The night I got laid off from Aradiant, I got a call from Camd, my former Supervisor. He just wanted to check up on me and make sure I was alright. I told him about how I had turned in my 30 day notice for my apartment and made arrangements for a place to move.
He said that the Supervisors and LDAs had their schedules severely adjusted. He was lucky because he had the most seniority and had first pick at the available shifts. He actually got to keep his same shift of working 6am - 3pm Monday through Friday. But everyone else had schedules that were messed up. There was one LDA shift that had weird hours every day (mostly overnight) and didn't get two days off in a row. The seniority of the LDAs had been determined by how long they had been in the position. He said some of the LDAs were furious at the shifts and they DEMANDED severance packages. He didn't know if they were going to get them.
One thing I discovered was that I still had access to my work e-mail account. I couldn't believe they didn't just deactivate everyone. One of the things I saw was an e-mail by the President of the company which detailed a 10-point plan they had for reorganizing, including moving everyone in the Balboa building to Chesapeake. (I'll bet those executives who got to keep their jobs didn't like that.)
But I also saw that there were a couple of LDAs from my termination meeting who had been restored to their previous positions (but not shifts). They would be showing up and would have to be let in because their badges had been deactivated. This meant that a couple of LDAs who originally remained had managed to finagle some type of severance. But I have no idea if the returning LDAs had to return the money they had received.
A couple of days later, I saw that one of the LDAs who got his job back decided to just quit. I guess he got that one cruddy shift. In his resignation e-mail, he said something along the lines of, "The Lord needs his creatures to sleep." I don't remember that in the Bible.
I was so mad at him for just walking away from that. I would have given anything to have been asked to come back, even with those cruddy hours. Was he not even aware that he was getting paid at least $1.25 more an hour to work that shift? He would have gotten more than two years' worth of raises right there! And I still was not on the immediate list to be asked back to work. In fact, I saw that there was a lot of griping about the individual who was asked to replace him. His old Supervisor sent an e-mail in his defense. (I did get the idea that Camd griped the most about it because he wanted me to return, but he never said anything about it.)
And this brings me to my biggest issue with how these layoffs were handled. They did not take ANY measures to ensure that there were open positions available for us to slide into. I'm certain that just about all the LDAs were willing to go back to being dispatch agents. I know that we had just hired at least 12 new dispatch agents in the previous two months. They should have known that layoffs were imminent and taken measures to put a freeze on hiring. (Maybe that would have been a problem. The recruiting department would have taken note of a freeze and alerted everyone.)
In my opinion, this is how they should have handled the layoffs: First, they have 12 shifts available. Then, they call in the five Supervisors they want to lay off. They make this offer: Severance package or demotion to LDA. If anybody takes the package, they then meet with all the LDAs, except for the ones with the most seniority who are keeping their current position. Offer the LDAs in the meeting a choice between the severance package or a demotion to dispatch agent. Most would go back to answering phones and sending messages for a mildly lower rate of pay. Everybody gets what they want. And this was the impression of what we thought was going to happen when they had the first round of layoffs.
I think that what happened during that first round was that more people than they expected chose to go back to being dispatch agents instead of taking the severance package. They figured they wouldn't make that an option this time.
And of course, there was the problem with how they used two different forms of seniority in the process. When determining who to layoff, they did it by amount of time the employee had been with the company. When they assigned shifts, they did it by the amount of time the employee had been a LDA. And when it came to asking the laid off LDAs to come back, they went by who had the most company seniority.
I would have been laid off no matter which version of seniority was chosen, but I'm still angry that they weren't willing to do anything to keep us employed. I do have to admit that was probably the best time for me to get out. I would run into the people I used to work with. While they were still with the company, they said it had become a terrible place to work because everyone knew that the end was coming. A Supervisor I spoke with said they were losing so many employees left and right through attrition and was concerned that when she got laid off, there wouldn't be a actual severance package with the additional weeks of pay like I got.
I did manage to get one little last bit of pay out of Aradiant. There was an issue that went unresolved before I was laid off. Supervisors and LDAs were eligible for a monthly bonus based on team performance. It was equivalent to about $150. Camd did something wrong which kept us from getting the bonus for August, but I argued that shouldn't have had anything to do with me getting it. A couple of weeks after losing the job, I was asked to fill out a survey regarding the layoff. It allowed me to make comments and I wrote that I didn't get any confirmation regarding the outcome of that bonus. Someone from HR called me up and said they took exception with my statement. I was about to start arguing my case, but a little voice whispered inside my head and said, "This is one of those times you will get what you want by keeping your mouth shut, so don't say another word." I kept listening and she kept talking. She said they would go ahead and send me a check for the bonus. I was surprised. I wished that little voice would have made more appearances throughout my life.
Not long after that, my company e-mail account was finally deactivated. Even though this was the end of my connection with Aradiant, it was not the end of the company.
More tomorrow. (But no more after that.)
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