The last place that I worked before I retired felt that my 8 person IT Virtualization group (of which I was the Technical Lead) was all replaceable. In the year surrounding my retirement, 5 of us retired or resigned. That decimated the group. After our departure, the organization began to lose customers. A few years later, the entire organization was closed and the assets acquired by another company. Yup. "Fuck around, find out" is alive and well.
While this is true, I always remember that adage that "the graveyard is full of people the world couldn't do without". I've been that guy, and yet (most of) the companies I worked for that told me I was indispensable are still around in one form or another.
I was a contractor for decades. At least half of the time, I would be hired right after, or sometimes even during, a major layoff. Companies would realize that they'd cut too deep, and suddenly had a specific skill shortage that needed to be filled, usually on urgent notice.
More than once, I saw what became known as "right hand left hand" layoffs, where the cuts were split between two departments or teams. This usually happened after a merger. The term referred to the fact that the left hand and the right hand of the company didn't know what the other was doing. In some companies, not only did the index finger and pinky not know what the other was doing, they might not even be aware of other's existence.
Group A would have a job function done by John, and group B would have it done by Jim. In the layoff, group A would decide John wasn't as good as Jim, and let John go. Meanwhile, group B would decide that while Jim was better than John, he far more expensive, and since John was capable enough, it made economic sense to let Jim go and keep John. Unfortunately, groups A and B often didn't co-ordinate properly, and so both Jim and John would get laid off.
To quote one HR director: "oops".
I still remember being at one company when I got an email on Wednesday afternoon from my manager, indicating my contract was not being renewed. My last day would be Friday. The same was true for two other contractors.
On Friday morning, there was a layoff of 40% of the department I was in. It was mandated from corporate, my boss hadn't been aware of it. Just before I went for lunch, I got an email from him saying "disregard previous email". So did the other two contractors, except one had gone for lunch, and the other had already had his email revoked by IT, so they never saw it, and started at new companies on Monday.
The last place that I worked before I retired felt that my 8 person IT Virtualization group (of which I was the Technical Lead) was all replaceable. In the year surrounding my retirement, 5 of us retired or resigned. That decimated the group. After our departure, the organization began to lose customers. A few years later, the entire organization was closed and the assets acquired by another company. Yup. "Fuck around, find out" is alive and well.
That would be more quinque ex octosized than decimated 😊.
And still, they wouldn't care. They get bonuses by firing.
While this is true, I always remember that adage that "the graveyard is full of people the world couldn't do without". I've been that guy, and yet (most of) the companies I worked for that told me I was indispensable are still around in one form or another.
I was a contractor for decades. At least half of the time, I would be hired right after, or sometimes even during, a major layoff. Companies would realize that they'd cut too deep, and suddenly had a specific skill shortage that needed to be filled, usually on urgent notice.
More than once, I saw what became known as "right hand left hand" layoffs, where the cuts were split between two departments or teams. This usually happened after a merger. The term referred to the fact that the left hand and the right hand of the company didn't know what the other was doing. In some companies, not only did the index finger and pinky not know what the other was doing, they might not even be aware of other's existence.
Group A would have a job function done by John, and group B would have it done by Jim. In the layoff, group A would decide John wasn't as good as Jim, and let John go. Meanwhile, group B would decide that while Jim was better than John, he far more expensive, and since John was capable enough, it made economic sense to let Jim go and keep John. Unfortunately, groups A and B often didn't co-ordinate properly, and so both Jim and John would get laid off.
To quote one HR director: "oops".
I still remember being at one company when I got an email on Wednesday afternoon from my manager, indicating my contract was not being renewed. My last day would be Friday. The same was true for two other contractors.
On Friday morning, there was a layoff of 40% of the department I was in. It was mandated from corporate, my boss hadn't been aware of it. Just before I went for lunch, I got an email from him saying "disregard previous email". So did the other two contractors, except one had gone for lunch, and the other had already had his email revoked by IT, so they never saw it, and started at new companies on Monday.
Eeeeep!
Miss me yet? 😈
This is so true, I’ve seen this exact thing happen!