Well, it is official. The layoffs have come. We are “restructuring” at my office. Twenty percent cuts across the organization, and in my department that means we lost four positions.
My in-transition/former boss, whose position was cut but who is staying on to be the “change manager,” insists that we look at this as a positive change; as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
It’s hard to see opportunities when you have enough work for five full time people in your department, only two people to do that work, and management above you expects it all to get done.
It’s hard to see opportunities when two of your friends have been “downsized” and at least one of them is definitely out of a job.
It’s hard to see the opportunities when, in a time of horrible morale, you’re told that because you’ve been doing your job based on your supervisor’s guidance you’re now seen as “difficult.”
It’s hard to give a damn when you work over 100 hours in a pay period for which you will be paid for 80 hours and then get grief for wanting to take some of that extra time you worked as days off.
It’s hard to see the point when you go to sleep crying and wake up angry.
And, lastly, it’s hard to see the opportunities when the only way to maintain what shreds of sanity you have left is to completely stop caring about the quality of the work you do.
It sounds like it’s about that time.