Eight Year Anniversary

May 1st marked my 8 year anniversary with Corporate Express!

Today was my first day back at work after a week of vacation. Before I had even checked my email, I was asked if I’d heard the big news. It turns out that our department was hit pretty hard with layoffs yesterday. Some of the people that were let go were associates I have worked with for the past 8 years. Even our director was let go, which really surprised me. It made me pretty nervous to return to my desk and check email after that since I’d been out of the office!

Rebecca, my direct coworker, said that all the Staples suits arrived on Monday and there was a flurry of meetings and activity. Everyone who was laid off then was pulled into meetings on Tuesday morning. I have to say that I am glad I missed all that. It would have been hard to watch, along with very nerve-wracking, not knowing who would be next.

For now, I still have a job. I don’t think I am completely safe long-term, at least not yet. My manager, Jennifer, told me that her manager is impressed with Movaris (the automated forms system we use and that I develop forms for), so she and Jamie will be coming up with a proposal to show to the Staples director on why we should keep the application. Staples currently does not have a comparable system; they still use paper forms (Word docs) and just fax or email their forms to the different departments. So they do not have any tracking, reporting, field requirements, ability to hide unnecessary fields, approval routing trail, or process management that Movaris gives us today. I sure hope they can prove that it is cost effective. Otherwise my job will be in jeopardy as well.

But for now, I guess I will keep plugging away at work. I enjoy my job role very much and hope it continues until at least December. 🙂