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Massive Layoffs At AOL
JLavezzo writes "Several news sites are reporting that the United States' largest ISP has laid off 750 employees. My sources at AOL put the actual number at approximately 950 regular employees and 300 contractors from various departments including new technology and marketing. The contractors aren't mentioned by the news outlets. Severance packages are known to include up to four months pay and keeping laid off employees on the AOL payroll through February (to retain health insurance). With most of the layoffs coming from the Northern Virginia offices, what are their hopes for finding new jobs?"
Bah, you kids. Back in my day (2000), we didn't feel right about going to lunch unless we'd shitcanned at least 1000 people by then. And two months on the payroll plus four months of severence? Bah! Back in my day you were lucky if you didn't have any personal possessions in the building when it was locked and the contents auctioned off on behalf of angry creditors.
We *knew* how to make employees feel worthless. Layoffs via SMS! Contracted goons standing in the office in case they went postal! Taking away their razor scooters!
Now get off my lawn, you damn kids.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
waiting tables, burger flipping, etc....
Meh.
"You've Got Severance!"
Come on... my employer cuts thousands...
Besides, hasn't anybody of worth left already?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Iraqi government is hiring US contractors to help them count ballots.
if they'd only spent less on all those darn cds...
It shouldn't take 750 people to run the entire company, let alone having 750 extra people hanging around that they really don't need.
AOL management is as stupid as their users.
http://comments.fuckedcompany.com/phpcomments/inde x.php?newsid=109601&sid=1&page=1&parentid=0&crapfi lter=1
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." - Josef Stalin
You got ... DOLE!
Jonathanjk.com
What a lovely gift. No?
US (nation) for Oct 04: 5.1%
VA (state) for Oct 04: 3.2%
If these poor souls have skills, they will find jobs here. I doubt most of them have security clearances, but those that do will be immediately re-employed.
Helevius
Even though AOL is heading downhill and many people are happy to see them head that direction; it's never good news to hear that many people getting let go. I always hoped AOL would evolve and not sink.
...Slashdot Headlines Consistently Sensationalize Everything!!!
Anyone have the over/under on the time it takes someone to edit the new AOL commercials with the swarms of customers asking for change into swarms of fired employees burning the place down?
I think even McDonalds would think twice about hiring them:
Manager: "So do you have any customer service experience?"
AOL Scab: "Well, I worked tech support at AOL for 2 years."
Manager: "We only hire people who will fuck up small stuff. We can't handle AOL sized crap here"
...The severance package was particularly generous, as it include two AOL trial CDs, with a combined total of 2048 free hours.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
See, that's why I've been honing my aggresive driving, sword-fighting and other misc. pizza-delivery skills: Jobs that can be done overseas will be done overseas.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
With most of the layoffs coming from the Northern Virginia offices, what are their hopes for finding new jobs?
What's the point? 950 regular employees were just laid off for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOEVER. What's going to stop the next employer from doing the same thing? What is the point of trying to build a career that can be stolen arbitrarily?
The economy is doing VERY well. AOL is not about to go out of business. They still have millions of subscribers and they are probably earning about $40M a month in subscriber revenue. If the company were about to go out of business, that would be one thing. This is just arbitrary.
It is standard corporate thinking. Just pick 1200 people and fire them. Who the fuck cares if they have mortgages? That's their problem. Short-term money grab thinking.
Disney did the same thing earlier this year. In fact, they fired an ENTIRE STUDIO that was directly responsible for NINE FIGURES in top-line revenue. Why? Because they felt like it.
This is no different. W-4 employment is a sham. No business would ever depend on a similar agreement for anything, especially anything upon which revenue depends. W-4 employment is unfair and obsolete, and layoffs like these are cruel, groundless and destructive.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
In related news, the USPS today announced 1,250 redundancies after a recent analysis suggested a 90% reduction in 2005 postal volume from the Northern Virginia area.
When will AOL learn. People are leaving because competitors are offering cheaper and faster services. If you want to stay competitive, lower your prices. People are not going to continue to pay $23.90/mon. when they can get DSL for a couple dollars more, or dial-up for less than $10/mon.
{S Goodbye
*watches post get modded away*
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On the one hand, I feel really bad for all those people having to find places to go in the NOVA job market. Right before the holidays too, raw deal.
On the other hand, I bet that whinny, nasally actress in the commercials playing the mother sneaking into the AOL boardroom is having a fantasic Christmas. She's probably making tons in residuals for one or two days work.
AOL must have spent hundreds of millions broadcasting those commericals, I hardly even watch TV and see them all the time. It's almost as bad as the promotional CDs that still pile up everywhere in my home.
1999 taught me never to trust a company that spends that heavily on marketing.
M
As someone who has one of those juicy government contracting jobs, I can tell you that they're a hell of a lot easier to get once you have one of those juicy government security clearances.
Admittedly, as I'm cleared, I have a far easier time finding work in DC Metro, but this area is about as recession-proof as it gets. . .
Yeah, clearances help, but Homeland Security is hiring people, either directly or as contractors, by the metric butt-load. DOD is growing, as are some new dot-coms in Northern Virginia.
Now, if you're in Marketing or Biz Dev, it may be another story. . . .
This layoff was announced weeks ago, it's really no surprise. But for the employees who are staying, AOL rented the new Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for the Christmas party.
Ecce potestas casei!
In Soviet Russia, vodka would solve this and any other stressful situation.
Apple. March 14, 1997. That was massive layoffs.
This? Not a big deal, by comparison. I don't think the headline is misleading, but it is a little sensationalist.
I feel for those losing their jobs. hopefully they land on their feet and get decent separation packages.
Severance packages are known to include up to four months of FREE AOL SERVICE!
Woo hoo!
Take it from someone who lived there up until 5 years ago, and whose parents still live there -- the average price of a new home in Northern Virginia has stayed rock steady at about $600,000 (totally unscientific hand-waving based on neighborhood drive-bys). My parents' houses have both almost doubled in value in the last 5 years *and* stayed there.
No.Va. has benefitted tremendously from the steady upswing in government spending post-9/11. Last time I went back and drove around a bit the number of new and under-construction office buildings was stunning. Getting fired sucks, but if you want a liquid job market -- NoVa's a great place to look.
Point being -- don't sob too hard.
I guess that I got lucky. My current employer was willing to hire me for a position that required a DoD clearance even though I didn't have one yet. I was young and willing to work for less money than I was worth because of the missing clearance. It took about 7 months for me to get my clearance, and in the past two years my salary has caught up to what I feel I'm worth to the company.
Someone from AOL (I presume higher-ups) that uses craigslist posted the news last night about the layoffs at 10:05PM EST. You can see the original post here.
American On (the Unemployment) Line
--
make install -not war
Intriguing.
Since when is 750 a massive amount of peole. Kodak was laying off 1000 people every 4 months up in Rochester, and about another 2000 worldwide.
what are their hopes for finding new jobs?
I recommend they print up millions of copies of their resumes and mail them out to everyone in the United States. If they play their cards right, they should be able to get computer manufacturers to place an icon for their resume on the desktop of every computer sold. They should also cut deals with publishers to include their resumes bundled with mainstream consumer magazines. They should print their resumes on non-biodegradable media so that someone will start a website called "NoMoreAOLResumes".
Appropriate plug for above reference.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Burger King Grunt: We've got a bunch of new applications from some former AOL employees.
Burger King Manager: Which ones?
Burger King Grunt: [pointing out window] All of them!
Don't bother. They require extensive drug tests.
I don't respond to AC's.
What is with all the posts blaming this a sour economy?
It is NOT an economic failing when an antiquated dealer of yesterdays technology downsizes...And then eventually goes away.
Think about it. A majority of people are hooking up with local broadband dealers (cable, dsl, wireless), I would not be surprised to see AOL go the way of the Cart and Buggy dealers of old....And it will not be the economy that does them in, it will be the fact that their main product is obsolete.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Look, I worked at AOL tech support for a year. In some towns, you can't throw a rock without hitting someone who hasn't (Ogden, Tucson, Reston, Jacksonville, etc).
This is how it goes: normally, it's your first "real" tech job. Before this, you were the guy your friends and relatives called for help. In my case, it was my first job, ever. No McDonalds, no BK or Gap, or Orange Julius in the mall. Straight to the tech world. Your parents will be so proud.
Then you actually start working there. The hell that is (nearly) 24/7 tech support with some of the dumbest people, both coworkers and customers, is nearly endless. You realise how large and illiterate most of America (nay, the world) really is. Not computer illiterate, the plain' old fashion kind.
You enjoy the banana splits every time the stock splits, but you're a part time employee 'cause you're workin' your way though school. So you don't get any stock. Your fellow coworkers try to plan a coup and go on strike, form a union or something (which is strictly forbidden in the contract agreement). But it falls flat and you watch some good men and women go down. You get a small promotion.
Then you get sucked into the workload, dumping your calls at 7 minutes, 'cause hey, you have an average call time to maintain. Fuck being helpfull, if granny's PC is taking too long to boot or you thought you'd try to blindly import her mail from Eudora or Caldera on an OS7 Mac, tough shit. She gets the dreaded call transfer.
By trying out some of our special offers, she can get a month of free service. No really, it is a good deal. The trust that we've maintained over the last 6 minutes is a great thing to shatter with that "please hold." Hopefully she'll hang on the line just long enough that she'll be the 10th tel-save today, lest your boss compare your marketing transfer scores to the woman with the honey-sweet voice a few cubes down.
Screw women, this is where you become a man. A hardened, overtly-bitter and disgruntled man. You also hone your skills in down pat. Everything can be done with your eyes closed "sleeping" at your desk, or shooting nerf balls at the hottie down the row. Don't worry, she'll never know it was you. The security guy at the front desk might, though.
It only takes a few months to hate all people and computers. But at 17-24 years of age it will look damn fine on your resume. Future employers will go "wow, AOL, huh?! How'd you like that?"
And like Michael Bolton, you'll tell them it was great. And you can't really pick out your favorite moment.
As for people over the age of 30 wearing birkenstocks or tie-dyed shirts, please don't. It's just sad. We know you like your Mac. It says so right on your shirt. And no, you're not really "the" mac daddy. But nice try.
Anyways, you needed a goot boot in the pants to get you into a "real" tech job. Because by now, you realise that AOL isn't. So mourn for a few days, then get your ass in gear. You've got Interviews.
Most folk'll never lose a toe, and then again some folk'll...
I just heard on NPR that there is a "shortage" of blue collar jobs. It seems right now there is a glut of education in this country, possibly due to offshoring. Maybe its time to stuff our degrees away for a while until the next boom hits.
Table-ized A.I.
Ahhh Christmas in George Bush's America. I can practically smell the trashcan fires burning.
Having been through a "massive layoff" in the bubble-burst days, one nice thing was that there exists the WARN act which dictates that if a company of at least certain size (which I'm sure Time Warner is) is laying off more than 50 people in one metropolitan area, they are obligated to give 2 months notice. For us this turned out to be two additional months to the severance, since the management doesn't really want you to show up at the office once you've been given your notice.
Overall this is bad news, since this area (VA/DC/MD) has now pretty much two kinds of techies - those who have clearance, and those who are unemployed, and the AOL layoffs sure do not help.
About a year ago, I was talking with a US Army recruiter about enlisting in the US Army. I got as far as MEPS. I passed the ASVAB and the physical, but they denied me enlistment after the security interview, which started out as a 10-page written questionnaire.
I answered "yes" to several questions that they wanted me to answer "no" to, but there were two that especially seemed to require a lot of "further clarification":
- On the last page, just before a long affirmation about "this knowledge is true to the best of my knowledge and belief...", etc., etc., there was a question about like "Have you ever [...] misused [...] an information-technology resource?" I said "yes", and mentioned something that hadn't made my teachers happy during high school, about nine years before; I later found out that the high-school's disciplinary records have been destroyed from that time. However, if you think about it, downloading an illegal copy of a popular song off KaZaa is a forbidden use of an information-technology resource; I suspect the majority of the kids who did that stuff in Abu Ghraib had been regular KaZaa users...
- The other thing was that I had visited a professional counsellor or therapist several times, all within a year or two, plus or minus, of the computer-related incident. They decided to totally misread the examining doctor's statement for something that was not in the record, and disqualify me as medically unfit by reason of depression (apparently). Of course, perhaps a college graduate who wants to join the Army is crazy. It may be that anyone who wants to join the Army has a little something wrong with them...
Just to answer certain questions in advance: Yes, I observe the Word of Wisdom (sorry about the JavaScript-wrapped text); drug use has always been a complete non-issue. No, I do not beat my wife. That's right, I did not go to BYU; I went to MSU instead, and they do not have an honor code that requires clean-shavenness. I know the Army has a dress code, and I told the recruiter that I would be perfectly willing to abide by it once enlisted; I had obeyed a similar dress code for two years as a missionary. Yes, I should probably be doing something else besides responding in detail to five-hour-old Slashdot postingsRight!
VA Gov. John Warner was the one making the
big announcement. The jobs are with DHS,
and will require TS or better security
clearances. If you are exiting the military
with a TS clearance, are in IT, and have an
MSCE (DHS is MS OS-centric), then NoVA is
the place for you.
I seriously doubt that the ex-AOL staffers that
just got RIFfed would be likely to have that
particular "skill set".
It is my understanding that a TS security
clearance might take 18 - 24 months these
days, particularly if it's Poly/LifeStyle.
Generally, it is the employer (read here
government contractor) that picks up the
cost for the background investigation --
often as much as $50K USD. That contractor
has got to want you pretty bad to put you
on the payroll for that period of time, and
incur that expense, without having you doing
the work their contracted for. I believe
that that is why I have seen the exact same
job postings on "WPost.com" for the past
1 to 1-1/2 years. If you have the security
clearance, then everyone is knocking on your
door. But if you don't have one, you are SOL.
What it really works out to is a Catch-22
Scenario. And when the employers advertise
for a "transferable" security clearance, I
think they are blowing smoke -- the clearance
is for a specific employer and specific function.
Because the BANK wanted to see the PAYCHECK from AOL as proof they could make the PAYMENTS.
That's between you and the bank, AOL had nothing to do with it. When you get a mortgage, you also must sign a piece of paper saying you read all the documents and understand them. There's nothing in those documents that says that AOL is responsible for the mortgage. YOU are.
So the employee gets fired and... AOL saves money The bank gets the house The employee gets SHIT That's called unfair.
Nobody failed to live up to their agreements, except the employee. Why is that unfair to the employee? What would be unfair is AOL being forced to pick up the slack for an employee's irresponsibility.
The employee did nothing except show up and do a good job.
The employee should try reading and comprehending the contracts he signs. This wasn't a case of fine print or trickery. When you buy a mortgage, most financial advisors recommend that you save up at least 6 months of expenses first. That way, you can survive temporary interruptions in your income, or at least it will give you time to sell the house properly. At the very least, such minimal prudence won't leave you in a bad bargaining position. If you can't do that, don't buy a mortgage.
You are likely joking, but really a lot of people live very close to thier means, or even past it.
The minute they start making any significant amount over what thier used to after graduation they go out and run up credit card bills, buy toys, a nice car a nicer house, and so on.
If they were to keep thier standards of living simular to what they had in college till all thier student loans were paid off and just save any extra and keep thier outgo (especially long term outgo such as house payments) down below what others at the same income level are doing they would find themselves much better off. Keep a credit card if you must, but never put on it more than you can pay off when the bill comes in.
You'd be suprised how much you can save.
I saved about $3k in 8 months on a 24k a year job by simply not replacing my pos car right when I could, never using a credit card, not buying every toy I saw, not having cable tv, no longer trying to have a bleeding edge PC (I've given in a little there since then). I didn't really short myself much (not having cable tv GAVE me time as well as freed up $$) I still ate out some, hung out with my friends, saw a few movies, bought a few games and read several good books.
Of course if you have kids soon out of college the picture changes more than a little bit.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
I think they just gave you that as an excuse.
If that was software that YOU wrote then they're probably more concerned with your reactions to anything they might ask you to do with the code, fearing you might dissagree with something and start in on "I WROTE this so I know your wrong and I'm right", or possibly that you might think your intimate knowledge deserves more pay than they want to spend (which it likely would to be honest).
Also the fact that you're going from a one man company to an employee makes them wonder if your not planning on quiting as soon as things get better and possibly taking any clever ideas they've shown you into a new product based on your old one plus thier 'trade secrets'.
I could see where they could view hiring you as like hiring another employees s.o./ex-s.o. (and the way some people are about thier code it could be worse!).
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
In other words, I'm NOT a one-trick pony. I style myself a "Network and Systems Admin", NOT a Unix admin or a Windoze admin. Flexibility is the key word here: pick up new skills as you go along, blend them in to the portfolio. And, unlike a lot of people, it wasn't "below me" to work for Club Fed during the go-go Dotcom days.
Clearances don't simply help, they're everything. I'm another one layed off in the post 2000 bust, and if I had a clearance there wouldn't have been a problem. I got lucky in that a friend knew someone who was looking (it's not what you know, it's who you know), because otherwise my pizza delivery skillz would have been tested.
You need a clearance, and you can't get one.
-Jeff
Please learn the difference between a dissenting opinion and a troll before you moderate.