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Kitsune · 10-05-2007, 01:05 PM

I don't think I remember anyone switching to jeans, perhaps in rebellion. I found that strangely amusing. And sad.

Well, to finish that story, months passed and no one got laid off. There were some major re-orgs within the company and money was mysteriously "found", as it always was during bad times, and everyone kept their jobs for a little while longer. Morale was pretty low from then on out, though.

Morale has been so low for so many years at my place of employment that many aspects of the company are now engineered to deal with negative employee reactions. (more on these this, later) So while a lot of the problems that must be dealt with are expected, especially in a company with an employee population in the tens of thousands, it is the subtle reactions that most often make one realize they're working in a place where people have a dim view of their job.

Several years ago I went out for lunch and, on my drive out of the business park, I noticed a couple vehicles pulled off to the side of the road and a cluster of people gathered around gazing and pointing into the woods. I joked to myself that maybe they had found a body and, sure enough, on my return an hour later I passed by a series of cones that had closed off a portion of the road inside the business park with a string of yellow police tape just beyond. I parked near my building and walked down the road from the office to investigate, moving the cones aside as I arrived to allow an ambulance and firetruck through to the scene that was already crowded with police. As I stood at a distance, watching, the coroner arrived on scene and I witnessed the police head into the woods with a ladder. Yep -- someone had decided to hang themselves from one of the big oaks sometime the night before or early that morning.

I didn't realize it at the time, but the commotion had caused many in the office to crowd around the windows in an attempt to figure out what was going on. After the ambulance had departed with lights off and no cargo, I figured the investigation would take some time and headed back in -- nothing to see there.

"What happened?"
"What's going on?"
"Was there an accident?"
"Is everything okay?"

I explained what I knew -- police said they'd found a body up the road and it appeared that to be a suicide by hanging. I found it surprising that it happened in the business park, but owning a police scanner I know that suicide is pretty much the norm for any given day in any part of this town. When the news finally got to my manager, he rushed up to me and made a request: "Please do a headcount."

"What?"
"We need to make sure everyone is okay."

I was surprised and didn't understand -- out of the many thousands of people in the dozen or so companies inside the business park, I didn't see a reason to suspect that one of our people had offed themselves. Yet, my manager was insistent and began to rush from cubical to cubical, taking roll. When my manager couldn't locate some of his employees, he frantically paged them until they called in to let him know that yes, they were in fact alive and no, they were not yet that stressed out with their line of work. Phone calls were placed, security was alerted to the situation down the street, and I watched in amazement as other managers sprang into action, checking off names from their rosters. This, I figured, was not a normal reaction.

I found out later that my management had been concerned for some months about the mental health of their employees. More and more of them were on anti-depressants and, in my group, half had seen a doctor in the prior two years for stress and depression.

You'd think this would be a good indication that something wasn't quite right.

10-05-2007, 01:05 PM	#5
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	I don't think I remember anyone switching to jeans, perhaps in rebellion. I found that strangely amusing. And sad. Well, to finish that story, months passed and no one got laid off. There were some major re-orgs within the company and money was mysteriously "found", as it always was during bad times, and everyone kept their jobs for a little while longer. Morale was pretty low from then on out, though. Morale has been so low for so many years at my place of employment that many aspects of the company are now engineered to deal with negative employee reactions. (more on these this, later) So while a lot of the problems that must be dealt with are expected, especially in a company with an employee population in the tens of thousands, it is the subtle reactions that most often make one realize they're working in a place where people have a dim view of their job. Several years ago I went out for lunch and, on my drive out of the business park, I noticed a couple vehicles pulled off to the side of the road and a cluster of people gathered around gazing and pointing into the woods. I joked to myself that maybe they had found a body and, sure enough, on my return an hour later I passed by a series of cones that had closed off a portion of the road inside the business park with a string of yellow police tape just beyond. I parked near my building and walked down the road from the office to investigate, moving the cones aside as I arrived to allow an ambulance and firetruck through to the scene that was already crowded with police. As I stood at a distance, watching, the coroner arrived on scene and I witnessed the police head into the woods with a ladder. Yep -- someone had decided to hang themselves from one of the big oaks sometime the night before or early that morning. I didn't realize it at the time, but the commotion had caused many in the office to crowd around the windows in an attempt to figure out what was going on. After the ambulance had departed with lights off and no cargo, I figured the investigation would take some time and headed back in -- nothing to see there. "What happened?" "What's going on?" "Was there an accident?" "Is everything okay?" I explained what I knew -- police said they'd found a body up the road and it appeared that to be a suicide by hanging. I found it surprising that it happened in the business park, but owning a police scanner I know that suicide is pretty much the norm for any given day in any part of this town. When the news finally got to my manager, he rushed up to me and made a request: "Please do a headcount." "What?" "We need to make sure everyone is okay." I was surprised and didn't understand -- out of the many thousands of people in the dozen or so companies inside the business park, I didn't see a reason to suspect that one of our people had offed themselves. Yet, my manager was insistent and began to rush from cubical to cubical, taking roll. When my manager couldn't locate some of his employees, he frantically paged them until they called in to let him know that yes, they were in fact alive and no, they were not yet that stressed out with their line of work. Phone calls were placed, security was alerted to the situation down the street, and I watched in amazement as other managers sprang into action, checking off names from their rosters. This, I figured, was not a normal reaction. I found out later that my management had been concerned for some months about the mental health of their employees. More and more of them were on anti-depressants and, in my group, half had seen a doctor in the prior two years for stress and depression. You'd think this would be a good indication that something wasn't quite right.