A brief update on my life.

[xiphias]

Things are good.

Anyway, yesterday, at work, we were expecting a party of 15 people to show up at 3:30. I tend to do most of my prep for the evening between, oh, 2 and 4 or so, which is the slack time between lunch and dinner (we're still open, but there are fewer guests), so I made sure to be done with prep on the early side.

Then, at 3, about fifteen people came in. I asked if they were the party we were waiting for, and they said, no, they hadn't called ahead or anything -- they had all just been laid off, their entire department.

Vincent bought their first round for them. They stayed for quite some time -- some of them were still there when I left at 7. They drank, and played Buzztime Trivia (we have a subscription to a nationwide trivia service -- after each game, each player is ranked against the other players in the bar, but also, each bar is ranked against each other), and actually had a pretty good Irish wake for their jobs.

Tuesday afternoons are not typically busy. But we were really hopping yesterday.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. I feel terrible for them, but I'm glad they could be together and you all took such good care of them.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Did the other 15-person party show up?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, at 3:30 when they were supposed to.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Shared pain is lessened. Shared joy is increased.

I'm really sorry for those folks, but I'm also really glad they found your bar.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I was in that position once. A dot.com that laid off two-thirds of their staff in one afternoon. And a bunch of us ended up at a bar.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That makes me tremble with rage on their behalf. I've been through 3 lay-offs. It seems like some companies will time the lay-offs so as to have the maximum negative impact on the employees' lives. Laid off right in the middle of the holidays? I'm not surprised. I worked with a man who got laid off the week before his first child was due to be born. At the same company, a woman undergoing breast cancer treatment was laid off and lost her insurance, ending her treatment (I don't know if she died). One former boss frequently picked birthdays and anniversaries for lay offs.

I want to punch something. Need to stop typing.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

These folks brought a cake.

Which they already had.

Because they'd already bought it.

For the birthday of one of them.

They didn't eat it in the office, but, well, they had a bar/restaurant to eat it in, anyway.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

The next person who says the job market is improving gets popped in the eye.

This was in/near Kendall, right? I wonder what company.

I'm secular so I can't pray for those people, but my heart and my thoughts go out to each and every one of them. Especially the birthday person.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

http://www.worldnewsheardnow.com/600-layoffs-made-by-yahoo/5018/

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Poor them. I'm glad they washed up at a good place for a while.

This happened when a small start-up I worked for once suddenly went bankrupt; most of the company took over a bar afterwards.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Vincent bought their first round for them.

I like this man, and I haven't even met him yet - may all good things come to him, to you, and to the 15 who lost their jobs - may it be a better 2011 for all of us!

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

This!

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

ouch. That's rough timing :(

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Had that happen once (as I put it at the time, 'Can't take it particularly personally when they lay off 45% of the company" (oddly enough, it was later bought by Yahoo!)). While putting my office stuff in the car trunk, I happened up a fake axe that I'd used as part of my Halloween costume.

Took it to the large sports bar where the apres layoff wake was going on, and it proved to be very popular, particularly for managers (who'd been laid off themselves) posing holding the axe above the necks of their reports who'd been laid off.

[geekosaur]

Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well and prospering in American corporate board rooms.