Headcount Adjustment Day

I was fixing up my morning tea when the guy delivered the boxes to the break room. Hmm.

It didn't take long for my co-workers to mill about, stating that today was the day. News came in from our HQ; some people had found out last night that they were going to be let go.  Today, though, was our day; it should be all done by 2:30, don't worry, keep your head down. They start trading evidence: the HR lady has been here since 6:00 am. All of the conference rooms are booked by HR. Managers are missing scheduled meetings.

Then the first person is tapped by management: please come to the conference room.

He comes back 30 min later, a strange, strained look on his face. "Well, it's me," he says, hanging his head. Then he shakes it. He smiles, and tells us about the severance package he got. We marvel. A few wish it had been them; they've been wanting to leave, but they need an excuse, or a cushion, or both.

We shake hands, help him pack if he lets us. Tell him to keep in touch. And then we scurry to our cubes and jump every time the phone rings. Or we gather in the cube halls. Or we chill in the break room, next to the boxes, watching for who comes in to get one.

Our Outlook tells us who is suddenly "presence unknown", and some of us track the headcount adjustment that way.

And then The Call:

There's something so upsetting about lay-off days. I've been on both sides of the day: the one laid off and the one who "survives", and both sides suck. But, for me, the part that sucks the most is that good people are let go with the bad people. Assiduous workers along with the lazy. The baby with the bathwater. No matter how good you are, no matter how hard (or smart) you work, you could be the next one called. It's not personal, right? It's business.

But it is personal. Because, you see, I'm a person.

Yeah, really. I am. And so are you.

How sucky is it that even if you're doing well at your job, you can be laid off in a snap? Have you saved six months' worth of rent, utilities, groceries, medical money, etc. ? I know I haven't. But the only way to avoid the paralyzing fear of Lay-Off Day is to have that kind of money in the bank, so you can find another job in peace, without begging on your knees at some HR person's doorway in a company whose Facebook page you just read 15 minutes ago.

And it is humiliating to be at the mercy of an impersonal corporation.

Every time it happens, I tell myself, "No more."

And then I get distracted, or relieved that I "made it through," and I get comfortable. And then it happens again.

And again.

Companies aren't going to stop the lay-offs. So that means the only way off the seesaw is to buck the American life, and the American (lay-off) Dream.

If you could be your own company, what would you do? Would  you create art? Would you volunteer to help the elderly? Would you open a school for the disabled? Would you go back to school?

How can you buck the American Lay-Off Dream right now even while keeping your 9-5?