Rant: Mergers/Lay offs/Waiting

[tlombard]

Our company is being bought and the deal closes tomorrow. Of course people are worried about their jobs. I'm 99% sure that I'm safe but I'm not so sure about a few friends and the waiting to find out is killing me.

One friend got a meeting invite from a higher up for her entire group and maybe others who report up through that channel. I didn't bother to ask yesterday because I figured it was just basic information about what to expect. So of course being the jerk/idiot that I am, I sent her an IM just before her meeting and asked her to let me know what her severance is after her meeting.

She just IM'd me a few minutes ago and simply said, "We get a year severance," and that was all. Dang it woman, does that mean you ARE getting laid off or that severance is an IF in the future??? The wait is killing me.

Of course I'm still undecided about how I'd feel about getting laid off. On one hand I'm terrified of being out of a job because I've been here for over 18 years. I started here when I was barely 19 and wasn't even looking for a job but a friend of the family who used to work here set up an interview for a summer job for me and things just happened from there. On the other hand, I have friends that have moved on from here and now work at other companies who have consistently told me that they would hire me in a heart beat if I were to ever be serious about leaving here. So getting a year's pay to go away from here and getting another job after a couple of weeks wouldn't be the worst thing ever. I've been considering a change for awhile now anyway. I don't want to leave the company but with the merger, there haven't exactly been a lot of chances to move within the company because of the uncertainty.

Update: Finally heard back from her. The severance is an IF and not a definite. They were told that they are safe through the end of March but who knows after that. That is a relief. Going to be stressful around here for awhile!

[heyzeus]

Even if there aren't layoffs, they still might offer a deal to people who voluntarily leave. You might want to talk to your friends at those other companies and start putting your feelers out. You never know down the road how new management will look at their legacy employees.

[Freed Roger]

Being in limbo like that has to tough. Maybe they'll be sort of decent to employees like Zeus suggest, instead of the quit/find new work and forfeit any hopes of severance -aka the golden handcuffs.

[tlombard]

In reality there isn't much overlap between the two company's product offerings so while there will be people leaving, I don't think it will be major and I'm not sweating my own job and am actually looking forward to the merger but it does suck to know that there will be some people losing their jobs regardless of the severance package.

I will definitely be reaching out to a couple of people in the near future just in case they do offer buyouts. Unfortunately I don't think any of them have a good connection with anybody in the Cards ownership or front office. I probably won't get my dream job of getting paid millions to generally just hang around and do whatever I want.

[tlombard]

Well, day one and surprise, surprise, everything's the same. One friend actually complained about the free lunch today though. Sure, it was Domino's pizza which I don't really care for but come on. They didn't have to do anything. I think some people are just looking for a reason to complain and that is just stupid.