Laid Off
Summer 2009--I was laid off. We were told as a group on a Tuesday that management had decided to outsource IT services and that our last working day would be Friday. 3 of the SA team would go, and only 1 would stay. I had seen this coming, so I wasn't all that shocked. I appreciated being told a few days beforehand and further appreciated the included severance package. Previous layoff "victims" had been told on their last day, so they had only a few hours to pack up their stuff and leave. At least I received better treatment than that.
It was reiterated that it wasn't my fault. The company's most important client had been Lehman Brothers, whose portfolios had been responsible for a significant amount of my former company's revenue stream. Called the "Lehman Shock" in Japan, its shock wave had a somewhat delayed, yet disastrous impact on affiliated companies that were servicing Lehman's assets. The assets were auctioned off, and the purchasers understandably chose to use their own in-house financial services if they had them.
During the year after Lehman's fall, my company saw a notable weight of its business literally slip through its fingers. Various cost-saving measures were enacted, along with a voluntary resignation program; however, it wasn't enough to bypass eventual involuntary layoffs. Despite a major step-up in marketing efforts, the gaping hole in core business was not close to filled. Hindsight is indeed 20/20, and in hindsight it was not a good idea to base a company on a single client.
A few things about the layoff did irk me significantly: