Trust Me

So yesterday the company I work for, I don’t want to name names so I’ll just call it Shashmint, announced they were laying off 8,000 employees. (funny, Word gave me the green squiggly line under “laying” and offered “lying” as its corrective action) So my day consisted of multiple conference calls to go over the upcoming layoffs. While I understand that delivering that sort of news is probably the worst part of their job, and I in no way want any piece of that responsibility, I couldn’t help but notice how no one would really say anything.

Here’s what I learned:
8,000 people are losing their job, but the company isn’t in any eminent danger.
The severance package will have the same structure as it did last year at this time, although I still don’t know what it is.
The layoffs are to be completed by the end of March, and my team will know within a month, wait no, the middle of March.
The company will no longer match their contribution to 401k or offer tuition reimbursements.
My group won’t be impacted as harshly as others, only 20% (although 8,000 out of 56,000 is 14%, so I don’t understand how 20% is supposed to make me feel any better, except that 20% is lower than 40%, which is how deeply some groups will be hit.

So I have that going for me, which is nice.

***

Checked out the new TNT show, “Trust Me” I heard that they know drama. The premise was good enough, a couple of friends going up the corporate ladder at a Chicago advertising agency. And the two leads are good enough, Tom Cavanaugh and Eric McCormick. But I’d have to say, even though it’s just one episode, it’s a miss. This is a show that should have Sorkin-esque dialogue, and instead feels more like it was written by just another Joe.

I’ll give it another shot, but my 8ball says, “Outlook not good.” Trust me.