Shit (but I did see it coming)

I don't talk about work on here very much. I don't think it's a good move for someone in my position. So I haven't kept you up to date on what's been going on.

For a while now, we've been in a "reorganization." Yes, that kind. Consultants have been running things from the top, and their mandate is to cut costs. Cut, cut, cut. Last month, that cutting reached my boss, the Senior Vice President. The CEO announced publicly that they were wiping out his position. He's a smart, knowledgeable, decent guy and one of the best people I've ever worked with. Didn't matter. Gone.

That didn't exactly send warm, comfy feelings through me. For a while, I was being told the new structure would have me promoted to VP and put in charge of what was left of the HR organization. I didn't like the way I was going to make it to VP (over a colleague's body), but the damage to my boss was already done. So I'd take the job. Then the top folks changed their minds.

Rather than promote me, they've decided to lay me off. I was told today how great my work is, how I'd get nothing but the best of references from them, but my services will no longer be needed. They're taking a different approach.

My job doesn't actually end for a few weeks, and I'll get some severance pay after that. Even so, this sucks. I did great work for them, and now it's sayonara!

I'm not the first guy to suffer this fate. Neither will I be the last. The funny part? In all the layoffs since I've been there, I and my people were the ones to help the employees with outplacement services, etc. (Happily, with rare exceptions, we in HR don't actually do layoffs where I am. We help cushion the blow.) So who's going to help me?

Eh, it's okay. I can write my own resume and get the ball rolling... but this still sucks.