Sooner Or Later ...

[bigaldoc]

... it happens to the best of 'em ...

Microsoft to make its first mass layoffs

[DaveA]

Around here 5,000 is nothing for a lay off. Since the late 60's 5,000 is a drop in the bucket, for most of us that were at that time. Most of the younger set around here 500 is a MASSIVE number.
When Boeing was the LARGEST employer, we went from over 150,000 world wide to less than 80,000 in about 6 months. The Greater Seattle area was hit the hardest. I was away (but employed) for 2 and half years and we never got that large again. Now that I am retired, I still see the numbers. Boeing say in December that they would be cutting about 5,000 non production employees by mid summer.

[wdwells]

You may remember

<hr> The Boeing Bust: 1970 - 1985

Due to changing external demand and the cancellation of the SST program, "the Boeing workforce was cut from 80,400 to 37,200 between early 1970 and October 1971".[6] After 1973, Seattle was in good company for its recession, since the rest of the country was also experiencing the energy crisis. However, Seattle was hit harder than most cities due to its over-reliance on Boeing as an employer, and had the worst post-Depression unemployment for any major US city, nearly 12%. As with most periods of downturn, there was not much private investment or construction. However, despite the crushing unemployment and the infamous billboards saying "Would the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights," the outflux of people was "never more than 15% of those laid off,"[7] and was promptly countered by new arrivals taking advantage of the now-underpriced housing stock.<hr>

[DaveA]

<img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

[DaveA]

I was called back to work on the SST, but I had a good job at the time and the Company would NOT guarantee any time, so I declined, 10 days later the SST was canceled.

[LegareColeman]

I wonder if they have figured out yet what their customers think of the Registration/Activation wizard and the user interface in the current versions of Office and Windows?