Tuesday, June 07, 2005

I have great timing

Just found out this afternoon that my former employer is closing the San Diego office, sometime between Q3 2005 and Q1 2006. Although I may have missed out on some severence $$$ that may have helped during school, I'm not sure exactly what my eligibility would have been (since my impending departure was already widely known), so rather than being bummed, I'm happy as hell not to be there as the shit is hitting the fan. Many of us saw the need for the shit to hit the fan and figured it was eventually going to happen, we just didn't know exactly when the execs were going to nut up and pull the plug. I've talked to my friends who are impacted, and most feel confident that things will work out OK for them. It sounds like they are consolidating non-redundant functions to another office (in a cheaper location than San Diego) and eliminating redundant functions. So there are opportunities to transfer offices, assuming you're willing to leave San Diego. Anyway, IMO, it's the right business decision and it's about time they did it.

A little severence to subsidize school would have been nice though...

Update: the official press release, the AP's blurb, and the local take. Talked to more people last night, sounds like there were good things about the way the company handled it and not so good things. It also sounds like they cut severence to a third of what it used to be. I might have been eligible for two months. Yeah, I'm glad I left when I did, my sanity is worth more than two months. My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs, I hope everyone is able to land on their feet.

3 comments:

The Dirty Canuck said...

believe me, girl. your sanity is totally worth it. the insurance company i worked for in 2004 was bought out mid-year and i spent from june through november freaking out all the time even though i KNEW i was getting a pretty decent severance package. it's a very weird environment to be in. very unhealthy.

sorry to hear about your friends, though. the upshot, i suppose is that for what they paid in rent in SD, they can now afford a split level, 2500 square foot home elsewhere.

Unknown said...

Good timing indeed ;) You probably wouldn't have gotten much severance...

laserlikefocus said...

It's weird that so many companies from different industries would choose to lay off people in San Diego at the same time. Incidentally, my company - a telecom - is also laying off around 200 people in San Diego.

Anyway good for u that u got out in time. Getting laid off or (worse) waiting to get laid off is not worth the severance.