It was Monday morning, around 10am. I was listening to the Beatles on my headphones, and completely immersed in some Flash work – when I looked up and saw that the room was empty and my creative director urgently telling me there’s a company meeting in one of our other buildings. I thought, “That’s weird. Our staff meeting isn’t scheduled until Thursday, and we never have meetings in the other building.” Whatever. It was probably some project I just got put on, or an update on our insurance policy.
I was the first to arrive in the conference room, and waited for a few minutes for the others to file in. Not everyone arrived. The founder of the company came in, and he got right to the point. He gravely announced,
I’m afraid this isn’t a good meeting. The people you see in this room are the ones that will continue working here. Everyone else will be packing up their things and leaving in a few hours.
I looked frantically around the room, choking back tears. The more I thought about who wasn’t there, the lower my heart sank. And once I realized that almost no one from my design team was there, I almost couldn’t take it anymore.
There was a short session of questions that followed, and then a solemn walk back to the building I worked in. While I was in that awful meeting, there was an even worse meeting that went on at the same time, in my building. You can guess which one that is.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in. I saw my team members there, quietly packing up, some crying. Hugs, emails, and wishes were exchanged. It was incredibly difficult. And after a few hours, they were gone.
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