The Golden Ticket

I was totally ok with this pandemic-thingy until about a week ago. Then, Marty got his third company e-mail saying lots of flowery words about "voluntary employment" and "righting the ship" and other stupid phrases which mean, "layoff." And to top it off, the "golden ticket," e-mail, as some snarky executive referred to it, would be in select employee's e-mail inboxes on April 27.

We have been through this before. In 2009 Marty WAS laid-off and we were a few weeks from living in Seattle when one of the local managers got wind and offered him a position. Plus, every few years there is the whole layoff scare and he cleverly finds ways to be extra-useful. This time is no exception. However, that didn't stop the Golden Ticket from ending up in Marty's inbox.

Now then, here is how the company is playing their "voluntary" layoff game.

An employee with the Golden Ticket has the right to take the layoff package, take the severance and go on with their lives.

OR:

An employee with the Golden Ticket has the right to ignore the voluntary layoff package, not take the severance, go on with their lives, and hope that enough folks did take the package. Therefore, one who doesn't take the severance package might just keep their job until the next layoff. However--there's a catch--if enough people didn't willingly leave, those with the Golden Tickets who stayed are then on the Brass Ticket list and can summarily be escorted out the door without a severance. Essentially, they had their voluntary chance to leave, so bye.

There are a lot of circumstances and options to factor into Marty's decision of whether or not to leave or roll the dice and stay. Marty will make a decision this weekend. At this point, I am ok with whatever he decides.