RIF <> Really Idyllic Feeling

The George gave me brief details of a layoff at her employer today. This is never fun.

We had a RIF (reduction in force) at my employer about 2 months ago; most were given 60 days to either find an internal job, or accept a severance package. The economy hasn't seen the bottom yet .. I don't care what you read in the newspaper.

This reminds me of the last time I was RIF'd, more than 14 years ago. I was in a small office (30 people?) of a large company, and a guy from Corporate HR arrived onsite unexpectedly. They began paging people, one by one, to come to the front conference room. It didn't take long to figure out that if your name was called, you were toast. I'd been there 6 months and suspected much of the decision was LIFO (remember your accounting classes?) so I wasn't completely bummed to be given a check for 6 months' pay and shown the door. Long story short .. I started working for my current employer 7 days later and have been here 14 years last month. So, that was a good pay year: I was paid for 12 months and I worked 6, and my new employer paid me more than I asked for (to be equal with my co-workers) plus my regular pay. Lemon, meet lemonade.