Working as a contract worker, here in Michigan, when I hear about layoffs and offshoring, it is no abstract, anybody-but-me scenario anymore. I am sincerely aware that it could happen to me, as I have watched and heard of people I used to work with being laid off.
I heard of two more today, within two departments that comprise probably about eighty to eighty-five people, mostly developers and trainers. Significantly two contract people were let go, and surprise, surprise, two "displaced" direct people have suddenly popped up on the departments' organization charts.
It is truly a discouraging feeling to realize that upper management sees all of us as interchangeable pawns on this big corporate chessboard. We are not unique individuals with strenghts and particular skills. We are replaceable with people whose best credentials are 1) that they have been with the company twenty to twenty-five years, and 2) that their current jobs have gone or are going away (like to India).
I read this article after hearing about these layoffs . . . and surprisingly, it made me feel a bit less anxious and a bit more hopeful. Oh, yes . . . and this is where I heard the new (for me) term, "Duppie." A Duppie is a Depressed Urban Professional who has lost his/her job in the recession.
There is life after a layoff. And, as my encouraging children would remind me, you can always come to the other side of the lake!
But . . . just to tie these two blog "threads' for today together . . . I would FAR rather be a blagger than a Duppie!
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