These Times

The dreaded 'L word' came through my office today. That one that is probably at least in the backs of the minds of most Americans right now...Layoff. The thing is, I wasn't worried about it at all. I know people who know people who have been laid off in the past few weeks or months and I feel bad for them, but it was one of those yeah, but it can't happen to me type of things.

Well, now it feels like it can happen to me. Seven employees from our corporate office in California and regional office in Colorado lost their jobs last week and two more yesterday. My Big Boss (highest ranking person that I work with directly) sat down with me and a couple of other people in my region to assure us, so that we can pass that assurance on to our coworkers. Unfortunately, I came out of it way more concerned than I had been, especially since I didn't even know about the layoffs before she told me.

My job is probably safe. Let me just put that out there. Basically, one of three things could happen. The most likely is that the company will pull through just fine and I'll keep my job and hopefully move up, in time. There is also a good chance that the company will pull through, but there will be more layoffs before things start looking up. If that is the case, I have the benefit of working in the most successful region in the whole company, having a reputation for being very good at my job and not having a job that would easily be considered fluff. However, if cutbacks have to be made in my region, my position my be on the short list of those to eliminate. Even if that happened, though, I've been assured that they'd try to find me another position within the company, but it might mean relocating. The least likely, but possible situation is that the company will fold all together or sell off this region, either of which would mean somebody else taking over. If that is the case, they will likely keep a lot of the on-site staff, but I doubt there would be a position for me.

There are a lot of "ifs" and I'm really not thinking I'll be losing my job any time soon. But the possibility is much more in my consciousness than it was a day ago. I'm one of the lucky ones who has enough of a support network that even if I were to be out of work for a while, I would not likely go under. Many, many people (my own coworkers) have not been so lucky during this hard time and I am really feeling for them today.