Jobs May Come, and Jobs May Go, And Unfortunately.......

Well, we got some unwelcome news at work last Tuesday.  And even though I've had a pretty good attitude about it and have probably irritated some of my co-workers because I haven't been as down or angry or worried as they, I've still not been able to write about it until today.

We had an all-associate meeting on Tuesday.  Right before the meeting "S" came over to my desk and whispered, "My friend at "P" (the other location of Document Management) said that the rumor there is that we're all losing our jobs today!"  I said, "Well, we know how often the rumor-mill is right, don't we?"  "S": "It's been known to happen."  Me: "Yes, but I really don't think it'll happen 'today'."

Then at the location of the meeting "S" came over to where Rita and I were sitting and whispered, "I found out what the meeting's about.  Our jobs are being outsourced."  Now that I could believe.  When "C", the Director of Document Management, got up in front of all of us to start the meeting I could tell from her face that it wasn't good news.  BINGO!  Guess what's going to happen in the Spring of 2006?!!!

I work for a large (dare I say THE LARGEST) insurance company in the US.  We are the largest now because we recently merged with another large company.  I'll call us "W/A".  "W/A" has decided that in order to deliver fast and quality service to our customers the best thing to do is to contract out all (almost all) document management departments to another company I'll call "L".  All "L" does is document management.  Unfortunately most of the document management jobs that use data entry are outsourced to other countries, unless the provider has specifically stipulated in its contract that its claims do not go overseas.

We had a nice little talk from the vice-president of "L" and from our HR representative.  Very few of our specific questions were answered.  Basically, there are only a few applications of Doc. Management that will be kept at "W/A".  And basically within 30 days we will learn who of us, if any, will be staying with one of those applications.  Then within 45 days we will have an opportunity to attend a job fair where "L" will let us know what positions will be open with them, where we can, hopefully, get more of our questions answered, and where, if we want, we can apply for a position with them.  Within three months we will know who will be "transitioning" to "L", of those who applied, and who won't.  In the meantime we can always apply for other job openings within "W/A".  If we are not offered a position of comparable salary with "W/A" we will be given severance packages.  No matter what, though, we will all have our current positions until Spring (March, April or May -- who knows when?) of 2006.  Unless we've moved on to another "W/A" position or quit and taken another job somewhere else before then.  None of us wants to quit "W/A" before January, though, because we want to get our incentive payout, which we are still guaranteed as long as we are with "W/A" on Dec. 31.

                                        

So, I guess I will just play a wait and see game.  I have a job, and I'm not losing it anytime soon:  That's a good thing.  I may be offered a position with what remains of "W/A" document management.  I don't really think I'll want one, though.  I may take a job with "L".  But from what I hear I won't want that either.  So I'll probably just stay where I am, and sometime after January 1st I'll start looking around for something I like better:  I see that as a LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITY.  Or between now and then I may find something I like better within "W/A".

                                            

You can't help but be a little angry and depressed.  Whenever something like this happens you go through the same emotions as when someone dies.  But I am not going to let this take control of my life:     

                                     

      I have a wonderful family and support network. 

           I have never had trouble getting a job that I wanted.

                 I have the security of this job for just under a 

                 year longer, so we have time to make plans. 

 I am just going to look at it as a glass half full. 

There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot by not doing my job well right now.  We'll still have a year-end review, and that and our performance right now will still count toward the possibilities of getting a different position with "W/A" or "L" and will show good or bad on any resume or application we put in somewhere else.  Yes, I think "W/A" made a business decision, a decision that improves their bottom line for their investors, and that is probably royally screwing us.  But at the end of the day, I can be satisfied with myself that I have acted with integrity as an associate with this company; I have upheld my end of the partnership even if they have not done so.