cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/29211735
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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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This is comedy gold. MANY years ago, late 1990s, my department was getting laid off, but due to some contract line items, they gave us 90 days to find a new job within the company and then blacklisted us, which was another bullshit thing. Then someone found in a job hiring seminar in a nearby convention center where our company had a booth. The seminar was free, so a bunch of us went.
At the booth, we found out that they were interviewing for our jobs (QA testing engineers). Not a surprise, but they got excited when the first few of us were uniquely qualified (duh). But after the third person, that guy didn't hide we still worked for our company. Someone from the HR team panicked when they realized the group of us were CURRENT employees. What made it even funnier was that not only was it the same QA testing jobs they needed to hire for, but the pay was about 20% greater than we were making.
HR called corporate asking "what do we do???" Corporate said "SHUT THE BOOTH DOWN!!" A very weird reaction. Then we applied to other jobs at the fair, and when we left, the booth was still closed. The next day, those that interviewed got taken into a meeting room and cursed out by management for "that stupid stunt!" We asked, "so why are we being blacklisted?" "You're not being blacklisted!" "Uh... nobody internally will return our calls, and we have found out that they were told not to return our calls due to a leaked email."
Oof. Oddly enough, i got a new job a few weeks later in the same company. So it kind of worked.
What was the reason for turning the department over?
corporate mandated stupidity?
You got me. I think it was because our group was under one contract set of hires (I was an employee, but some of these people were still part of a contract), which is why we weren't let go immediately. But sometimes you get some manager who doesn't want the OLD people, but a FRESH NEW set of people. For example, when the entire QA department was let go an outsourcer, all the documentation we made was thrown out the window because "that was the old way!" And the next major software release was a disaster. And we were going from a 16 bit client (Windows 3.1x based) version to the new 32 bit (Windows 95/98-native) version, and the QA/testing was not really part of the process. "Who are these product testers, and why are they so negative about the product? LOSE 'EM! They only see mistakes, there's no room for that kind of attitude, and it slows the whole release cycle down."
Corporate stupidity.
Yeah that was actually what I figured. Though I'd only do it if the group couldn't change ways for whatever reason. That should be the go to, remaking the group is the nuclear option.