Everything else takes a backburner...

Well, I was laid off from work this past Tuesday. I had spent a little more than 9 years at Lincoln Plating Company/Lincoln Industries, but proved to be expendable when it came down to the bottom-line.

When people at Lincoln Industries were first informed of the layoffs (over a week ago today), we were told that it was not our fault that 40-80 people would be let go and that LI wanted to preserve everyone's dignity. They rolled out their 6 catagories which you would be scored on...to determine if your score made you valuable enough for the company to keep through an economic downturn. In the end, it just seemed like a corporate, real-life version of "lifeboat." You know, "lifeboat"...the game you probably played in 1980s middle school. A boat sinks, there's one lifeboat that holds 5 people and there are 10 survivors and you have to decide who is worthy enough to go on the lifeboat. I quickly found out if I was worthy enough....

Plus, Lincoln Industries kept everything very hushed and secretive as the layoffs were happening. People were being quietly tapped on the shoulder with no advance notice. A quiet whisper of , "We need to see you regarding the Reduction In Force", or RIF in corporate acronym/jargon. After you were told and had to sit through a 15 minute review of all the paper work by our HR department, they would say, "We can arrange a time after hours to come gather your belongings." My response: if I've done nothing wrong, then I will collect my things now. Agreed. Then, you were quietly led to get a box, quietly led to your desk or area, someone stood there while you quietly packed the box, you were quietly escorted to the door (so I wouldn't cause an incident or become violent...even though I have no history of it in my entire 9 years there) and that was it. I did not feel like my dignity was left intact. Instead, I felt like I was part of a family trying to keep quiet a dirty family secret, like sending a teenage daughter to a home to have a baby or arranging for an abortion very quietly. What LI wanted to preserve was their dignity and did not give a rip about anyone else's.

Needless to say, the house we intended to buy is off now. We are now in a fight to prove I was laid off "legally" (or, prove to the sellers I did not take a voluntary severance or quit) so we can get our $1000 earnest money back. Ironically enough, I need to enlist the help of LI human resources, who failed to fill in a date on one of the letters in my "separation" packet. Wish me well on that.

The only blessings of this is that Katie and I had not closed on the house yet and we know that God has something better out there. He is not vindictive, we will learn something from this and we will be better of for it. Just read Job.