still gainfully employed

Coming into the office this morning, I had no idea what was going to happen. I had one meeting on my calendar--30 minutes with my boss--and nothing else. By 9am, I had a 10am meeting with my boss's team and then an 11:30 meeting with my VP's team.

In the 10am meeting, my boss told us that no one under him would be let go. A few jobs would be eliminated (including my old job--the one I've still been doing despite my promotion back in December), but the people with that position would immediately transition to a different position at the same level and pay.

Naturally, I was ecstatic. No co-workers gone, no turmoil, no drama. I celebrated by going back to my desk and immediately putting a down payment on another vacation. Yes, the little lady and I will be going on another cruise. Alaska, here we come. This will be even more awesome than the Mexico trip we have coming up, I think. We'll be celebrating our 8th anniversary while we're on the cruise. Should be awesome.

In the 11:30 meeting, we learned that no one on our larger team would be laid off, and that a couple jobs would be added. Yes, we were all very happy about that. We also heard that 250 jobs at the corporate office would be eliminated, but that 210 would be created. This was much better than the 500+ layoffs that had been rumored.

By 2pm, most of the office had cleared out. People were stressed out, and they weren't doing much work. I expect the parking lot to be pretty empty, too. By the time I left, I had heard of only one person I personally knew that lost their job. It had long been rumored that she was going to lose her job, so I wasn't all that surprised.

It was an emotionally taxing day, to say the least. I decided the best way to end the day was to sit in the bathtub for a couple hours with the jets on--just me and the latest edition of Esquire magazine. All in all, today was a good day. A few downs, but a lot of ups. And I still have a paycheck.