Merry Christmas...Here's your pinkslip.

Many of you know that I had the perfect Job for the mother of a 9 month old. Yes, Had. past tense. Sometime around July, Gannett corporate (the company that owns the Lansing State Journal, along with several other big newspapers- including USA today) announced that they would be laying off some people. In our department, 3 people lost their jobs, and I was able to breath a sigh of relief- I made it through that round. But sometime at the beginning of November it was announced that Gannett would be cutting 10% of it's workforce. Uh Oh. This time our department was hit a little harder- there were 6 before me, and I know at least a couple after. There were 38 at the Journal in all, but I think 7 were open positions.

The tension was high all day on Dec. 3rd- layoff day. And once the first person came out of HR in tears, it got worse. For a couple of hours that morning, I watched people flinch as their phones rang, hoping it was a customer, packing their stuff into boxes, and walking out the doors. Some of them had been there forever, others were newer. Some were really hard workers. I kept counting as people walked...5, 6. How many more can there be from our department? Then my phone rang. Crap. It's HR. I said "Kelly- my phone is ringing and it's HR!" to the employment rep that sits close to me. I pick it up and was told to report to the HR directors office. Long story short, I was handed my pink slip- it was really a while piece of paper, explaining that since I'd been there 2.5 years, I would get two weeks of severance pay, and my insurance would continue for the same amount of time. Yikes. I was told by several people- HR, my boss, her boss and others, that it was definately not because of anything I did. My reviews were always great, and nobody had heard anything about me doing a bad job...ever. Welcome to the real world, Erin. It doesn't always matter if you do a good job if there isn't money in the corporate budget to pay you!

Oh well. It was a good job while it lasted. Now I'm looking for a new one, but it's got to pay more, since I'll have to pay for Liam's daycare now. Right now I'm having fun playing with Liam and baking cookies, thinking "I'm getting paid for this this week".