Come the Big Layoffs

Greetings, dear reader - welcome to the my journal of employment. Or lack thereof. I'm an employee of corporate America, for the time being at least. In 9 years of employment I will soon be undergoing my third 'beg for your job' interview. These are always named "Interest Interviews", the idea being to assess your level of interest in keeping your job. But really and truly, it's all about begging for your job - convincing them that you think the company is great; that you'd rather have any job with Corporation X than be CEO of Google; that you think you've got an incredible future with an incredible company; that you are the hardest working drone in Sector 7G. The problem is how to produce these responses so that they are believable.

The company I work for is less than half the size it was when I was hired. There are many, many jobs within my company that I would not take if it could possibly be avoided. Hardly anyone thinks the company has a long-term future (certainly not long enough for me to retire from there), and most people in my division think that anything past 2 years would be sheer luck. And then, I'm not a good capitalist; I'm not good at throwing other people under the train to save myself. I hate having to beg for my job. I'm surprised I made it through the first two, as I'm not that good a liar.

Anyway, this blog is about layoffs. Regardless of whether I end up victim or guilt-ridden survivor, I'll be posting here about daily life. The chaos of a company desperate for a huge and quick headcount reduction, or the joys of submitting three job applications a week - either way, you can read about it here.