Somewhere around 8 years ago, my company split off from it's parent corporation to become an independent entity.
Suddenly, our primary shareholder was a vulture hedge fund who brought in a new CEO.
This guy and his right hand man have made careers of gutting companies to maximize shareholder returns and then leaving the dessicated remains to a new management team
In the span of 2 years, 3,500 employees are laid off and several offices are closed.
Entire departments are cut with no concern regarding what they do or how their absence will affect the company as a whole.
Those of us deemed “essential” from the shuttered offices are sent to work from home and basically do the jobs of everyone who was let go in addition to our normal duties. I go from working 3 departments to 11 with no increase in pay.
Once the cleansing is complete, our hedge fund overlords sell off a bunch of their stock and a new CEO comes in. Now, this guy is no great shakes himself – having been unceremoniously ousted from his prior CEO job for getting caught schtupping a subordinate – but at least he tried to backfill some of the manpower chasms with a few hiring bursts – plus, he treated everyone fairly when the pandemic forced everyone to work from home
A month or so ago, it is announced that he is gone and our new CEO is….. the old CEO who decimated the company
We are all assured that everything is fine. In a company wide town hall meeting, we're told that there's no need to panic and there won't be any layoffs.
Shortly thereafter, just as they always do, our sales team posts the video recording of their most recent meeting on our intranet site
Around 15 minutes in, our new CEO describes one of our 40 employee departments as “an albatross around the company's neck” and happily announces that he's going to throw a party once they eliminate it.
I forwarded the clip to my immediate supervisor who sent it up the chain and a few days later we got a cookie cutter email reassuring us that everything is fine and nobody is getting laid off.
Yesterday, around 300 employees were laid off.
I've been with this company for 20 years and have dodged around 6 rounds of layoffs. Since this guy's return as head honcho, I wake up every morning expecting to be fired. The anxiety is definitely getting to me.
I've started looking around for other options but nobody is biting. Sometimes I think it's because I've been in my current position for too long.
For 5 years I've been isolated, overworked, underpaid and perpetually fearful that they'll cut me next.