Shit just got real...

Friday evening I received a phone call from a former co-worker telling me that my employer had closed the doors and that I was officially unemployed.  Since this was coming from a former co-worker (one I do trust by the way) I started calling around to see if anyone could give me more details.  No one returned my calls.  

So yesterday I'm watching some tv only to have my doorbell buzz.  Since I wasn't expecting anyone I inquired as to who it was...it was the UPS guy.  Inside my UPS package was a letter from my employer telling me that I have been moved to permanently laid off.  

Needless to say I was gutted.  Not really surprised that this happened but I think one has a tendency to hope against hope as it were.  I posted this same pic on my Facebook page as well with the caption that this is now how companies are letting their employees know that they are closing the doors.  

After reading the form letter a couple of times, I got angry.  VERY angry.  You see, I think this should have been handled VERY differently.  This was a company full of solid people who did great work, truly loved working with each other and passionately believed in the product we were making.  These people that stood with this company in some very dark hours deserved to be treated better than this...a form letter.  I'm angry that once the writing on the wall was very clear, that no one took the time to either have us all come in and break the news to us en masse or that we weren't deemed worthy of a phone call letting us know the situation.  What we got was a cold, impersonal form letter letting us know that we no longer had jobs and (here's the great part) that all of our benefits would end June 30th.  The very next day we get the letter our benefits ended.  Not even enough time really to get prescriptions renewed if we needed them or to see doctors for one final checkup.  Nope...in less then 24 hours from receipt of that letter, we had nothing.  

This company had a killer product...literally the only product like it on the market.  It should be raking in money hand over fist.  However, it didn't know how to treat people.   If you don't treat people well, there is no way that people are going to teat you well.  If you don't treat your employees like they are living, breathing human beings, worthy of some dignity and respect, then don't expect them to sing your praises to anyone.  Of course in this case, it doesn't matter, there isn't a company to sing praises about.

I will truly miss 95% of the people I worked with.  They were a class act, hardworking and just great people. It is my hope that they all find employment quickly and with jobs that treat them like the superstars they are.

As for the other 5%...well, karma is a bitch isn't it?