[Gen.Blather]

Here’s my experience with layoffs. At the first clue there will be a layoff the very best people, the ones you don’t want to lose, leave voluntarily. As layoffs loom closer the next best and then the next best after them leave the company until the only thing left to carry on is the least productive or those who had no other options. The ones who get laid off were those who worked hard to stay because they had personal issues, like a sick wife or child or elderly parents to take care of. They worked hard to prove their value and got thanked with an email or text saying their access was now cancelled.

[Red Badger]

Layoff rumors spread faster than the speed of light within a company...............................

[adorno]

Here’s my experience with layoffs. At the first clue there will be a layoff the very best people, the ones you don’t want to lose

I had a similar experience with my only layoff.

It was in a telemarketing company, where I led the outbound calling center's computer department. The people who did the layoffs were not aware of exactly what my responsibility was, so, they blindly laid me off along with another person. Two week later they realized they had made a mistake and had to close down their outbound calling center, and laid off the rest of the staff that worked with me. They even asked me to help with the transition to a new manager for my old dept, but, that didn't work out since my replacement had no idea about how to work the system. So,they had to shut down the whole dept.

Oftentimes, upper management has no clue about repercussions, and that reminds me of what FOX is going thru.

[wally_bert]

My company was bought a few months ago but so far no real changes.

The guess is a few more months expect some.

Since there was 20 percent downturn in worldwide sales, that might speed up any changes, good or bad.

After three rounds of medical exile, I keep almost nothing in my office. What little I have in my bag isn’t much. Only two monitors, docking station, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a chair.

It’s also one of the larger offices.

[Myrddin]

I've been at two companies that did major layoffs. The first place was one that I had intended to be a long term career. Upon seeing the bloodletting, I decided I could do MUCH better elsewhere. I did that almost 32 years ago. No regrets. The former employer crashed hard and was acquired by a competitor. The 2nd bloodletting layoff was at a startup. I left that one voluntarily and left 38,000 options at 9 cents each on the table. The IPO happened 60 days after I left and the shares went to $26 each. When I left, I told the CEO that I couldn't afford to be a wealthy cripple. I had worked so hard that I couldn't open doors, lift a glass of water or drive my car from the repetitive stress injuries to my hands and arms. Again, no regrets. My current employer has continued to offer great salary and benefits.

[sarge83]

I saw that happen at my employer, the very best went first or retired. I managed to stay because my boss was literally the village idiot, stunningly lazy, treated other employees like crap and flaunted the rules with impunity for fifteen years. Then one day he flaunted the rules and it caused major issues for another employee in another department who was quite upset with him and asked me and my co-worker if this was normal to which we responded, welcome to our world.

That particular employee who my boss took a dump on later became the president of our business so amazingly someone who should have been canned a long time ago was canned and me and my co-worker survived the layoffs.

[Political Junkie Too]

That happened only once at my company.

The IT division of my MegaCorp had their first-ever round of layoffs where normal corporate severance was offered. However, a few years later when a second round of layoffs happened due to a reorganization, the division decided to not offer corporate severance but allow employees to take early withdrawals from their retirement savings (I don't recall the details but I think they didn't want the opex on their books). THAT's when the talent decided to leave.

The division never did that again, and all future layoffs followed the corporate severance plans. I survived all of the layoffs and finally retired after 40 years with the company. We had a reputation as an older workforce when I finally left.

-PJ