No Evil Genies, Please

My boss had been on vacation for two weeks, but she finally returned Monday. This could have been a cause for celebration, because she’s a great boss and she usually has all the answers. But, the first e-mail she sent upon her return was a notification that three people in another department had been laid off while she was gone.

This sounded really scary, my coworker and I agreed over IM. These were long-term and reliable (as far as we knew) employees. There was no reason to let them go except as a cost-cutting strategy. We wondered if our department might be next. My coworker audaciously e-mailed our boss, asking, “Are jobs in our department on the line?” Her reply: “I don’t know.”

So we continued to speculate. We both feel that the groundwork has already been laid for downsizing our department. There’s been a huge push to use recycled material, which requires less time to edit and fewer people to handle the supply chain. Today, we got notice that six projects per year are going to be cut from our department. That confirmed it for us. That’s just a touch more than one editor’s yearly work. They tried to pass this change off as freeing time for us to work on “special projects,” but A) We don’t have that many special projects, and B) The largest special project involves beefing up a database that could later be used to eliminate yet more workers.

My theory is that we’re going to lose two editors: one from my department, one from neighboring Acquisitions. My coworker thinks three, divided in some way between the two departments. Whatever the plan is, I expect it will be revealed soon. There’s no reason for the company to draw this out. So, at least we probably won’t have to wait long to get the dreaded news.

Though my coworker and I doubt we’d be the ones on the chopping block, we can’t be sure. We are among the most highly paid, by virtue of having been there the longest (we will both hit our 30th work anniversary next year). And we are both terrifyingly aware that by staying in one job so long we have effectively put all our eggs in one basket. The idea of having to get a new job is almost inconceivable to us. My coworker said, “I got this job by answering an ad in the newspaper. Nobody does that anymore. It’s a whole different game now!” Tell me about it.

So, whatever the outcome, this episode has made us sad and wary. Working all these years for a family-owned company, we’ve been insulated from so much of the nasty stuff that happens at other places. Now our trust has been broken. Money is money, and right now, like it our not, our worth is being evaluated in strictly monetary terms. So now might be a good time to mention that I specifically said in a previous post that while I might be bored with my job, I do not want any Evil Genies forcing me into something new. That still stands!