, not where you were with years of COLA and merit increases. Where you are now. You may have to endure haircut in pay. Texas unemployment lasts six months. You really need to move fast. A friend of mine tried as hard as he could to find another high dollar gig, and wound up working in an Apple store. Last I checked, he’s a director now. It works. I seen it.
In my case, I have the dough to last the distance. I also have zero intention of getting back on this horse. I’ll use the opportunity to do a career change. It’s a nice position to be in, for once in my life.
Inspected By Pat 