A few months ago my employer announced some pretty big news. It wasn’t quite a layoff but basically 75% of the jobs at our facility would be moving to another region of the country(1,000 miles away). Fortunately, my job was one that would be staying but 3 out of every 4 employees would be forced to pick up and move or find work elsewhere.

The company released this big long statement full of BS but everyone knows the real reason why they’re doing this: to save money. To be honest, it’s actually a pretty savvy business move by my employer since instead of having to lay people off they’re giving everyone that was displaced “the opportunity” to apply for new jobs at the other facility. We have a lot of union workers here with 20-30 years experience and they make a lot of money. And even though they are good at their job and have a lot of knowledge and lessons learned, from a business stand point, they’re just not worth it anymore.

Although people are pissed, I think there’s a lot less hostility than there would have been had the company just laid them off. Everyone that doesn’t get relocated will still get a nice severance package so don’t feel too bad for them, I don’t. [Read more…]