The Big Cut Day (in Eng)

It is a story which occurred on the Thursday, February 12th, 2009.

It was a humdrum February Thursday. The groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has seen his own shadow and said the spring was coming within a few weeks. (Please see the detail here.) The sky which covered New York City looked deep and dark blue, and the temperature seemed to have already risen a little bit. The topics in the air everywhere was Valentines' Day which was just around the corner. Oh, right! And the Friday the 13th which would come tomorrow. Before 9 o'clock, as I usually do, I squeezed in the crowded subway train for an hour and then walked into my company's headquarters which was located in downtown Manhattan. It was not news that my company was facing financial and credit crisis. The friends who had contacted me lately knew my company has already started various downsizing and layoff. As usual, after I stepped into office, before I entered my cubicle, the colleague Efren who sits beside me always asks the same question. "Good morning! Have you heard any news, Sam?" And I was doing the same thing as always, looking at him, smiling, and shaking my head. It is a humdrum Thursday morning to me.

If you have ever received a pay check in a financial firm, typically you will get its pay check on Thursday morning. So people usually regard Thursday as Pay Day. In Melbourne, Australia, the retailers, such as department stores or the street vendors, would provide different kinds of promotion on Thursday, and even prolong their business hour to 9PM (they usually close at 5PM on other weekdays) to stimulate the customer demand. On the other hand, during this terrible economic situation, companies would choose Thursday morning (or Monday morning sometimes) to announce its downsizing or layoff action. After you get the last pay check, you can start to pack and leave the company. One of my close friends, Ben, used to work for Morgan Stanley, got his last pay check on a Thursday last year. Some friends at JP Morgan Chase had received a similar email on Thursday last October as well.

And today, it seems to be the "Big Day" for my department!

9.37AM. When I was still drinking my Columbian coffee, enjoying my breakfast, reading my emails, and doing my routine daily morning work, my colleague Efren spoke to me across the wall, "Hey Sam! A staff meeting! Do you think they are going to announce something?" He was one of my teammates in a small group. We shared the partition in a separated office space (where were only two of us share this large office space, so we chat pretty often.) Efren was a new colleague and just joint our group in November 2007. He just had his anniversary a while ago. Although he hadn't had chance to handle some big projects, he already played some spectacular roles in some Asian and Latin American projects. Efren used to work for another finance firm for seven years. Before joining our team, he was downsized due a reorganization. That's why he was really sensitive about this matter. Plus his house in Princeton, NJ and a daughter in primary school, the pressures of his life required a stabilize income.

"What!? A staff meeting!? Are we going to have a staff meeting today?" Perhaps I hadn't really waken up yet, I have no idea about any staff meeting notice.

I clicked the send and receive button many many times on my Outlook, double checked my calendar. "Oh my god! I got nothing!" I started to feel nervous. Might be the secretary forgot to put my name on the mailing list? Why do we suddenly have this meeting? I jumped into Efren's cubicle and asked him to show me the email. Yes! It was sent by the secretary at 9.32AM this morning.

Dear All,
We are going to have a staff meeting in the 50F big conference room at 10.30am. Please make sure to join it on time.
Senior Executive Secretary

Efren became to feel nervous as well. He said he had a similar feeling in his previous experience. They must be planning to announce layoffs or downsizing later. But the notice email was sent to the people who would be laid off or not!? I went to the front desk and asked the secretary who sent out the email, why Efren got this meeting notice but I didn’t. Did she miss my name? She squeezed a smile to me and said, "You are not on the list, Sam." I looked at her in doubt. "Are we separating into multiple groups for meetings?" I asked. The secretary still smiled to me. I could easily sense something upset and concerned feeling behind her sweet smile. I went back to my seat feeling disappointed. Efren had already called his wife. I had no knowledge about Tagalog, the Pilipino language, but I could understand from his tone which was full of with surprise and anxiety. I picked up the phone and called back to Taipei, dug up my almost-got-to-sleep parents and friends, and told the friends who were online at that time. Although I just pulled everyone into nervous mood without any solution, I felt calmer and more comfortable after sharing my news.

10.28AM. Efren went to the big conference room. The guy who always buzzes me around, another secretary who had just been hired last year, a 23-year experienced senior executive vice president, some managers I was really closed stepped in, too. After seeing these people who received the notice, I started to worry "the rest of us" are the people who may be laid off.

Tictac, tictac! The time passed second by second. I roughly estimated that half of the people on this floor went to the conference room. Well… maybe I should start to pack now. Why didn’t I hear any news about it?

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