prelude to the afternoon of a layoff

yesterday: everyone was in the office this weekend with zip disks. we all got e-mail last night at 9pm announcing a 4pm meeting on monday–logistics to follow via voicemail. my guess is that there will be a "you're fired" room and a "you're safe" room. today: some people have kept their coats on the entire day. everyone took long lunches and is exchanging personal contact info. they disabled key card access to the main entrance, so we all have to climb the narrow back staircase to get up and down–presumably to reduce any theft concerns. some of the people getting laid off have kids, others have foreign visas that will expire in two weeks from being jobless. at least one person is pregnant. 3:15pm: we're all getting phone calls telling us which room to go to. very "road rules." then they cut off all network connectivity, which means no e-mail, no instant messaging, no file server, no printer. there's security that's been hired just for today. everyone to be laid off is sent to a conference room on the ground floor; the rest of us stay where we are and someone comes to tell us 1.) we're still hired, and 2.) get out in ten minutes so that the laid off folks can get their shit in privacy. that brings us to 4:30pm, and it's pouring snow outside. time for a beer.