I work at a
dot com. Until today we have been spared the bloodbath of firings due to the
shitty market. But today it was
time to pay the piper. They fired about 65 people out of 180 or so in my business group.
I was spared mostly because I bothered to learn all the boring
crap that no one else wanted to. I also manage the production group. I lost about 8 people that I have spent the better part of every day with for about two and a half years. I spent most of the day
hugging people that I have gotten
drunk with countless times, people that I talked to about
family and
relationships.
I went around giving hard looks to the poor
security guard they hired to make sure no one went bonkers.
I gave kids the old "plenty fish in the sea" speech with a big lump in my throat.
Yeah yeah, thats business, you can't get too attached and so on. But dammit it sucks, and all the
upper management was wandering around talking about how
lean and mean we were going to be. One bastard VP actually made an
Austin Powers joke in our "ok it's over meeting". The cowardly little fucker long ago sold his soul for a
Palm V but still and all it was a sickening sight to see.
So I'm pouring a little
beer on the ground for my fallen comrades. As I told my axed cubicle neighbor (I'll miss you, you crazy
Russian motherfucker)
Well baby, I guess I'm slacking for two now
Two lessons here friends:
Don't manage people just cause you like people, at some point they will get axed and YOU WILL INTERNALIZE IT.
And don't identify yourself with your job, people use the shield of the corporate body to do things that they would never do as an individual.
Signing off, counting the days till I can take off and afford grad school (11 months and counting) and missing my
friends.
yrs truly,
D. Wino