Night of the Long Knives, One Week Later

A week ago, the organization for which I work gave pink slips to a bunch of senior employees- it's a sprawling organization, so I don't know the full extent of the firings (it's a few as 13 employees, as many as 16). Today, a week later, there is a meeting for all full-time employees- the part-timers have their meeting next Tuesday, a development which (smacking of "divide and conquer", doesn't make me feel too good). I expect to hear a lot of corporate blatherskite about the organization being strong, despite the almost literal decimation that took place.

I had dinner with some good friends on Sunday, one of whom I've known since high school. The woman who got my foot into the door of the organization is a close mutual friend of ours, so I brought up the firings. This led to a discussion of corporate-speak, and the changing euphemisms for really bad shit, each new term adopted when the general population of drones gets hip to what the old term really meant. We used to have "restructuring", then "downsizing", then "right-sizing". My old friend said, "Now, they call it realignment." This led to a rueful chuckle from me, because "realignment" was the precise term used in my organization. I wouldn't mind a realignment so much, but the alignment change always leads to chaotic evil.


Postscript: One of my co-workers who was axed was thinking about retiring this year. He had been disgruntled for a long time, and really disliked management. I always told him, "Hold out as long as you can. You may hate management, but I'm sure you love the site. Think about what a beautiful workplace you have, and dwell on that." I will keep my advice to him in mind as I'm listening to some consultant-approved gobbledegook in a half-hour or so.