thetallone

IF you want to meet up for margaritas text me!

Margaritas and good Tex-Mex. Now my mouth is really watering. Just 30 more days until I'm on my way to the land of such things.

They did it over multiple days?!?!?!?!?!? Are the HR droids really that clueless? I've only seen a few companies spread mass layoffs over time. That is a sure recipe for disaster. Your cow-orker can definitely kiss my ass too. Many companies go through layoffs to "gain staffing efficiencies" - yeah right. That translates to moving the workload of the staff that are gone to the salaried staff that remains.

The area around Eureka is one of my favorite parts of CA. SF is nice and has some great attractions. Eureka is more my speed though.

My personal experience says that large caps like your company have perhaps even more levels of bureaucracy than the federal government. Special assistant to the deputy assistant director of assistant deputy directors for executive directors - that type of thing. Somebody looks at the balance sheet and sees how large a fraction of revenue is in both direct and indirect labor costs and decides there is money to be saved there. To this point it is a reasonable and logical process - a great deal of that dead weight can be excised without harming the productivity and profitability of the organization.

Those extraneous managers didn't get where they are without a highly developed sense of self preservation. In many cases I've seen they have even structured their positions to be comfortable and lucrative, but with no risky responsibility or accountability. This reduces their chances of being the scapegoat for some GFI project that fails.

So when the layoffs come they cut the lower level employees that weren't in the VIMs (Very Important Meetings) and that didn't attend the uber-secret management holiday parties. Since those are the folks that actually do productive and revenue generating work it ends up whacking the company for a loss. My prediction is that you'll see many of those jobs performed by incoming contract employees which is somehow seen differently on the balance street and by the street.

The street loves layoffs that reportedly will increase efficiency and profits. Rose petal scented BS will flow from the mouths of the analysts and the stock will jump. Since senior management is highly optioned they will love it! Let me guess, the CEO has a huge stake in the company's stock? Most certainly in discounted qualified options and additional bonuses based on the stock price and short-term profitability?

It doesn't make it suck any less, but the whole thing is pretty standard. As are the repercussions.

Hope it goes well for you. Citi has been posting pretty good returns on their stock. I guess I've been too far out of the loop to know what is driving the layoffs. I went through the first big layoff at MCI/Worldcom - I volunteered for that one. I was then laid off twice in 2001 by two different companies. That was definitely pretty high in the suckosphere..

Everytime they make changes to the CMS the site goes through about a week of issues and tweaking. I'm not sure what drives some of the changes. Some are improvements, some are leaps backwards in usability. The user population is so diverse the desired user experience in probably very hard to nail down. I like a clean modal interface with clear hierarchical elements. Other people want glitzy flashy stuff with friendly looking buttons.

in the very wise words of your coworker, N.:

"Go back to sleep. You're safe."

of course i knew about it....haha...

the bannister is your friend.

Ouch! That sucks. The other day I had a huge bruise on my leg and the worst part is I had no idea how I got it. I blame Joe.

Hooray for pool league..

Boo for being sick when the weather turns good.

I haven't had a down-day to sickness yet this year. I've got my fingers crossed.

About every 6-9 months I pretty much crash out sick with something over here. It is probably just the point where my body throws in the towel due to stress and environment, but those 24-48 hours definitely suck.

Dr. ZPOs prescription for both of you is time spent wrapped up in each others arms. You've both got stresses in your lives that neither can take away for the other. Sometimes the best you can is help each other recharge.

You loved her yesterday. You love her today. You will love her tomorrow. Not being together on V-Day sucks a bit, but you two can make any day you want into V-Day.

I'm still pouting

I guess I lost about 20 bucks on the Superbowl...not because I bet anything...that was the gas money it took to get down to the party and back.

And yeah, I was behind the Bears so...that pretty much sums THAT up.
Had fun seeing friends though

TGIF - Amen to that. PowerPoint and clue-giving is how I spent my week. Unfortunately they won't let me accomplish the latter with a clue-by-four.

Can I work with robots? I hear they are relentlessly logical. That would be a nice change of pace.

yay for commercials and pork sammiches!!