It Only Hurts When I Laugh

Cracked up the entire office just now. After running downstairs to the mailroom, I returned to find my entire department in my boss’s office. The wasn’t too unusual, since we’ve been having frequent impromptu meetings regarding our Chattanooga consolidation. I poked my head in the door and quipped “So y’all throw a taco party, and I’m not invited?”

Wednesday we were sent invitations for a Thursday lunch meeting. Since such meetings aren’t rare, we thought little of it. Recently our company had given pink slips to several general managers of less profitable districts, particularly in the West, Midwest, and added authority for those branches to the more successful branches. In the meeting they announced that the Nashville and Chattanooga sales offices were being closed. Transactional customers calling in to place new orders were immediately switched to our young sales group.

Since the management of Chattanooga’s contract customers was also switching to Atlanta, this was “good news” for my group. We might even add a person or two. It does look like my young co-worker might be moving on in the next month or two: he’s building his own work-at-home empire. He will be missed. He has vowed to find and train a replacement for himself, so we’ll see how that goes.

My heart goes out to several longtime Chattanooga co-workers who lost their jobs. Many had been with the company for over thirty years. Back in 2001 I spent a month commuting to Chattanooga to train their office on the work order system. Office manager Dick had transferred from Charlotte over ten years ago. Two Ginny’s, Jane, Marty, Tom, Mary, and Patty are now gone. A good bunch. Interestingly, our GM used to be the boss in Chattanooga.

Additionally, the sluggish Florida branches are now under our GM’s authority. He is down there this week. Another friend was demoted, former Florida GM Nelson. His Miami warehouse was closed, leaving sales offices and warehouses in Tampa and Jacksonville, and smaller sales offices in Orlando and Miami. Though they’ve already cut sales, management, and admin way back, you wonder if more cuts are in the works. My former longtime boss is now the state’s office manager. Fortunately, he’s in a position where a layoff wouldn’t cripple him. Instead he could retire.