Posted by noa on March 4, 2003, at 22:40:03
Yep. We got word that job cuts will happen, but other than that, we have not a clue about process or anything else. They are handling this in the most unprofessional way--during the meeting the two managers even disagreed with each other about what will happen. I kept thinking, "will you both go home and get your stories straight before you come here to tell us that one or more of us might be losing our jobs!?" Luckily, when boss gave us the news--not on the agenda of the meeting, of course--I was eating my lunch sandwich. Once I knew what was coming, I actually said to myself, I'm so glad I'm eating, because it will help me not burst into tears or otherwise explode!! One of my teammates turned beet red and said nothing, unusual for her, since she has been a valiant spokesperson for us and in many ways our voice of reason in terms of our strategy. But obviously it got to her today--I feel for her. As soon as they left, she burst into tears. I told her and the other teammate about the sandwich thought and they thought it was funny. Anyway, once we all calm down (I'm much more calm than I had been about such things, but still agitated), we will get together to figure out what we do next. The main thing that bothers me (and beleive me, there are many) is that in all of this, there has never been any statement expressing their valuing of us and our contributions, or any expression of desire on their part to have a dialog with us about whether there are any creative sollutions to keep us in the organization in any capacity, even if our jobs are cut. That hurts tremendously, especially given how closely we work with these people, and given the amount of personal investment we all feel in the organization and that the organization has already invested a lot in us and you'd think they'd want to try their best to not lose us--to try to find a place for us in some way. It makes no sense to me in terms of the interests of the organization--even though I do understand the financial interests they might have in eliminating one or more of our jobs. It also seems short sighted because there is talk of other possible changes in a year or two which would move some people more into management, opening our posititions right back up again--do they want to lose experienced people only to have to hire new ones when that happens? And it is so dismaying that we see no efforts to try to keep us in the company--I mean even if that is not in the end feasible, I'd like to see a good faith effort!
Mostly, their way of handling this is defensive in anticipation. These middle managers are put in the position of being henchmen with no real power over the decision, and they are totally unprepared for this role, and are trying their damnest to not have to feel vulnerable to our anger. Well, tough sh*t--they need to learn to deal with it if they want to be managers. And as far as the upper management goes, I see such disregard for us a colleagues and people and stupidity for the needs of the organization in the long run.
But what we must do, I believe, is get the venting out of our system and do what they cannot seem to do--try to put the dialog on the table, by sending htem a united message that our preference is to continue wiht the company in some capacity and we have ideas that could envision how this could work to everyone's advantage without added expense, and would they be willing to even engage in a converation to just explore our ideas.
Pisses me off to go "begging", of course, but the worst part is, as I said, that none of the managers have shown the grace to express any kind of investment in us, as we are invested in the betterment of the company. But I will beg if needed, especially if our little united front can do it together.
As I said, I am much calmer than I had been when the issue first surfaced a couple of months ago, but believe me, I'm angry.
poster:noa
thread:205995
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030301/msgs/205995.html