Layoffs

My company announced today that it is reducing its HQ workforce by almost 10%. Approximately two-thirds of this reduction is due to layoffs, effective this morning; the rest is due to not back-filling open positions.
I, and my team, are not directly affected.  But many of our partners and clients are.

I was off-site all day, getting a tour of a sattelite location.  One poor gentleman in our party was essentially laid off over the phone — just as our bosses were contacting us with the official news, he recived a call instructing him to get back downtown ASAP.  Because they don’t do layoffs over the phone.

Since I was off-site, I missed a lot of the angst.  One of my partners emailed me towards the end of the day to say the mood was like a funeral.

My public radio station called me for a quote as I was driving home.  I said no way, I’m not able to speak to the media.  I’d be shocked if they get an on-the-record quote from anyone who wasn’t laid off. I honestly think that’s an easy way to get fired.

Variety Rants & Miscellaney

I don’t have a coherent post for you today.  Instead, please enjoy my variety rants and miscellany.

• Dear goodness, can we stop wordsmithing my goals already and get ON with things?  They are directionally correct and I’ll be able to demonstrate whether or not I achieved them — how many levels of nuance do we need to get to??
• Are there as many levels of nuance as there are levels of Dante’s Hell?
• Found on the ROWE blog: Demand clear expectations. Demand constant communication about outcomes. Demand transparency.
• Stop making me try to read your mind! You are lazy, lazy, lazy in that you expect us all to read your mind and track with your changing thoughts, even when you don’t verbalize those thoughts.  This trait is going to bite you in the ass one day!

• Deep down, and despite what the publicly “right” answer might be, am I more interested in being challenged at work or finding work easy?  If I’m challenged in an area of strength, do I perceive the work to be easy?

• Sometimes I’m haunted by the fact that the work we all do — my team & my partners — is pretty stupid.  We’re support people for support organizations.  None of us are rainmakers.  Sometimes it just seems sort of pointless, like we’re actually making things more complicated or enabling less.

• Tons of folks apparently took Best Buy up on their buyout offer! More than were expected — and apparently lots of directors & VPs, not just line & staff folks.  I think this is cool:  even in a down economy, people are on the lookout for opportunities that let them exit their status quo for a dream, or an early retirement, or a refreshing change.

• My laid-off friend had a couple of interviews recently.  I’m crossing my fingers!

• Sometimes I think we’re doing a lot of things right at work, though.  My boss is fond of pointing out right now that the down economy and poor company performance are actually creating opportunity to make change happen more easily.

• I think I’m better at destroying things than creating things.  Once, I dismantled an entire garage with a sawzall, sitting on the roof and cutting it apart section by section.  Later there was much swinging of a sledgehammer.  In the end there was nothing left but a concrete slab with a vintage powder-blue Caddy sitting on it, like a phoenix rising from the garbage-house flames.  I wonder what Habitat for Humanity did with the Caddy.

• Y’all should consider donating to Habitat for Humanity.  They are a tremendous, excellent organization.  They are really an up-by-your-own-bootstraps, barn-raising for your friends & neighbors kind of a deal.

• What is behind my need to get approval from authority figures? I’m a full-grown adult with a kid, what the hell do I need approval for?  I try to diagnose the root cause of this need all the time, and I still can’t figure it out.

• I am really enjoying this blog because it insists I write every day.

A Little Paranoia

WSJ.com has one of those boilerplate doom-and-gloom economy stories in their career strategies section: Five Signs You May Be on the Layoff List.

In a nutshell,

1. Others are losing their jobs
2. Hiring freeze
3. Training budgets cut, projects slow down
4. Office gossip
5. Company is missing targets

At the F50C, 3 of 5 of these situations are already occurring, and a fourth, #4, is starting in some sectors.

I will be frank here: I stripped back my 401k withholding to just meet the company match, not because I’m concerned about how much I’ve lost in the last two quarters (a lot – but I have a long term view), or about buying equities (in fact now’s a great time to snap up tons of shares on the cheap), but because I want to maximize my cash flow and move those savings rapidly into cash. This is temporary, but:

In case.

In case something goes very wrong.

Because while senior management is not at this time sending any signals into the employee community about layoffs, my industry is extremely sensitive to macroeconomic forces, consumer confidence, and most importantly credit-fueled consumerism. And the latter is not just in practicality impossible for most people at this time, it’s also waaaaay out of vogue.

Also my company, within that industry, is not the low-cost leader nor do we have the low-cost perception among our customers.  We differentiate on style, quality and brand experience.

So I’m moving into cash.

Careful, MFK, that you don’t attract a layoff by dwelling on layoffs. Law of Attraction and all that.

If you were unexpectedly laid off, would you feel a tremendous sense of loss or a tremendous sense of relief? I’m not sure I know my answer to that question!

PS to E: good luck on your interview today!

Economy Hits Home

The economic downturn meltdown recession is starting to heat up around here.

• One of my friends just got laid off — he has the dubious distinction of being the first official person I know to be laid off.
• Another friend, out of work for some time, has finally applied for unemployment assistance.
• A third friend is receiving mixed messages from his boss. She wants him to work on three specific developmental goals, implying one minute, do this or we’ll lay you off and the next minute, do this so we can promote you.
• One pyramid in my company has an official hiring freeze. My pyramid doesn’t have a freeze but unofficially we are not posting or back-filling.  Accross the board, officers are reviewing open positions in their organizations and will propose to the executive committee which to post and which to ditch.
• One of my employees is freaking out a little because she is project-funded — capital is contracting (fewer projects) and she has seen bad results at former companies for project funded people during economic downturns.
• My nonprofit (I’m an emeritus board member –  treasurer & exec committee) is highly likely to be facing state funding cuts in the upcoming legislative round.
• I know several people stuck in homes they cannot sell.
• One friend recently received terrible personal financial news.

I should clarify that I live in Minnesota and while we are not dependent on traditional manufacturing here in the metro, we have a ton of Fortune 500 companies, all of whom are tightening the bootstraps.  We are also home to Northwest Airlines (recently merged with Delta), and we all know how healthy that industry is: they are hinting at layoffs.  Outstate, half of the state’s six mining companies expect layoffs. MN, like 41 other states, is facing a severe budget deficit.

All I can say is, I’m going to be focusing on what I can control. I will be making very measurable goals & objectives and then outperforming on them; sharpening my skill set through education; increasing my marketable experience via stretch assignments; laying groundwork with this blog to eventually diversify my income base; seeking freelance assignments now; helping my friends; praying; counting my blessings; and drinking wine.

Best of luck to you and yours, as well.