[Host Note: I received this anonymous msg for Learning-Org]
Rick, I cannot comment on AT&T, but I can on Unisys which in ~ '87
numbered 120K employees and now is ~ 40K employees. For at least 5 years
before the reductions started to threaten me personally, Unisys top
management would at least quarterly explain the strategies and plans for
the changes coming to all employees. We in hardware engineering were made
fully aware of the decreasing importance of hardware engineering to the
corporate direction. We participated in the consolidation of product
lines and the procurement of hardware from OEMs. I and many of my
collegues actively prepared for what we knew would be a shift to
telecommunications. My effort took 3 years and I made the jump a year ago
after 25 years in computer hardware engineering. I doubt anyone who was
paying attention received less than 2 years "implied notice" of the
changes coming to their area of work.
I do not resent what happened. The natural evolution of computer and IC
technology is what really caused it. I feel better about the value
addedness of my work now than I did for my last 5 years at Unisys. I
commend Unisys management for how they handled the situation in an open
straightforward way. To my knowledge, none of my former Unisys collegues
feels much different from me. True, I was not hurt much (extra work was
all) by these events, but I honestly believe I would feel about the same
if I had been more seriously inconvenienced. To feel differently would be
like resenting the incoming tide for causing me to move my blanket. The
tide is; technology shifts are. It's up to us to help each other
understand these things and react to them.
-- Anonymous