Tough Times Still

A little over a month ago, on a gloomy Friday, we had some pretty significant layoffs here at the office, and the announcement that two more of our store locations were going to be closing down. Sad times indeed. Fortunately, my job was spared and I was asked to stay on board. A couple of days after that, especially the Monday back to work, I was in this strange mood at work. I mean, who here wasn't!? The office was noticeably emptier and the worker's morale wasn't exactly at it's highest. I told myself I would focus more on looking around for new jobs while I'm still here. But then something happened.

I started to let myself slip back into routine. I started to forget...no, wait...more like "ignore"...the fact that things really aren't going good for us. I just focused on my daily tasks, clocked in and out, then went home and did my own stuff that makes me happy, have fun or just relax. Part of this was just me wanting to "feel" better about the unavoidable event that seems to be getting closer and closer by the day: the end of our company. Pessimist much? Not really. I'm usually a very optimistic person. But I've got to be realistic here. Things have been slowly going down for us a long while now. As one of my coworkers put it, regarding those who were spared their jobs last January, "You're only delaying the inevitable."

I just wanted to feel happy. I started the year off with an awesome week's vacation and had a blast. I would've loved that type of feeling, or some resemblance of it at the very least, to last a while longer. But who am I kidding? I need to remember that things aren't going well for a lot of us. :( Some times I don't even know how this all happened. I know it's been a long time coming, but to me it seems like it all just suddenly hit us recently. Maybe it's because every day I hear more and more about people closing down stores...and then it hit us, too.

Tomorrow, we're having an office meeting with our big boss. He sent an email telling us that "by now you might've heard" so and so. Thing is, I hadn't heard a word. I had to google it! Turns out...we're closing two MORE stores. So that'll officially leave 3 stores that will still be on "open" status. But I know it's only a matter of time. :(