Comments about the "Layoff experience" from a former Canadian employee

Nov. 19, 2002

On June 18, 2002, there were job cuts in Canada. Unannounced, caught everyone by surprise. Billable employees pulled back from clients and cut. Working one day, gone the next with no warning. Same story for everyone. No thanks, no handshake. No explanation, managers just read the form letter. Everyone escorted from building immediately after meeting with Manager - not even by a manager or HR but by a contractor from the career outplacement company - Right Management Consultants.

Most feel sense of loss, gave a lot to this company that then just shoved us out the door. I was with IBM for just under 5 years. The excitement lasted about 2.5 years; then something changed at the company. Morale in our division plummeted. Cuts started happening in spring of 2001 but at that time, people were given the opportunity to find alternate employment at IBM first. This time, no such opportunity. All cuts were involuntary. Wide range of ages, but not too many under 30. Majority are still unemployed. Severence packages were minimal, not particularly generous.

We had no idea who else or how many were cut because everyone was isolated. No group meetings, no info in our packages on numbers, didn't even know if it was just you until you met up with someone else who had been cut! Not a good experience; leaves a bad impression of IBM in the minds of the cut employees. Lessons learned - look out for yourself only, keep copies of all your work on your own system, keep address book info on your own system, work each day as though it may be our last, and never give your all to another big corporation, no matter what they promise.