Cutbacks

I have been working at my current company (JBC) for over 5 years now, and I love it here.
• I love my job and I'm excellent at what I do.
• I have a great boss and some great co-workers, too.
• Time and again I have proven myself to be a valuable member of the Logistics team, and I have been recognized by management repeatedly for the outstanding work that I do.
(I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but if you're great at what you do you're great at what you do!)

In short, I like it here. A lot.

At the end of 2018 JBC lost the [*********] account. When I first got the news I was thrilled. "Awesome! No more scheduling [*********] loads or ingredient pickups at ECS. No more MONTHLY [*********] inventories. Screw those guys!"
Well, it turns out that the [*********] product accounted for 30% of our production, and without that account we simply do not have enough work to keep the 100+ people on staff throughout the plant. So yesterday the Logistics team (of which I am apart) was pulled into the conference room and informed that, because we lost this one account, the corporate office was forcing us to do cutbacks. In short, 29 people lost their jobs yesterday.

I'll spare you the suspense and tell you now that I was not one of those people. Because the Logistics Department only consists of 5 people, we don't have any bodies to give up. But my department was the only one spared. Every other department lost at least one member. The Juice Plant was hit the hardest of course, because they had the most staff.

The decision of who got laid off was based solely on seniority. Because most of the people laid off had only worked here a year or less, I don't know most of them. But I did have to sit at the front desk yesterday and hand a few of those people their last paycheck they would be getting form JBC, and that was rough. I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon holed up in my office, weary of the though of going near the warehouse break room because I didn't want to have to see the look in anyone else's eyes who had to go home and tell their spouse/kids that mom/dad wasn't going to be going to work the next day.

I have never worked at a company that had to do layoffs like this, and it sucks. It made my heart hurt so badly. I ache because I feel SO BAD for everyone dismissed yesterday, and I am left with what can only be described as survivor's guilt.

I woke up this morning with gratitude in my heart for my job. Maybe more gratitude than ever before, to be honest. I can say with complete honesty that I am grateful to have a job to go to today and every day. To feel anything less than complete gratitude for my job would be a disservice to the 29 people who left here yesterday, never to return.