Anthony Balderrama, a writer for CareerBuilder who posts on CNN.com, wrote an interesting article today that seemed rather harsh in light of recent circumstances.
Balderrama starts out by saying, “During the homestretch leading up to the new year, bosses often become generous and kind — traits no one knew they were capable of exhibiting.”
I agree. My idea of a generous boss would not be one who promises to keep his employees on payroll through the New Year, but then seems to suddenly have a change of heart and sends about 400 of them home practically empty-handed.
Balderrama goes on to say that the holidays are the best time to ask a boss softened by holiday cheer for a much-anticipated gift. He asks several people what they would like the most from their bosses for Christmas. Some light-hearted responses are given, including one lady who says that she would like her office sound-proofed so that she isn’t privy to the bathroom noises around the corner.
But none say this: “To keep my job.”
I cannot imagine how a company could cut so many jobs right before Christmas. Surely many of these people, reassured that their jobs were safe at least into the New Year, bought gifts for their families and friends, booked expensive flights home, or promised their children a very special gift that they now can’t afford.
Even worse to imagine is the struggle that looms ahead. Looking for a job right now, during the holiday season when companies are already tasked to their limits, is the most difficult undertaking I can envision.
Couldn’t a Super Bowl ad spot get scrapped in favor of letting these people keep their dignity (and their Christmas bonus) at least until after January?
Mr. Balderrama should have exercised more restraint and caution while selecting a topic for his posting. Perhaps it should have said this: even though times are tough, what are you most thankful for?
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December 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Totally agree…the days of no layoffs between Thanksgiving and the New Year are gone. As we speak, companies are trying to figure out if they can make payroll. And some are finding that they will need to eliminate jobs and ask employees to take pay cuts just to survive through January.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Just so you’re aware, there’s a difference between an article being published and an article being written.
That article may have been published today, but it was probably written before he knew he would be losing friends and colleagues just like everyone else at that company. Layoffs are no more fun for the people who “make it”…not to say what CareerBuilder did was right (I – and I’d bet you – have too little business sense to say it was completely wrong either) but I’m sure Anthony and the rest of the employees there aren’t happy about these layoffs anymore than their former colleagues. That’s more than I can say for the smug, self-righteous bloggers of the world, whose own delight in all of this is completely transparent.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Vanessa, do you honestly beleive that the CEO told anyone that their jobs were safe until the new year? I would seriously doubt that. It appears that they weren’t planning layoffs, but what company would announce layoffs months before it happens? Do you really think it would make a lot of business sense to continue paying employees through December when their owner is declaring bankrupcy???
I know its easy for you, and popular, to jump on the bandwagon of negative comments from the former employees and bash Careerbuilder for the timing of the layoffs, but please try to bring some objectivity to your writing.
I became a fan of this site when Joel was doing the writing, but your hack jobs (on all companies who have any negative news to report, or sites you just don’t like the look of) are really getting old.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hi Vanessa,
I was actually one of the people who lost their jobs last week at CareerBuilder. I can’t imagine someone less responsible for any of what happened with the job losses at CB than Anthony Balderrama.
I was a writer at CB, too, so please allow me to shed some light on the publication schedule. Articles are written for the CareerBuilder main website, and then they MAY be picked up by other sites (CB has agreements to provide content on several other sites).
With CNN, they’re offered a selection of the CareerBuilder articles. The scheduling and publication dates are up to CNN, NOT CareerBuilder.
On December 1, right before I was left go, CNN ran an article that I wrote on companies that hire people to work from home. I was assigned that article in AUGUST and it originally appeared on our site in SEPTEMBER.
In general, for a given “month”, we were writing eight weeks prior to that time. This article was, without a doubt, written, finalized and published on the CareerBuilder site well before the CB layoffs materialized.
As a writer and journalist, Vanessa, I have to ask: Did you attempt to reach Mr. Balderrama or anyone at CareerBuilder about the timing of this article? If so, where is the company’s or Mr. Balderrama’s comments?
I agree the timing of the article is very unfortunate. And it’s been anything but easy to lose a job that I enjoyed so much and was so invested in. But I believe your post is based completely on erroneous assumptions, and I would suggest you revisit your post, and any reporting you did prior to posting it.
Thanks.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Wow, I’m surprised your bleeding heart isn’t dripping down the page, Vanessa.
Look, layoffs are tough no matter when they occur. The timing was terrible, but your article sounds like you were a disgruntled CB employee. Hey, I’m liberal when it comes to politics, but CB is a company like any other that has financial goals… it’s not a charity.
And to say things like “couldn’t a Super Bowl ad spot get scrapped in favor of letting these people keep their dignity” shows you have very little knowledge of how Internet recruiting sites even work, or business in general. You need traffic on your site in order to generate ROI for companies that pay you money for any of your services. Superbowl ads are expensive, but they create massive awareness. No traffic = no return = no renewal = no revenue = no company = no jobs.