That Good Old "Left Behind" Feeling

I love the smell of depression in the morning. It smells like... Robert Duvall? Just kidding.

This is an interesting article. One that I can definitely relate to, in an odd sort of way. MSNBC posted "Guilty and stress, layoff survivors suffer, too". However, my experiences have been a little different.

http://ww.msnbc.msn.com/id/28196734/

I once worked for a (nameless) company from 2000 to 2007, until it was split in half, during a broken joint venture. I had become very comfortable there. The people, the culture, the surroundings, the idiosyncracies. Then, as soon as we were told of some potentially bad news for the IT folks, the staff began leaving like the place was burning down. Soon, I was the last remaining person in my group. Even weirder, was that my boss and his boss were both gone, and my new boss had not yet become engaged in what I was doing. It was confusing, empty, quiet, boring and terrifying at the same time.
I wasn't sure if I would be let go or what.

For weeks I came in to my quiet office, at the end of a long hall that was once full of people I joked around with. But the hall was silent. I was the only person left on that hall. When you get used to being around people for so long, and then suddenly they're gone, its extrenely depressing. This went on for about a month. Even worse, as my former colleagues focused on their new jobs, I didn't hear much from them. So I sat in a quiet office waiting to find out (a) if my job would remain and (b) what my new role would be. It was Chinese isolation torture.


Oh well. Enough of that depressing crap. I'm glad they all went on to better things. That was a time I'd rather forget. Things got better when I left for a new job actually, but that too came crashing down with an unexpected layoff. Geez. 2008 sucked horribly from my point of view. I'm looking forward to 2009. I suppose the point of all this is that people "left behind" go through a tough time, even though in my case the "others" weren't laid off, they quit. Life sucks and then you die.