Layoffs. Friday morning. A phone call comes in from the boss, a meeting is held and a job is lost.

I knew it was going to happen. I had heard but didn't even think about it. Then, that morning, it happened. Black Friday. Thousands laid off from Super Mondo Corporation and thousands elsewhere. Just like that.

Afterwards, it was like a disaster had happened, some catastrophe. People walked around to see who was okay, who wasn't. Tschotschke's still in cube- they're safe. Suddenly cleaned out cubicle- not safe. I'd pass someone in the hallway with jacket on and boxes full, the walk of the dead. Survivors clung to each other in thanks. People cried. Phone calls were made to others to see if they made it. Phone calls were sent out to loved ones letting them know if they made it.

I knew that it wasn't going to affect me or anyone in my department. I had heard from various people that we were safe, that as we were already technically outsource, it wouldn't make any sense to outsource the outsource. I had heard too that as contractors, we didn't matter, didn't count. We were ".misc items" on the budget. I was never so thankful for not mattering. That still didn't mean a feeling of dread came over me whenever the phone rang. I felt for the people who weren't sure and what it must have been like sitting there, watching as one-by-one, coworkers were called and then the phone would ring for them. We had just merged with another department, one full of full-time workers, and we sat amidst them and tried to go about our daily routine as half of them got laid off. To the other side, an entire section was gone, decimated. The other deparment in our section had made it, survived, and spent most of the day in the bosses office, in tears, watching the whole thing go down.

I had work to do that day. We in my department all did. And as we went about our jobs, treating it like a normal work day, we knew it wasn't. And all day, I was thinking to myself- so this is what it's like to have layoffs and not be the one who gets laid off?