Here's Your Vaseline

That's how we feel here at work lately.

Before I start, here's my disclaimer...I started this blog semi-anonymously almost 2 years ago. It was something fun to try out, and as I met more people and moved to the Midwest, it became a good way to keep in touch w/ everyone. I love it, and I'm having fun with it. And besides my occasional gripe (ok, maybe more than occasional, but whatever), I try to keep it pretty upbeat. But, I'm going to take it the other way today. I'm just venting, so please please please family members don't freak out. Everything will work out, I just have to get this off my chest b/c if I don't, I'll go postal.

I mentioned a while back that my company is about to go through layoffs. Well, some things have happened on that front in recent weeks that I've been keeping quiet about -- at least on my blog. Here's the rundown...


A local reporter wrote a story about our happy little company, mentioning that there were about to be layoffs. There were ALL kinds of errors in the story - from incorrect titles of executives to lies that there had been no layoffs yet, to errors about the number of employees we have. He quoted his source as our VP of HR -- which means she was lying through her teeth

Right after the article, our management told the hourly employees that they would be out of work for 3 consecutive Mondays. Employees were pissed b/c they can't claim unemployment for one day off work at a time.

A few days later, the hourlies were told that one Monday would be added back into the schedule, BUT they'd be off for a whole week next month.

A few days after that, the salary (that's ME) were told that we have to take at least 2 days off during that week also.

AND, the layoffs they've talked about are STILL coming. We still don't know how many or when it will happen.

Now, I only get 10 days of vacation, and I'm being FORCED to take 2 days off in February. I already bought my plane tickets for March, so I'll use an additional 3 days then. That means that by the time Little Major gets here, I'll have already used half of my annual vacation.

Our management has been so kind as to allow us to CHOOSE what days to take off. What that means is that nothing will get done at all during that week. My group has enough work to do from now until Labor Day, so we asked them to allow us to work. They said no. As we talk about it, it appears that they are trying to soften the blow by allowing us to choose the days to take off. Or as my co-worker put it, it's their way of offering us some Vaseline!

I was going to include a graphic of vaseline in this post, but I got so freaked out when I googled a vaseline image, that I changed my mind. Resist the temptation, don't google it!