Words have power

In this case the words were an innocent enough looking piece of paper handed to me by my manager on Tuesday 2nd of this month.
It told of a meeting with HR to discuss a "proposed reorganisation of the team and the proposed impact of the reorganisation on my position".

Such a bland phrase. Of course, the meaning is anything but innocent. This was the dreaded "tap on the shoulder" to say that my job was no more.
Effectively the "reorganisation" was a reduction in numbers, or as it is otherwise called, being "riffed" (Reduction In Force). In other words, we need your team to be smaller to the tune of one and guess who that one is?

It was a bit of a shock.
There have been a wide number of such reductions in my company over the past couple of weeks. I sort of expected that even if my team was unaffected by them this time (as appeared to be the case), we would be prime candidates next time. But I didn't think I would be the first one selected as I could think of others who were more deserving of the fatal tap on the shoulder. Indeed, many of my team were equally surprised by the choice.
I had been on holiday with my family at the time others were notified and stupidly thought that as nothing had been said when I returned, I was safe.
How foolish.
So, my company needs to cut back staff because of the recession/credit crunch do they?
All those pointless drains on resources that actually do work to keep things running are of course, far less important than say, a recently resigned British prime Minister and war mongerer who was recently employed by my company as a consultant for a ridiculously large sum of money.

So, what happens next?
Well, I have 30 days "consultation" to see if the expected reduction in numbers is actually going to happen. After that, I serve my notice and then I am out of the door. Finding another job internally seems unlikely (and indeed less than safe bearing in mind what is happening with the company) and finding a job externally may well mean long commutes and possibly moving house.
Words such as "rock" and "hard place" spring to mind.

However, I have to actually be offered a job first, which is the biggest hurdle. As the primary wage earner for my family this is no casual matter and being told this is an "opportunity" just makes me want to look for heavy club-like objects, so that I can impart my reaction to such comments through the medium of touch - followed by concussion.

So I have been updating my CV and now I have to start looking. this is the first time I have ever been made redundant and it still takes a bit of getting used to.