Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about my job situation

This is the scummiest lay-off story I’ve heard in a long time:

Circuit City fires 3,400, will hire lower-paid workers

Circuit City said yesterday that it had fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff and will replace them with lower-paid workers, a risky strategy to cut costs that goes beyond the layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes commonly used by struggling companies. The fired workers will receive severance packages and a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week delay, said the 655-store electronics chain based in Richmond, Va.

Yes, you can get your job back, but they’ll pay you like a newbie all over again. Of course, I wonder how great a difference that pay gap is. I somehow doubt there are six figure salesmen on the Circuit City floors.


This entry was posted on March 30th, 2007 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 
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4 Responses to “Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about my job situation”

  1. Troy
    30. March 2007 at 16:31

    Just one more reason for me to not shop at CC!

  2. Soon
    30. March 2007 at 17:47

    Damn, that sounds so familiar with the Workplace Agreement things we have had slashing entitlements and leave periods here in Australia. But hey, better than offshoring they’ll spin.

  3. dinah
    1. April 2007 at 19:46

    Hey, I’d have http://www.wehirealiens. com and ICE keep an eye on that place. Bet they have in mind to hire illegals.

  4. Overworm
    2. April 2007 at 05:40

    I’ve been layed off twice, but those were totally different situations. The first time was a tech start-up that was going south fast. I was one of the second wave of layoffs, and the third was the final shutdown. The second was a subsidiary of Kodak that went belly up because Kodak was too stupid to realize digital cameras were the future of photography until it was too late. You should have seen some of the intracompany messages boldly stating that film was going to maintain a stranglehold on the industry. That subsidiary went belly up, too.

    If I’d gotten laid off like those CC employees, I’d be pissed. If they had the nerve to offer me my old job at less money, I wouldn’t even give them the respect of answering the offer. On the other hand, I can fully see the logic behind the layoffs. A company has to do whatever it can to remain solvent.