Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 29, 2021

I worked at a dot com from 2000-2003. The phrase of choice was: We are going to have to let you go.

How about fired?

RIF’d – Reduction In Force. Been there.

Now it is called right sizing.

My last employer threw me away, closed the retail stores, and closed the last place in the United States where they actually made and customized tableware. Then a White Knight showed up, but the hiring freeze holds.

Try “opportunity to find a better boss”.

Not all businesses can stay open forever.

I’m still not clear on whether he’s firing Mike or someone else.

I always sort of liked the British word “redundant”. It sounds less spirit crushing to me than canned or fired. Same effect I know, but still.

I have the feeling Mike may be one of the downsizees.

I’ve worked in enough companies to know that the marketing people should be the first to go (or at least have their paychecks downsized).

Many in the dot coms had high hopes of becoming millionaires off their stock options. Sorry to say most were disappointed.

Bernie’s company is in some form of cutting edge high tech. Those jobs come with high risk/high reward for employees. If they have any sense they have stock options that just might pay off big. But the downside is that the company can’t afford to carry you through a bad time.

It is a real social crime when a long time stable company kicks long term employees out the door to save a few bucks. But in high tech, you takes your chances.

In the last IT company in which I worked, it was called being “benched,” implying that you could be called back when work picked up.

Buahahaha, on top of that, it’s Mike’s job to work out the lexicon… #MarketersArePeopleToo

Over at the CATHY comic…isn’t she in marketing?

Our management liked to call layoffs “right sizing”… when they out-sourced jobs overseas it was “right shoring”…

Call yourself whatever you like, Mike!

Another reason to beat the boot out the door.

Ah… Mike is about to be the “Turk”. Good luck with that.

‘right sized’

Maybe you could rent out their skills…

That’;s what happens when the corporate Strategy is is 100% focused on the Next 3 Months with no plans for what they will be doing 6 months or 6 years from now.

Doone-sizing, surely?