What do you feel?

There were layoffs again today at work. Very small this time compared to what has happened in the past, but each time it hits close to home.

<history lesson>
I was hired at Allaire in January of 2001. As I was about 20 miles from my old house in Utah driving to Massachusettes in a U-Haul I get a call from the recuiter on my cell phone saying that we had been bought by Macromedia.

Now I like working at Macromedia, don't get me wrong. But I've survived 5 rounds of previous layoffs, and actually been laid off, extended, and then not laid off as well, all in the 3 years I've worked there. :madrant:
</history lesson>

So how are you supposed to feel when your friends get laid off, but not you? Glad that you still have a job? :) (yeah, duh) Sad because your friends lost theirs? :cry: (yeah, I would sure hope so or you are no friend). It's been two years since the previous lay offs, I forgot how this feels. :happysad: :sad: :happysad:

grrrrr

i would have thought macromedia would have been 1 of the few internet companies not to have massive layoffs..whats the reason they give harm?

Its always a stressful experience!!

We just went thru layoff's, bad year for profit, etc so I am VERY happy I got to keep my position!

Quote:

Originally posted by HieroHero@Feb 25 2004, 11:39 PM
i would have thought macromedia would have been 1 of the few internet companies not to have massive layoffs..whats the reason they give harm?

We had them in the past for several reasons. The Allaire/Macromedia merger meant that there were a lot of redundant jobs (HR, Acounting people, etc.), so the redundancy went away along with the people occupying those jobs. Then, when the internet bubble popped, it was so that each product was profitable (ie the amount of money that the product made determined how many developers the product could have). I was on the HomeSite team as well, so when they discontinued the product, well, almost all of us (14 out of 16) got the axe as well. This is where I scrambled to get onto another team, I'm currently helping develop ColdFusion, but I was the only person to do so (mostly, I think, because I'm the only person who tried. Everyone else took the severance package).

So yesterdays layoffs were incredibly small in the east coast office. In fact, I only know of one person (my friend) who was laid off on the East Coast, most were in the West and I don't know the reasons. My friend was the last developer on HomeSite. He had been doing maintenance work and transitioning to DreamWeaver. But with the bulk of the DreamWeaver development team in San Fransisco (like 98%), he was kind of the odd one out. It makes business sense, it's just tough when you know someone well to see that happen to them.