Monday massacre

Wow. I went home sick Monday afternoon and missed an all-hands staff meeting at work. I came in Tuesday and Sean the salesman pulled me into his office.

"I heard Charles was shot yesterday.", he told me.
"What?!? Shot? What are you talking about?"
"Charles... He was one of the people shot in yesterday's massacre."

I had visions of an attack in the Philippines where terrorist attacked a small village. Why did I not hear about this on the news? Is he alive? Was he killed?

"What massacre?", I asked.

"Yesterday. Here at IBM. I heard they laid off a bunch of contractors because they needed to cut the budget. The exchange rate between AUD$ and USD$ forced them to do it."

Oh. Now I understood. Sean tends to use the work "shot" when he means "laid off" or "redundancy".

He went on to explain that Charles, the two South Africans I work with (Richard & Fred), the Canadian Gail, and a couple of others whom I don't know are gone. He isn't sure exactly.

I went to my desk and sat down. Fred sits in the cubicle next to me. Sure enough, he was not there. His desk is unusually clean. It is hard to tell if he is there or not. I swear I saw Richard on Monday, but he is not here today.

I walked my Gail's desk. Her pictures are gone. She had a calendar of kittens on her desk. It is not there. Richard's stuff is still on his desk, but something isn't right. He stuff is scattered about as if he left in a hurry.

So I guess it is true. I feel like I am walking through a crime scene.

Charles' desk is the same. But he is in the Philippines. He may not even be aware that he has been laid off, if he has been. If true, then that means his visa sponsorship is withdrawn, which means he looses his visa and must leave Australia.

Which means that I just lost my new tenant for downstairs. He just moved in two weeks ago! Won't that be a rude surprise when he flies back to Perth and is refused entry.

I will confirm all of these facts in tomorrow's staff meeting. If true about Charles, then I need to somehow let him know. He might as well just stay there in the Philippines. I know that he doesn't want to go back to the US and deal with his ex-wife there.

This really has to hurt. I feel terrible for Richard and Fred. They were great guys, both with families to support. Both had moved over here from South Africa for this job. I know Richard had been out of work for 2 years before this. This has to be devastating to them.

I wonder if they are wondering why I was not laid off versus them. After all, I am single, no kids, and would return to the US where there is more opportunity than in South Africa. I suppose they are angry with me.

Canadian Gail is a great woman. Her boyfriend Tom works here too. He is still here, so he has not been laid off. They just build that expensive new house in Scarbough Beach. I think she will land on her feet and get a job with our ex-manager at the other company across town.

Her visa was expiring next month and she was in the process of trying to get it renewed. That is going to make it hard now that her sponsor dropped her. I hope she gets renewed. Otherwise, back to Vancouver. Tom will probably have to leave to and go home with her.

I wonder why I was spared?