Editorial

This is not a funny post. I just need to say something to get it off my chest.

Part of having this website is the fact that it gives me a platform to speak without the lack of control that “social media sites” have. I post.  I edit.  I take it down if I need to.

A company I used to work for has announced a specific set of layoffs that is targeting the group I used to work for, the IT Service Desk. As you can imagine, this is fueling a lot of anger and resentment towards that company.

Well, it’s not that I don’t have sympathy but,  you all saw this coming. We all talked about it 15 years ago. We knew this was coming when they brought in Bain. We knew it was coming when they had us writing procedures and scripts for a 0-level triage team.

We knew it was coming when they did the first round of “voluntary” layoffs…

And I knew it when I was targeted.

I was lucky enough to have kept several close friends from my time with the company. These people I consider family and I would do just about anything for them.

However, after I left most of the other people, people who I thought were my friends, my coworkers, people who I broke bread with and shared good times with turned their backs on me. I was unfriended on social media and shunned in public. I was told:

• “Don’t bring up what happened.”
• “You’re always so down.”
• “We don’t want to hear about your problems anymore.”

Essentially, I became a pariah.

My family and I had to struggle and fight to scrape by. I battled with depression and anxiety as I tried to rebuild my life. The only way I finally came to peace with what happened was by leaving IT entirely for almost four years and embracing my artwork.

Meanwhile, your beloved Fortune 50 company did exactly what I said it would: It abandoned my hometown and community entirely. Now it has abandoned you too.

To my friends who stayed with this company through thick and thin… who have built a 30 year career… who bled “blue” for this organization… and now have to pick up the pieces and rebuild, I am truly sorry. You deserve so much better. Please feel free to lean on my in whatever way you need to. I am here for you just like you were there for me.

But to those of you that abandoned me, shunned me, mocked me? May you not have to go through HALF of what my family and I have had to endure, because it will BREAK you. I am here for you just like you were there for me too. Remember that.

Time and experience have not made me bitter, but they have made me patient and I have seen karma in action. Too often I have been on the receiving end, so I really do not wish anyone ill will.

Love one another through these difficult times. Offer a helping hand if you can. People have long memories, companies don’t.