My company (a large media company) laid off 7% of it’s work force in December. Management won’t admit it, but we all know they are currently preparing for more layoffs in Q2. The scoundrels had the nerve to tell us, “Just to put you all at ease, we can assure you that there won’t be any more layoffs AS LONG AS the economy doesn’t deteriorate any further.”

Who but a moron would think that the economy is not going to deteriorate? Sounds like the b.s. spewed by the government, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, our company infrastructure is literally collapsing: bathrooms are falling apart with broken sinks and little to no toilet paper in stalls; our network has slowed to a snail’s pace with no upgrades in sight, which makes drafting and any other computer-related tasks a real treat; and we got rid of our Xerox copiers (the large ones that can handle big jobs reliably) and downgraded to HP printers and fax machines — you know, the pieces of crap that are usually relegated to home offices. Seriously, these copiers can handle no more than 20 sheets of paper at a time before exhausting itself and jamming. And when your staff is steadily being whittled away (I lost 33% of mine last month), you really don’t have the time to spend clearing paper jams.

And I work at a Fortune 500 company.

They even down-sized our ample toaster oven to what appears to be a used toaster that only takes two (2) slices at a time.

At a certain point, I’m not sure it will even be worth it to have a job, what with the massive taxes that are sure to be coming, the onerous hours and working conditions and the unrest that will soon ripple through cities. It may be better for some to just bow out with a decent severance, find/rent a piece of land, work it and live a simple life. After all, that’s what half of this country did during the Depression, and they made it through somehow 🙂