Laid off before sunrise
We've got our first layoff-memo story — and it's actually about a layoff conducted without a memo. Read on, and don't forget to send in your own:
I was in the parking lot of the small consulting firm I worked for meeting my boss to fly to Seattle for business. It was 4am on a Monday morning, I was about to pull my luggage out of my trunk, and he laid me off right there. No memo, it wasn't even in the office, and heck, it wasn't even LIGHT outside! Mind you, I left the week before that thinking I had a job. Two months earlier I had questioned if he was going to lay me off and he said, "I have plenty of money to put into this company." He gave me 2 weeks severance, no insurance benefits (he didn't actually offer plans through work). At least at Yahoo I'd have my resume a little more updated. Hell, I would have taken a memo if I could have slept in that morning! After I told him I WANTED it in writing (that he laid me off vs. firing me) he gave me a huge run around, saying stuff like "who's your audience? why would you need this?" He was shady for sure.