There was an all-hands meeting at work today and one of the benefits of being a contractor is I don't really have to go. I hate them anyways because it all basically comes out as "blah....blah...blahh....bs....bs....bs....blah....blah....blah." Then they will talk about how wonderful the company is doing and how well they're handling the economic downturn, and then a month later they will start laying people off. Hell, I've been in all-hands meeting in which they discussed how much money the department I was working in was bringing to the company (somewhere in the billions) and a bunch of people at the meeting had been laid off a few days before.

It is also true about these meetings that if the word "outsourcing" is mentioned and quickly denied, they will begin outsourcing within weeks.

But, of course, everyone who goes to the meetings laughs at all the jokes, cheers at all the applause lines, and pats the Powers that Be on their backs for doing such a great job at the meeting. This all-hands meeting, from where I was sitting, sounded more like a party then an actual "State of the Company" meeting. So either the people involved were really funny and the news really good, or everyone was trying their darndest to pretend that the jokes were really funny and the news really good. You wouldn't want some boss to look out into the audience and think to himself "Johnson's not laughing. That'll go on his report..."