Passover, Part 1

We're waiting for layoffs. Confession -- I wrote this last week.

Right around Passover they announced that there would be layoffs in April. There was a first set, which was small and expected, but as they were doing round one, they told us that round two would be in April and that would be the big one. Rumor has it that our part of the company would not be affected by that layoff. Then they announced at a shareholder meeting that there would be a third round that would happen at the end of Spring or end of Summer 2023.

Morale is challenging sometimes. We were told to come back to the office and work there 4 days a week beginning in March. I didn't want to do this but held out hope that I would come to like it. And guess what? I started getting some stuff done that was super satisfying. And then more, and more. Heavy lifting stuff that I wasn't able to get to before, or was afraid to do. I feel energized. It's hard to be depressed when you are feeling a sense of accomplishment.

Tomorrow begins the second and biggest set of layoffs that may affect people I work with who sit at our factory but are employees of our parent company. Rumors are flying, and our parent company has let it be known that this set of layoffs will begin tomorrow and continue through Thursday. No layoffs on Friday. How's that for specificity?

The layoffs that my part of the company will be in are the next and final set of the year. They have been described as happening in the next few weeks. It's maddening to know and wait.

The other night I was reviewing a handoff to the archives from a friend who died. Two members of the executive team came over and we were figuring out how to deal with all of his hard drives he left behind. They wanted to help go through things, and it isn't practical -- they run the company (but also basically grew up with our friend who died). At one point I said "Not to put too fine a point on it but layoffs are coming and in four months we might all not be here. We need to think about whether this is the last thing the company wants us to do."

So here I am, trying to decide when the right time is to daub blood on the doorway. They even announced these layoffs right before Passover. Jeez.