Monday, March 27, 2006

What's the opposite of a good luck charm?

Because I think that's me. For workplaces, anyway.

Thinking about my past employment this weekend, I began to notice a pattern -

Seattle, WA - circa 1997-ish - I worked for a company that made nutritional supplements. When I was hired, they were in the beginning stages of bankruptcy, but were optimistic about getting out of it - 6 months later, they laid everybody off and closed.

Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ - 1997 - 2001-ish - I worked for a shipping company who was, at the time, the 3rd largest shipping company. By 2001 when I was getting ready to leave (because I hated call center work) they were experiencing financial problems and shortly thereafter were purchased and swallowed up by a smaller company.

Phoenix, AZ - 2002-ish - The company I left the shipping company for was a small corporate relocation company who had just been purchased by a larger company. There were high hopes for fantastic success. Late 2002 they were doing so poorly that the first round of layoffs reduced the staff by 15%. I got cut in the 2nd round of layoffs (which were really a "who can we fire?" witch hunt)

Phoenix, AZ - 2003-ish - I went to work for a small telephony services company - LOVED IT, wanted to make a career of it. Three months later, they laid off 20% of the employees (including me) and they still haven't fully recovered.

Phoenix, AZ 2004-ish - I went to work for the last place I worked and was told, in the interview about how well they were doing and what gigantic raises they were known to give out. Two months later, we got called into a company-wide meeting to be advised that, because of finances, raises would be no greater than 3%.

Savannah, GA - current-ish - When I was hired at [blah, blah, blah construction company] they went on and on about the frequent raises and bonuses and how they were doing better this year than all other years. Weeks, months go by - and the company is overdrawn everywhere possible, has no new jobs coming up and isn't sure how they're going to make payroll next week.

Is it me? Maybe I need to start hiring myself out as a professional company ruiner.