My Layoff Story | Games and Politics of Corporate America
Hello, my name is Jill and I’m unemployed for 1 year today. There is absolutely no honor in my admittal, but it is one that millions of us understand. My layoff story begins with admitting that I grieve beyond words for the loss of my career – my life as I knew it – yet each day I struggle like an addict does. I struggle to remain focused on what is important in life, to keep the demons of pain and upset from consuming every thought and keeping the loneliness of heartbreak and grief from breaking my very soul.
The hardest part getting laid off is the knowledge that it was not due to a decline in the company’s earnings. The company I worked for is the largest in the world at what it does. The largest company of its type in the world had less than 2% of layoff in 2008 so it must really own something more infinitely valuable than goods for sale to country’s backbone corporations like the government, banks, and financial institutions. This is precisely the burr that pricks me each day. All that money and I’m the only person in my entire division that was laid off. It begs the question why.
Upon heavy consideration of this question that plagues my nightmares I can surmise just one answer; my ex-boss’ lack of leadership and drive for self preservation. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll refer to him as Jake. Jake’s a salesman. It’s all he’s ever done. He used to work the phones and drive the roads, and has never managed a team. However, Jake is wily. He stroked the right egos, ran errands and did work for the right players which parlayed into a promotion from a VP that was a new hire and wanted to befriend the chief executive of sales. The new VP is a project manager turned [perceived] expert to run the sales division whose secret goal was to usurp the chief executive sales. Are you seeing the pieces and how they came together into one game board? Big picture, these two inexperienced people formed an alliance in which one person, Jake the pet, has an in with the chief executive sales and the other, the VP want to be chief, can give the nod and the pet earns a mid-six figure income and feeds the want to be chief the information she needs to annihilate the sitting chief.
So begins Jakes final game of getting away from questioning eyes. First move, lay off the only other person with a proven track record of success and has a strong rapport with other corporate players – that person is me. Next move, break up the team and reassign experienced ‘doers’ to another, more qualified and just as power hungry, mid-level executive under the guise that the added personnel will better serve the other department. Next move, keep the staff that are great at working on singular tasks, don’t ask questions and happy to punch a clock. Final move, get as far away from experienced executives and other would-be potential problems. Jake managed to negotiate that he work from home, in another state, away from his team. All made possible by the alliance made with the project manager turned VP, excuse me, correction she’s now chief.
Meanwhile, all got raises and I’ve lost everything. My home, my confidence and most of all my marketability to get another job. I never cared about this politicking even though I saw what was happening. All I ever wanted was to keep my job no matter the tasks or title which I made very clear to Jake. I even helped Jake in the hopes of securing my own job. Shame on me.
There are just no jobs out there and with the unemployment rate still climbing – 13% in my state – getting closer to unemployment rate of the Great Depression my hopes dwindle each day. Still, I must stay motivated and not dwell on how much I despise Jake. My dream is that what goes around comes around and Jake loses his job. Does this really ever happen?
