I got laid off a month back myself. Thankfully I was able to find a job within the company before my end date. Letting people go is sometimes the hardest thing to do, and I think it is evident by how pourly they are executed (excuse the pun). Reminds me of a King of the Hill episode where Dale gets a job at an office complex and the HR person doesn't want to face the person she is letting go so Dale does it for her.

After the layoff for me, I thought a bit about Japan and how company loyalty goes both ways and how the employee is treated as the biggest asset of a company. Then I think about north america and how company loyalty is expected from the employees, but how quickly a company can let go of people with no warning. The funny thing is, 90% of these companies have "company values" and usually they are violating at least one of their values in there actions of immediate layoffs.

Hope you find something par. I would tell you to apply with my company (I am a software engineer too) but most of the jobs got taken up by the people that got laid off getting into other departments.

Par, where are you from? And what's your background?

Why cant people have some sac when they have to let people go no a days. I hear so many stories of these sissies in management taking the easy way out of firings lately. Its a sad state of affairs. Good luck with the job search Par. Sounds like you might be better off anyway.

My condolences and compassion to everyone being laid off

At my workplace, the CIO just made an announcement yesterday that among other things, my group is going to be "de-centralized", which means either broken up or disbanded altogether. Something tells me I need to think about the "exit strategy for my assets".

Par, the way they handled the layoff is ridiculous. Did they have you all report to work this AM or was everyone locked out?

Thanks for the support guys. The company is called Vericept (sounds like a pharmaceutical company I know but we... errrr they are a network security / DLP development house. The original name was eSniff but we got sued by Network Associates for it back in 2004).

We all had to call in at 7pm MST last night. Like I said, they did roll call, told us they eliminated our jobs, gave us a 1-800 number to call to set up an exit thing that I just did today and then hung up on everyone. I am absolutely SHOCKED at how classless these people are.

Back in late 2005 the VCs fired the entire C level group and rehired a jack@$$ list of people out of Boston. Since then the company has gone downhill in a very bad way. I have been a senior lead engineer there for the past 2 years with 2 years of R&D prior to that and my first 2 years as just a normal application developer. I was the most senior dev there and... I'm shocked.

My meeting today was being greeted at the door, being escorted to our floor, being handed off to 2 security guards who then escorted me to the conference room so I could talk to a "Financial Contractor" who had been hired on Monday and flown out from Boston last night. I got to sign a "I do not have any Vericept Assets" document, they gave me my vacation check and then escorted me to my cubicle where I proceeded to pack up 6 years worth of books and everything else you accumulate in that time. I was then escorted to the elevators and out the door.

That was AWESOME! And to think I worked at home through my ACL surgery, I worked through at least 2 Christmas's that I can remember... I put in so much effort and time and stuck WITH them for... this.

Needless to say I have a huge headache right now and got very little sleep last night. At least I got my vacation lol. Wooo! 7+ day weekend!

PAR

I'm very scared of getting laid off, I work for the government, so its much bigger deal when they lay off people, and usually you can see it coming, but I can't imagine how pissed you have to be now. I may be making on of these threads February, March-ish of next year. Good luck with the job search.

I'm sorry, Par. The fact you gave it all for your company and they repay you with sh*tballs makes this situation unbearable. Bastards!

Amen to that. You seem like a smart, down to earth guy. After the pain wears down you'll have learned some valuable lessons and grow stronger!

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Par. I agree that they came up with a really terrible way to lay folks off there.

Incidentally, "getting off" is also generally enjoyable.

Sorry to hear about the layoff. I've heard of the "call this number to find out your fired" routine before, but it is a massive tool move.

The good thing is you've learned a couple of good lessons. One is that life, family, and friends NEVER come before a job. The second lesson will take some time, but it's safe to say that you'll never regret being laid off. Your next job will be better and much more satisfying.

I say this as someone that lived through the 1993 recession, a massively mismanaged company, and the dot com boom and bust. Everyone that got fired found a new and much better job (including me). It's hard to believe right now, but you're going to be alright.

I got laid off at the beginning of April, I have a job now that I like for the most part, but the pay isn't good. Nor is the job that challenging and I would do much better for myself if I got back into web development , but after about 50 applications on dice.com I haven't got much interest.

Oh god, I've created a monster.

Hey all.. thanks again for the support. I have never been laid off or fired before and I put a huge amount of effort into this company that I just had to take a couple days and get my thoughts in order. I really never thought that it would hit me as hard as it did... but 6 years is a good chunk of your life and... well like I said I really wanted the company to succeed.

Oh well. Here is my linked in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/772/323. I'll put it on my sig I guess.

Thanks again!

PAR

Whelp... I got a new job woooooo!

After the initial shock of being let go the way I did I figured I would sit back a bit, reflect on what I've done and what I would like to do and see if I could get a job by September (as a couple months seems to be the average time frame).

Anyway, I posted my resume on Monster last Monday and have been completely overwhelmed by the response. After 11 interviews spanning 7 different companies (6 in person and 5 over the phone) I have accepted a position with Jeppesen Aviation. I had a total of 3 in-person interviews including 2 down-right nasty technical interviews and after the 3rd they offered me a position 20 minutes into my ride home. It was quite nice

After negotiating a little bit and letting them know I had some vacation planned for November I accepted the position and start on August 1st. MAN, DID MY STRESS AND PUCKER FACTOR GO DOWN. Not only did I get a job well before my allotted time frame but I got a position at a pretty darn good company AND I got about a 10% raise from what I was making at my last company. Boy did this ever work out phew!

Thanks for all the support and well wishes. And a special thanks to Robear and JohnnyMojo. You two are a great couple of guys (even though I firmly believe Robear is making most of his P&C stuff up j/k).

Oh, and one nice perk... I've actually played for the Jeppesen Jets hockey team for the past 2 1/2 years (not including my ACL recovery) and was going to pick up their expansion team this fall as well (meaning I would be playing for two Jets teams in different divisions). And since I am now working for them I get a nice 30% off league fees. Between 2 teams that will be close to $300 in savings!

PAR

Well, glad that all worked out. I'm a little surprised by the response as I keep hearing the economy is bad and jobs are shrinking but my usual barometer (ie: How often recruiters call me) has actually picked up lately.