Why am I so surprised?

Back in July wrote Job security, is it a thing of the past? Well apparently I was right.

Back then our new manager promised us, "I have been given the go ahead to hire ten people a month to get our numbers up. We are not going anywhere. The company already owns the buildings and property here in Illinois, it is more cost effective to keep us open. Right now they are renting property in Florida."

Well when I drove into the parking lot today I saw one woman outside on her cell phone, I could tell she was crying, she would blot her eyes on the hem of her shirt. At first I didn't think anything of it, people get bad calls while they are at work. When I walk in to the building the switchboard operator tells me it's over. They are going to be closing and moving everything to Florida. Depending on what department you are in you could have anywhere from 6 months to 2 years left.

What I want to know is as employees we all saw this coming, but time and time again we were told it wasn't true. Not only by our own manager, who found out about the decision yesterday but by the upper management who have been running things from Florida since Dec. Why were we lied to? Why did Amrep not tell it's Kable employees that when they, our parent company bought Palm Coast Data in 2007 they would eventually close all operations and move everything to Florida? Why the deceit?

Now it is all over the news and the internet:

Palm Coast Data Eyes Consolidation Reports: Kable's fulfillment operations could move to new Florida Location.

And more here.

But the on that hurts the most:

Kable News relocation to cost Mount Morris hundreds of jobs.... (including mine)

The joys of the job seeker.

Alright, so today I went to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) and retrieved my user name and password so I could update my employment profile and start getting down to really searching for a new job. While there I check out the current local job postings and pick up application information.

When I get home, log on to the IDES website, update the sight with the last 3 years worth of information. I hit Search for jobs.... only one match pops up, security officer. You have got to be kidding me! Three years of office work, with daily computer operation and switchboard skills and the only job I match up to is security officer?!? Sorry, been there done that, got the lousy t-shirt.

Argh! Oh well, I have a few leads that I am going to follow up on from the local office. Wish me good luck.

Job Security, is it a thing of the past?

Is anyone's job safe? I mean other than the law enforcement field, is there any job that is not going to be outsourced?

In December the Customer Service Manager for my company (my boss, basically) lost his job to someone in Florida. The manager would travel up to Illinois once a month until they decided it would be cheaper to promote one of our current supervisors to the position.

Now last Wednesday we were informed that our Email team would not have a job on Monday. They could either take a sevrens package or go to the phones. Neither one is a good choice. Now the Email did effect me. For the last 7 months if things slowed down, or if the email team needed help I would be pulled off the phone to answer emails. This is much less stressful as you do not have the customer yelling in your ear and calling you all sorts of nasty names. Not only am I now chained to my phone, I will loose one factor when it comes to evaluation for raises.

So today I go into work all ready to spend the day on the phone and 2 hours into my shift I am told We still have emails that need cleaned out. They came in after business closed Friday and the transfer to the mailboxes today. While I am furiously typing away answering questions, or deleting spam one of our human resources people along with our manager start packing up 2 of our supervisor's desks.

So with no warning two supervisors were let go. The explanation we are given is Here in Il our supervisors have teams of 10 to 15 people they oversee, in Fl they each have 20 plus, it is more cost effective to fire these supervisors, we were management heavy.

Ok, reality check, why are you getting rid of supervisors when whenever we need help with something, we can never find one because they are busy doing or helping someone or something else? And another thing, If schools are trying for smaller classroom sizes so that each teacher can spend more time with each student, wouldn't the same hold true in an employment situation?

Well, This is just one more burden added to the load that is driving me to seek employment else where. I mean, if they can come in one day and fire our management with no warning, what is to say the same thing won't happen to the rest of us when they decide to move everything to Florida (which supposedly isn't going to happen)?