EITM: Laid On 4/26/24

Let go, but still employed.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
People will get laid off, butthey're still allowed to work for a couple
of weeks, and they'll tell peoplelike I've never worked through a pay period
or no. No, but they'llgo, hey, listen, just so
you know, Diane, I havebad news. Bad news. We're going
to have to lay off. You'redone. And you go, oh,
but I thought, uh, Ithought we were going you know whatever,

(00:20):
And they're like, no, we'relaying you off. However, you've earned
a severance package. Yeah, thankyou for your time here. You've been
a you've been an employee. Wehave a severance package for you. If
you want that severance package, I'mgoing to need you to work for and
then fill in the blanks. Someplaces it's two weeks, some places it's
three weeks. I was reading aboutsomebody they had to work a month.

(00:42):
Is it they got laid off?Is it if they're on a particular project
and that person is vital to thecompletion of that particular thing. Oh,
I hope I'm not vital, becausethe second I'm laid off, even if
I'm working feed up. But butyou said, oftentimes your severance is a
condition of that, and I willsee you probably closer to noon than I

(01:02):
will eight thirty. I don't knowthey dangle in that severance in front of
you. But have you ever heardof that. I've heard of resigning and
saying I'm going to be here forthe next two weeks if you want me,
yeah, which you should never offer. I've been over that. However,
people that are getting laid off arebeing told or I guess they can't
tell you to, but if youwant, if you want that severance carrot

(01:25):
right, you're going to need tobe here for three weeks. And for
the most part, most people aregoing to be like, okay, well
I want that severance. Well ofcourse, yeah, of course they do,
is it? But you know you'regetting no productivity out of that.
I've just I've never heard of thatbefore. What about when like a division
shuts down, what do you mean, or a line or a project,

(01:48):
when those people are let go becausewe're axing that component of our company,
right, I could see those peoplehaving to stay on, I mean,
have to stay on finish being toldwe're shutting down this part of our company
in three weeks, so that youhave the heads up you're you're being let

(02:10):
go. Oh, but they're tellingyou in three weeks, this position is
being elimited. So all these positions, right, so let me I'll use
something real but not real. Itwould be like them, like like I
heard going, we're getting rid ofall traffic people. Yeah, in three
weeks. I mean that's massive.Yeah, no, no, but I'm
just as an example. Yeah,I mean I guess yeah, and I

(02:31):
guess you are getting laid off.Yeah, I mean it's still that's but
it falls under that umbrella. Yeah, but you know what I'm doing for
those three weeks. I don't givea flyingn F what the traffic is.
I'm finding a job. I'm usingmy time to find a job. Understood,
and I'll get to your traffic.But it may be nicer to get
that heads up than look at theFoxtrot employees. Well, yeah, they

(02:53):
were on the job. Yeah.No, they were in the building expecting
to be honest as somebody who's beenthrough it, I'd rather just get thrown
out on my ass. I really, even at this age where you're a
little more responsible for for others,I think because I know what I would
be like in the office. I'mnot doing anything severance all day. The

(03:17):
don't they have to give you severalMy god, I talk about this week.
Severance is not required, so takeseverans out of it. I do
think, yes, you have Iwant seven type. I want severance.
You have your disgrentaled types, right, But don't even Okay, scrape,
I'm not getting it. No matterwhat the idea of having to work or

(03:37):
choosing to work, even though youknow your day's are number. I choose
to work to get paid. Well, no, you're still getting paid through
your final day. You just knowthat. You know that final day.
Like that money. I do likethat your money. There's a lot of
people who are gonna sign up forit and with with nothing promised. On
the other end, there's other thanyou get three weeks to pay. That's

(03:58):
it. Yeah. Yeah, thissucks, and it's it's scary to know
I'm spending time here instead of nowlooking for a job or sending in resumes.
But I I need to get paid. I gotta pay read Yeah,
I gotta payills. Okay, butare you gonna work? I really,
I'm not gonna go in there andbe blatant about not working. I think

(04:21):
you have to keep up some appearances. Yeah you think I'm showing up at
eight thirty. If I'm if Iknow I'm laid off, and in three
weeks I'm out of here. Youthink I'm rushing into work. You know
that they already have the gun intheir hand. Right, I'd worry about
how and now you're fired, youbring it upon yourself. I would be

(04:47):
a bad laid off employee, right, I would be a bad laid off
employee. What's the name of thatemployee? Because you're not laid off yet.
No, but in a lot ofthem, they've been told you're you're
laid off. You just I justneed you to be here for three weeks.
You're like dead man walking employees walking. Yeah, exactly, I'd rather

(05:08):
be dead. I think I would. There's no and you said there's no
severance, doesn't matter. Yeah,keep that out of it. Let me
let me go. What do Ineed to be? But I do like
I do like the idea of getpaid for three weeks. Yeah, you're
convinced you're going to find a jobthat quickly. No, I'm not so.
Whence you want the three weeks buffer? I hear, Okay, I

(05:30):
would use it. I'd have to. I'd have to adjust my mindset because
I'd want to burn the place down, but I'd have to adjust my mindset.
I would have to go in andgo I'm going to use these three
weeks Number one, three things.Number one, I'm still getting that your
money. Number two, I'm goingto use these three weeks to at least
start my look for the next job, which i know i'm not going to
get in three weeks. I'm unemployableleast, but I'm going to use that

(05:53):
time to do it. And numberthree, I'm taking printer paper home.
I'm taking no, I'm stealing everything, pens, everything, highlight by the
way. I'm going to the closetevery if if if it's got an E,
an I and a T and anM on it, I'm stealing it.
I'm taking everything. I'm taking.You know what else I'm taking In
the kitchen, you know where thedishwasher is, I'm taking the dishwashing pods.

(06:16):
I'm taking everything, bro everything.Yeah, I could see where some
people spend most of their day plottingagainst the company, how they can get
the most out of their driving abox truck. All of a sudden a
new car got it. With mylayoff money, I would I would load
up. I would take chair,Eli, it took a wrap vehicle.

(06:40):
Is this obvious? I just I'vejust I've never heard of that before.
And I and again, I thinkit's kind of a trend. I think
it's kind of a trend, atleast from what I was reading. Line
two, Hi elliot in the morning. Yeah, Hi, who's this?
Hy? Is this Kathy? Yes? Kathy? Have you been laid off

(07:02):
but not let go? Yes?This happened a while ago. One day
we were all working and the FBIraided our office and they left us.
The hollered us all into a conferenceroom while the FBI went to everybody's cubicles,
and we found up the next daythey're going to be closing down our

(07:23):
location. But they needed about sixmonths to do it, and anybody that
stayed got a month of pay forevery month they stayed, and then we
got half our salary and seventh.Wow, that's a good one. Soya
stayed? But six months? Whywas the FBI there? Thank you?
We can we get to the elephantin the room. Why did you guys
get raided by the FBI. Oneof the corporate offices, not ours,

(07:46):
but one in another state was usingprostitutes to do administrative work and in exchange
for sex, they were training them. Wow, oh my god. By
the way, by the way,Elliott, be careful, this dangerous grounds.
Yeah, I gotta let that go. I gotta let that. No.
I learned something about somebody in ourcompany, and that made me think

(08:07):
of it the the Yeah, Iknow, it's I'll tell you off the
air, what industry receiver? Thatwas my next question. What did you
guys do? Like, what whatwas your what was your business? It
was a medical company and they didmedical billing, and they use these ladies
to they wanted to them. Theladies wanted to learn it something else other

(08:31):
than sex, and so they said, okay, we'll teach you this,
but teach us what though? Ohboy, wow? Basically wow, wasn't
that our location? Now? Butyou stayed for the six months while everything
closed down and you you got paid? Oh yeah, oh it was great.
Did you Were you able to finda new job during those six months?

(08:54):
I started interviewing towards the end ofit. Yeah, so that I
could double this after I got agirl. That's why I left. By
the way, that's my that's myfavorite expression in warble. Double dip,
double dip, all right, verygood, very good, Thank you,
ma'am. Thank you. Wow,that's pretty heavy. Yeah, I didn't
expect the crime angle right now,but that but that really does go back
to what you said. You foundout that your division or whatever it is

(09:18):
is closing in the future. You'renot You're going to be out of work.
You got this great gossip. Iwould stay just for the gossip.
Honestly, Danell on Facebook has amuch more common one. I think,
oh FBI rate for prostitution. Uhteachers are usually uh informed a month out
from the last day of school thattheir services will not be required next year.

(09:41):
Oh damn, oh man, youpicked the wrong teacher to tell that
too, So they stay on forabout a month knowing, yeah, they
don't have a job after that.That goes two ways for Professor Siegel.
Number one, if I liked youa if I didn't like thank you,
f there's no in between. Iam not reading or grading anything. I

(10:07):
have started taking it out on thekids, say again, taking it out
on the kids instead of the administration. Took it out on me because you
think of your your bad reviews.The Yeah, no, I don't even
care about like rape my teacher oranything like that. Rate me all you
want. So you think it wasall the kids fault, the no,
I don't think it was their faultat all. But there was no reason
for little Jimmy to be such aprick all year. And you know what,

(10:28):
I have had it up to here. So you know what, and
listen to the schools don't want tofail you. Let them figure it out
and they'll go in and go,let me see your grades for the last
month. And that's when they gotto go, Oh, mister single didn't
give us any grades for the lastmonth. That's right there, we go.
Or we're all just watching movies.You know what, kids, we're
gonna every day we're watching an episodeof Baby Reindeer settle In and that would

(10:52):
be it. I would do absolutelynothing. Now, don't you feel like
that's failing the next generation? Theyfound care not the kids. No,
not the kids. The administration failedme. Yeah, but like Diane said,
you're now punishing those that look toyou, yeah to teach kids didn't
do anything to you. The Uh, well they did. Actually up to

(11:15):
here, you're convinced the no,no, it's their fault. There has
nothing to do with your interactions withyour fellow teachers who said it was a
hostile and that segul guy's a loosecannon. What I got an a.
I was cool to him all year. Line six. That is a good
one, though. Hi, Elliotin the morning, Elliot Christen Herd and

(11:35):
hurry about it. Hey, I'mdoing great. How are you, my
friend? Oh, I'm surviving.I guess. Congratulations, I'm surviving yesterday.
So that's you know, in ourriver mirror. We can look forward
and come up to your capitals tonight. Thank you. So fourteen years ago,
remember how MCI became Verizon and theyhad a bunch of layoffs going on,

(11:56):
and I thought it was safe,but they announced one extra one right
after I got off a six monthproject going to Rochester every week, and
my boss called me in and said, sorry to earn your birthday, but
you're getting thirty days notice today.So thirty days after my birthday was my
first wedding anniversary. So it wasa long period to kind of drag yourself

(12:20):
into the office because I think partof the package was you got two weeks
for every year you were with thecompany, and since we came over from
MCI, it was a decent package. But it was also two thousand and
eight, and if anybody remembers howbad the economy was back then, I
didn't find a job for a while, so it kind of sucked. But
I still had my rival with discount. So hey, bonus, Hey,

(12:41):
let me ask you this. Duringthose last thirty days, did you do
did you do an did you doanything? Ellie? Do you think you
take a lot of smoke breaks?Brother? I was probably taken more of
those than I was actually emails.I think in those thirty days, you
know, in my ride, Iwould take so many smoke breaks I would
die in lung can before my thirtydays were up. I think I spent

(13:03):
more time coughing than I'm not goingto go. But it was just so
just demoralizing, and you know itwas it's the first time I got down
here. I mean, you know, it wasn't bad. If you go
back to the whole like Berni Outa'swillcom thing where people literally found out about
the fur Tuesday and they were firedthat Friday, that's you know, it

(13:26):
wasn't as sudden, but a lotof people had survived that. And then
we're getting laid off after this,I mean, I still kind of felt
some kind of pride, but youdidn't even want to look for a job
because it was just such a stomachpunch. And you know, I was
still kind of young. We weregoing to try to buy a house and
then all the all the money wasnow going to go towards rent. Yeah,
and do that. And but that'show I found my government job.

(13:50):
And you know, you know what, and that's that's the point to remembering.
They all turn out well, weall, thank you, sir.
We all turn out well, well, except for probably those guys with the
process of the duo's but still fromPete on X. Happened last year Will
we were shutting down part of thecompany. It was five weeks. Did
he do the five weeks? Huh? For Renee it was six months.

(14:11):
Oh, that's that's you know what, though, I'd rather it be six
months than three weeks. They closed. When is the last time you got
a six month vacation? They closedthe division by the end, they were
just trashing stuff, yep, andtaking whatever we wanted. Absolutely six months,

(14:31):
because what do I always tell you, what's the first thing you should
do when you get fired? Yousay, go on vacation. Absolutely the
only person in the history of theworld has ever advised that. Well,
because when you get it, whenyou get a new job, you don't
get time off. You don't geta vacation. Go on vacation now and
enjoy it. Yes, I don'tget that money back, so that's when
you get. But six months.I'd rather it be six months. If

(14:52):
they came in and they said,Elliott, we're shutting the station down in
six months, I'd be like,that is thank you, that is great
news. That's a six month paidvacation. You're never going to get six
months to not have to worry aboutanything ever again, until you have to
start worrying about getting a job.You still gotta get up. Yeah,
and he still gotta prepare. Yeah. Oh no, that show would be

(15:16):
great. Let's just do horoscopes.No, prap, And didn't they run
this two hours ago? Who cares? You know what? It's all fake
recorded phone scam anyway, who cares? Yeah, Oh, it would be
fantastic. Hi Elliott the morning,Hey, good morning. Hey who's this.

(15:37):
Oh I'd rather not say. Areyou in the process of laying somebody
off as we speak? No,but we did do my company did do
a round two weeks ago, andwe did do a second round this week,
and we have another round coming upat the end of May. At
No. However, the note ofoccasions that unfortunately I had to deliver to

(16:02):
the people I was laying off isthat there is a delayed separation and we're
asking them to stay on through theend of the year. The end of
the year, Yep, they'ret theyI notify them that their job has been
terminated affective December thirty first, twentytwenty four. By the way, you

(16:23):
think I'm not doing anything for sixmonths, you're giving me until the end
of the year. I hope youlike. I hope you like that role
of I have to do everybody's jobbecause you're definitely doing mine. Yeah,
it absolutely sucks. It absolutely sucks. Are the people when you tell them
that they have their job until theend of the year, are they somewhat

(16:45):
happy about it or are they stillpissed? It's a mixed bag. I've
got some people who are super pissedand they're really honoring, But then I've
got some people who are excited aboutit. This is awesome. This gives
me six months to figure out whatI want to do with my life.
I hope in that moment I findthat kind of clarity. You won't,

(17:08):
are you what happens to you atthe end of the year, ma'am,
ma'am. All right, very good, very good. I appreciate it.
Thank you, ma'am, thank you. How about that three rounds will layoff?
Yep? Oh, yes, Tyler, I just I clicked off of

(17:32):
it from snapchat. It was anangle we hadn't thought of yet, and
it's definitely the opposite of what youwere saying. It was something along the
lines of happened to me, butthought that I would prove myself enough in
the period that I wouldn't actually belaid off. Oh my god, try
hard, so like I watch out. I didn't think of that, but

(17:55):
I could see that in the moment. Oh, I thought you were gonna
say in the mirror, because thatI would leave. This is where I
prove my I'm gonna turn it onnow if there's a small chance or a
part of the company, it maynot be that you weren't doing it or
they hadn't turned it on before,but where you really ramp it up and
present yourself as someone who's indispensable andthey're gonna keep you. That doesn't sound

(18:21):
like this person was kept. There'slike a five percent chance that happened.
But you have a five percent chance. Yeah, but you're giving it a
five percent chance. I'm giving ita zero percent chance. It's sort of
like what you said yesterday, whereyou want to die at eleven fifteen,
so you haven't put in the worktomorrow to then die that way. Ain't

(18:44):
keeping you? That would suck.Hey, if you really convinced yourself of
that. Hey, Edgar, listen, I know we told you three months
ago that we were going to fireyou, but you know what you're You've
been working so hard. We seewhat we're gonna miss. Yeah, we're
not letting you go. We're stillfiring you. But thanks all the thanks
for all the extra effort. Everybodya half hour lunches every day. I

(19:10):
didn't go because I busted my ass. If I were the if I were
the manager, I would look atyou at the end of that and go,
you're the stupidest employee I've ever had. Honestly, everybody else stole dishwashing
pods and some four hour lunches.I got a guy who's done more coughing
than working. But you tried tothink if you work hard, you're stupid.
As a matter of fact, Getout