I've been laid off three times in a 42 yr career as a design engineer.
The first time was in 1998. I was working for a very well known tech company. As people arrived to work that morning, they were told to go to their office or cubicle and not mingle about the office. Some people shared a cubicle and were talking. The computer network was shut down, so nobody could log in. It was a big layoff, and security came to the location of each person being laid off and told them to come with them. We were taken to a small conference room, read a fixed script, and given paperwork, then escorted out of the building. We were to set up a date with security within the next to weeks to pick up personal stuff. The funny thing is that I was on the payroll for another 60 days due to the laws around large layoffs. I never saw my immediate boss or any of the HR staff that handled engineering during the process. It was very cold. Security even watched to make sure we exited the parking lot. We were told not to come back onto the property without an appointment.
The second time was less cold. I was working for another high-tech company in wireless telecom in the early 2000s. The company was based in a foreign country. Upper management made the decision to pull the work back to the home country and shut down the entire facility. We came in on a Monday and there was a 9AM meeting set up for everyone. We walked into the meeting and there was a projector showing a slide that said "Transition Plan". Basically they were shutting down the facility in three waves, everybody was being laid off, even management. The first wave of people were being laid off in either two weeks or a month, and would be given another 60 days pay on top of severance. The second wave of people would be laid off three months after that, with the third wave being laid off three months after the second wave. I was in the third wave, and it was my responsibility to make sure all projects were properly transferred and all lab equipement packed up and shipped out. I got a $25K bonus to stay to the end, on top of six months of severance. The company was very generous.
The third layoff was at a small company I worked for as a design consultant. The company was acquired by a larger design company a year after I hired on. The acquiring company had a very restrictive employee contract that said I couldn't work for anybody they either had done work for or quoted design work for five years. I refused to sign it. I thought they were going to lay me off immediately, but they didn't. I found out later that my employer contacted the company I was doing work for and said they would be replacing me with another person. The company said they wanted me to finish the work I was doing for them, so I didn't get laid off until that work finished. The company my employer was working for offered me a job when they heard I was being laid off, but I didn't want to move.
I've been with my current employer for almost 20 yrs and I can retire at any time. I'm hoping for a layoff notice.
|