Remember how this company used to be? Remember Christmas parties, picnics, employee appreciation days, and spot bonuses? Remember when there was diversity at work? Not the current definition of “diversity”, but real diversity. Remember when work was actually fun? We worked on real challenges and solved problems with true collaborative innovation. Remember when the company took care of both employees and customers? The company brand was something to be proud of and we wore the gear with pride.
Now we see employees and customers as interchangeable widgets to be wrung out, exploited and discarded. The company makes one mo–nic acquisition after another and then sees layoffs as the only solution to pay down debt. And “surplused” employees are promptly backfilled with H1-b’s. The company is running a giant Ponzi scheme by borrowing from future earnings to make numbers right now. The hope is that every dollar saved or promised to be saved will be multiplied by the P/E ratio and added to the stock price immediately. This is a factor of executive compensation.
The fun is gone. Now there is the unrelenting soul crushing pressure to accomplish more in less time. Quality is sacrificed while productivity and creativity is stifled by layers of process designed to demand more H1-b staff to administer. People don’t laugh and have fun. The feeling of collaboration has been replaced by “I hope they get laid off before me”. And faced with any decision, the company always chooses the more draconian option. They no longer even make an effort to disguise their agenda. It’s become a shameless and frantic race to strip the company of its value before bailing. Looking across corporate America, it often seems that we are on the cusp of the biggest house of cards to fall since the subprime mortgage meltdown.
Like many others, I see the writing on the wall. And it couldn’t come at a worse age. If I were younger, I’d have time to start a career somewhere else. And if I were a little older, I’d be ready for retirement. It was clear several years ago where this was headed. And with the glut of cheap foreign H1-b labor, future employment in IT with the same compounded pay and accumulated vacation days is out of the question.
Since then, I have done the same as many others living in this constant uncertainty. I live in a modest home and drive an old car that I hope lasts a little longer. I don’t take vacations other than extended weekends to nearby frugal getaways. Christmases and birthdays are very lean, and I go to extraordinary lengths to save every penny and prepare for a forced early retirement. And like others, I check my retirement accounts daily.
I’m not saying that frugal living and less consumerism is a bad thing, but it would be better to do it by choice. And the stress of constant uncertainty takes a steep toll. My health has suffered significantly and my doctor has repeatedly told me work stress is the root cause. Vacations are put off until the end of the year due to crushing work demands and the need to save as many vacation days as possible to collect a few extra dollars in the event of a layoff. And I get ill on every vacation anyway. Probably due to the rapid decompression of stress. Besides, what’s the point of a vacation if you work twice as hard before and after? There’s always pressure and guilt upon return as work has piled up and managers aren’t hesitant to remind you of that.
Sixty seven days elapsed between the MVO email and the announcement that the cull was completed. And they seemed to savor every sadistic minute of that torment. We were constantly reminded that layoffs were coming. And they seemed to relish the discussion with every town hall. And a lot of it is to desensitize the herd to the idea of layoffs so that we will be more compliant and resigned to our fate, as opposed to challenging the morality, if not the legality, of some of the terminations.
I did survive this round. Though I have a bright red target on my back due to my demographic categories. And when the standard legal-composed email was sent out announcing that those who haven’t been notified were in the clear, I felt sympathy for those that got the axe, but not as much as I did selfish relief for my own survival.