It sucks. There's really no better way to put it. More jobs were lost in November than in any single month
since 1974. And though this may have shocked the Labor Department, it didn't shock me; I talk to at least 15 employers each day, and they've been telling me that they are making reductions in workforce(s).
And who gets caught in a RIF ? Many people think that the rule is last hired are the first fired , but that's not always true, either in theory or in practice. In an economy like this one, cuts are most often made according to job title or department, not performance. It's really not about you, though it affects you in a very big way.
Want an anecdotal example? A few years back, an ad agency president I'm friendly with, was working on consolidating operations between his firm and a company his firm had just acquired. I happened to be looking over his shoulder as he was reviewing organizational charts and staff lists, and somewhat randomly selecting who to keep and who to let go. As can be expected, most of those who were being let go were employees of the acquired company.
"Why are you keeping this one Vs. that one?" I asked after a few minutes passed. "Do you know these people? You just bought the company. Shouldn't you, at the very least, review their CV's or their most recent reviews?"
He shook his head and told me he didn't have the time. He only needed so many artistic directors, account managers, house photographers and media planners. Besides, he argued, he was sure that the employees of the company he had acquired were all good; he had, after all, purchased a company that operated in a lean, strong fashion.
As I watched him a while longer, I spotted the name of someone I casually knew on one of the lists. I'd known she was a site manager at an ad agency, but I didn't remember which one. "Hey," I said, as he was about to check-off her name in the layoff column, "I think I know her. Does she live in Montclair?"
He double-clicked. Her file came up. Yup; he was planning to can someone I knew. Someone who had told me how much she loved her job; someone who had been promoted three times in two years; someone who had thank-you notes from clients in her file.
"How can you layoff someone like that?" I asked.
He argued that everyone's file probably looked that good. That he had purchased a company that had gotten rid of its "dead wood" six months earlier, that that's part of what made the firm an attractive takeover.
"But-" I said.
"I can keep her and lay someone else in the group off if it makes you happy?" he said.
I could tell that he didn't want to continue the conversation.
"Do that," I said, reasoning that what was "a no never mind" to him would be a significant event in the life of a woman I knew.
The ad agency prez and I never talked about the subject again. The woman I knew told me about the layoffs at her firm and how lucky she was to have kept her job.
"You don't know the half-of it," I said, then changed the subject.
So why did I tell this story? To explain, that if you've been dumped, (or kept for that matter) there's a good chance that it's not about you. What it is about, instead, is what you do, namely job function , and how many folks a paired-down firm can afford to have in that role; and these days, that's as few as possible.
Moral of the story: If you've been laid-off in 2008, it's probably not due to something you did (or failed to do), so give the would have, could have, should have game a rest.
If you're having trouble doing that, make a list of everything you did for that no-good firm that dumped you. We'll be able to out it to good use in the next post.
