I came in to work early Monday morning
expecting things to be the same as when I left.
Sometime late on Friday afternoon, fifteen people were canned.
They were given little, if any, notice
and today the place seems a whole lot emptier, in more ways than one.
“Please come in to my office, we need to discuss something”
as if there was anything left to discuss.
Boxes filled by strangers, packed with family photos and other memorabilia,
designed to make the office feel a bit more like home,
are all that await them when they’re dismissed.
Two weeks pay for every year you were with the company
and whatever you have tucked away in your 401(k) is what you get.
Now turn in your badge and please don’t make a scene.
We have additional security on hand to handle those situations
and good luck on your future endeavors.
There are no goodbyes or even a formal announcement,
only their empty desks and hushed conversations among those remain.
The management team is strategically hidden behind closed doors,
and are certainly not entertaining any questions.
I guess they prefer to think of it as business as usual
Now gossip fills the aisles and the cafeteria about what's next
and many of us are left looking over our shoulders,
dreading the next e-mail, instant message or phone call.
For many of us, we know our heads are on the chopping block,
So we joke in gallows humor, just waiting for the inevitable fall of the axe.