sotto voce

I watched an episode of The Office last night where the Scranton branch was about to be absorbed by the Stamford branch. I felt lucky for never experiencing the prospect of being laid off. That’s one of the many reasons why I snapped the job offer from this company without looking around – I was told by the president that he kept the company under full employment capacity, so that during a downturn he didn’t have to lay off anyone. As dry as the season was, they kept people around with random jobs and assignments. 

Lo and behold, this morning I came in to work today only to hear that our largest client has axed the million dollars project that’s been sustaining the department for the past three months. The client can’t even tell us if it’s going to be continued in the future or if the thousand of hours we’ve spent analyzing the goddamn North Atlantic seafloor are going down the chutes. The project manager for this job told me that in his twenty years working for this company, he’s never experienced anything like this before, where there’s completely NO JOBs we can bill our hours to. Meanwhile, my boss keeps asking me daily if I’ve heard anything from the grad school I applied to. My guess is that he’s happy to have me leave for grad school. That way he can cut back expenses without actually having to fire anyone. 

And I’m still twiddling my thumbs waiting for my acceptance/rejection letter, while worrying that I’m going to be laid off tomorrow. And when the pink slip actually comes, which character of The Office will I be? Pam, who saw the lay-off as an opportunity for her to go to the art school? Ryan, who’s optimistic that he’d be able to move on to something better? Michael, who was understandably devastated as his life’s work disintegrated before him?

Well, I must say I’m slightly optimistic. I have my photography / graphic design skills I can capitalize on. I also have one supportive (mentally and financially) husband. 

But yeah, seems like this recession shit (which hitherto has only been a topic of conversation at dinner table) has arrived at our doorstep. C’est la vie.