We let someone go from work this week. I won’t go into any details except to say that it was abrupt, that none of us were expecting it and that has thrown the lab into a tailspin.
First, I’m worried about this person. They had worked here for a significant amount of time and I want to see them be happy and be able to care for their family.
Second, we’re a man down. In the summer. Prime vacation time and it means that we are just scrambling to keep up the bare minimum. We only had 5 people to begin and now we’re looking at some weeks where there are only two of us here. And if one of those two gets pulled in on call? Pandemonium.
I made some lists the on Wednesday of things I need to accomplish off the bench. Then I had an anxiety attack. Did some deep breathing and I think I have it under control now but I’m also trying to keep the rest of the lab in the right frame of mind. It made me realize that we are running too lean. I’m all for efficiency but I figure it’s going to take us about a year to recover. It’ll take some time to hire someone new and then in general it takes about 6-9 months to get said person up to speed and on call. In the meantime, I’ll be training this person so my actual time will shrink down even further.
To think a few weeks ago, I thought that things were looking up. Now I just want to make it through the next year here with as little hyperventilating and as few tears as possible. Wish me luck.
Wiley
June 30, 2011 at 9:52 am
Luck wished your way. I recently experienced my first time being in an office with layoffs and it really did throw the whole place off. Hope it works out for your coworker as well.