oct17.com Blog

Oxymoron of the day: the unaffected employee

March 27, 2008 on 2:27 am | In friends, jobs, work | No Comments

Today I had to inform several coworkers in Louisville, KY that they were losing their jobs in a companywide layoff at CNET Networks. This was the rueful culmination of a short but intense period when we had to figure out how to make staff cuts and still produce three award-winning sites, figure out how and when to communicate to people, and generally not sleep very well. Having worked in online media before and during the dotcom bust, this was not my first experience of layoffs — not by a long shot — but practice doesn’t make this perfect. Not by a long shot.

In the vernacular of HR documents, people losing their jobs are “the affected employees,” and the 90% who are left are the “unaffected employees.” But in facing the whole staff today in an all-hands meeting, it struck me that, of course, there are no “unaffected” employees. There are just those who will be coming back into the office Monday, looking over at an empty cubicle, and wondering what happens next.

The great thing about working with pros is that they are professional when the shit hits the fan. Some saw it coming (we share a lot of info about the state of the business with the entire team), some were taken completely by surprise. But all dealt with the bad news with enormous character. It was impressive in a way that you never want to have to see.

If anyone reading this needs to hire some strong editorial or product management talent, I’ve got names for you.

• From the bitter-irony dept.: Hours before the cuts, a manager informed me that we had a previously scheduled ice cream social planned for that day. The ice cream guy could not shift it to the next day, because he had hired help to haul the gallons of frozen sweets into the office. I saw a lot of stress eating this afternoon, which I suppose was a comfort of sorts. But c’mon! An ice cream social?!