For my 15th I’d chosen a Buck knife. My anniversary coincided with the release of a “Round 2” lay-off list and yes, I was on it. I found out later that there was much discussion over whether to give me my gift or not that day.
I was laid off in 2010. I was at a going away lunch for another employee, who had been laid off, when I was told to go back to the office. I asked the prick from corporate who’s paying for the lunch I left on the table. He gave me the sorry bout your luck bs. I took my 26 weeks of severance and retired.
The circumstances surrounding my layoff was I was working the gulf oil spill with a new airborne sensor. When Obama went for that swim in Pensacola Bay, he sent a message to the Coast Guard that he wanted the oil spill off the front page. As a result our demonstration contract was cancelled and several of us old farts got laid off. I hung around long enough to get one of the young programmers (who was laid off so it didn’t look like an old guy purge) a job with one of our competitors.
After they laid off all us old guys and moved our work out of state, the company lost all their government contracts here, the office was shut down, and all the local employees scattered to other contractors in town. We found out later, the layoffs were engineered by a lesbian who was setting up her friends with jobs on our contract. Our contract required a large percentage of the work be done locally, and the company screwed themselves by transferring the work out of state. We had a great team here and were contracting 10’s of millions of dollars. All gone.