I was just in the most bizarre meeting ever, in my 20+ years work history.
The CEO sent an email about the fact that we will be cutting costs, and deferring raises by a whole quarter, cutting down on contractors, hiring, etc.
A few minutes later comes a meeting invite for a mandatory meeting where the CFO and other C-Suite executives basically are just selling all their employees on the idea of not quitting. They say “We couldn’t have predicted a war, inflation, etc.” and add “ We don’t know what the future will look like, so we will revisit these decisions in the upcoming months, but rest assured we will do what we can to not have to cut the work force.”
The time for this is even MORE suspicious as it is coming up the day before we receive our half year bonus. Which I take as let’s give you the bad news and you make it nice with a bonus so you will stay put.
This is also after the VP that I report to, left a couple days ago. This VP would have been clued in into all this knowledge before it came down to the little people like me.
My co-workers are all “I am so appreciative of the transparency” and “I am so glad they took the time to answer all our questions”. While I am thinking this is a way of trying to tell the workforce not jump ship.
In addition to all of, this a few months ago one of our major competitors had to layoff over 500 people to stay afloat. The CEO addressed that at the time by pointing out our company has a different financial structure and this would be unlikely to happen.
What is your take on all of this? I mean besides the myriad of red flags.