The Servant's Quarters

T-Minus One Week and Counting

Last Wednesday as I was packing up to leave the office and head home, I got an unexpected meeting invitation for a one on one meeting with an upper level manager in my department. The meeting notice was marked "private." It is scheduled to last only 15 minutes.

It took less than 2 seconds for me to realize what this meeting is going to be about, even though no details about the meeting were provided in the invitation. A quick look at my co-worker's calendars confirmed that they too have brief meetings scheduled with the same manager on the same day. It looks like we're all going to be on the receiving end.

One week from today is going to be the day we receive our voluntary separation buy out offers from the company.

I'm not surprised in the least. We had been prepared by our leaders. We were told that because the company really wanted to avoid having to resort to involuntary separations (or "firings," as they are more popularly known), "the net" was going to be "cast wide." So, I figured that I was going to receive an offer.

That didn't take away from the impact, though. I felt like I had been sucker punched. I stared at my monitor and suddenly realized that I was breathing hard. My heart was pounding. Almost 18 years with Ford, and the company is going to offer me a lump sum to leave. That's not what I thought would happen when I was hired in on January 16, 1989.

Now, I just have to figure out what I'm going to do.