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I read this article on the BBC [Malicious insider attacks to rise - link] It brought back memories of old times.

I was privileged to work for a start up during the dot.com hay days. I remember when things were great, massive sign up bonuses, gadgets and goodies galore. Then things started to go south. Every Thursday was a tense day, we would be guessing who’d get the axe on Black Friday. Then Black Friday came and lunch time was the designated Axe time! We’d see a supervisor walk into our department with a box or two, stand next to our friends/colleagues and give them the bad news. It was a terrible, gut wrenching feeling. The poor soul hurriedly packed up his belongings and was then ‘escorted’ to the front door – A Royal Thank You for all those many nights we stayed up doing amazing things for the company.

I kept asking “why should they treat their fellow employees with such distrust?” Why?

A few months later(yes I survived for quite some time) they decided to let go a senior SW developer. This guy was fuming, fuming mad. He had threatened to ‘bring down the place’ quite explicitly. So needless to say, the day they were letting him go, 2 supervisors came to escort him out.

My turn eventually came up at the very tail end of the companies existence. By then, no one really cared even if I ran away with our beloved gumball machine!

I never thought we’d see another dot.com like era of boom and bust for a long long time. But here we are in 2009, looking down another long dark stretch. My advice to senior executives is be compassionate to their workers. They helped grow your company with their sweat, so don’t treat them like some balance sheet figure that has to go away in an instant. They’ve got feelings and families too. Try to work with them as if though it was your job on the line at Axe time on Black Fridays.

My advice to those on the Axe line ‘hang in there – things will get better’. It’s hard to know that you’ve worked so hard and yet, in an instant these so called pigs at the top can cut your job without much remorse.

It’s easy to get revenge. You may have inside access to everything, passwords, customer lists, company secrets etc. In some cases you ‘can’ bring the company to its knees. But take it from someone who’s been there, its not worth it. Although you were escorted out, doesn’t mean that everyone in there now hates you. On the contrary, there would be many that are willing to help, even those at the top. Get in touch with them via phone/email (I say this as in our case, we were not allowed back in the building) the sooner they hear from you the better. They may know of other openings or opportunities.

Keep an open mind – If you’ve worked in one industry, let’s say IT, doesn’t mean to say you’ve got to work in IT for the rest of your life. There are many other opportunities out there that may surprise you. As my friend says “Stay open for business”.