We got word a couple weeks ago that the government "wasn't happy" with the way we were progressing (or not) on a program, so they pulled the funding while they "review" the program. Last week our president, the VP of marketing, and at least four upper management types are GONE. Duck and cover!
I'm still waiting to find out who my new boss is. A week ago last Friday, we lost my manager and three directors that I know of. Which I guess explains why he called us into his office one-by-one the week before to...strongly encourage...us to get our resumes updated. My department has been shrinking steadily for years now. Every anniversary I think will be my last. Hopefully the severance pay hasn't dried up by the time they get to me.
I was never really in love with this job anyway. I'm still here after 14 years because I can't bring myself to walk away from a decent paycheck. If circumstances align to force the issue, I'll just have to adapt.
A few weeks ago, some heavy weather passed through the Oklahoma City area. It was around news time and the ABC station had their helicopter in the air. When heavy hail was reported, they headed for the barn to get the bird under some cover. That station happens to hangar their helicopter on the same property as the station. When the helicopter landed, only minutes before the storm reached the station, they opened the hangar door only to find that the hangar was so full of station employee's cars that they couldn't fit the chopper inside and there wasn't enough time to move the cars before the hail began to fall. The helicopter (a Jet Ranger, IIRC) received more than $300,000 worth of damage. Friends tell me that two of the employees' cars that were taking up space in the hangar belonged to the station manager and the news director. The ND was fired and the station manager demoted to a much smaller station in the company.
Small world! Our five-year contract got extended a few months ago to March 2013. But after that, who knows? With the war winding down, and teaching methods changing, my job won't be in demand. This could be some foot up my ass to make me relocate sooner than expected. Yes, my resume is ready.
Aaaand we're in another department again. When I started working here, Graphics was under the Logistics Dept. I guess mainly because we worked on parts and service manuals. Eventually we got handed off to marketing, which made a certain amount of sense - we also did presentations and sales brochures. Then the woman we reported to in marketing became the VP of Human Resources, so she took us with her. Fine by us, we loved her! Then for no particular reason, somebody decided, no, graphics makes more sense under Marketing. Okay. Whetever. (Mind you, we never physically moved our office once). Last week the marketing VP got canned and the department gutted. Today we were told we now report to Business Operations. Well, the ops director is a good guy, but he's also one of the people who's known me for 30 years, which means I've pissed him off more than a few times and he knows all my foibles. He's a fair guy, but I gotta make sure I don't piss him off now.
