Greenwood Indiana
Jun. 27th, 2023 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisLast night on the news with video of a tornado ripping through it. Ugh for sure but it brought back vivid memories of another ugh in that same town.
But, I just looked it up and it wasn't Greenwood, it was Greencastle - a town about an hour west of the tornado. But still, memory.
It was 1986 and I had just been promoted at IBM and moved to the real estate division in New York. I was one of 3 who handled the communications related to real estate in the U.S.
Up until that point, IBM had never laid off an employee and was quite famous for it. But times were getting tough. And the decision was made to close the plant at Greencastle. The plant was the major employer in the small town. Almost 1,000 employees.
The preparation and planning and detail that went into that closure was amazing and very IBM. I was involved in all of it because I had to write the words for the press, for the executives and for our HR team (which was then called Personnel). Months of planning meetings. With espionage like secrecy. Every single aspect of every single thing was debated and planned for.
We flew in a heart specialist as part of the team to work with the town because the mayor had had a heart attack the year before and we didn't want the news to bring on another one. No shit. Really.
All of the employees were given many different options for transferring to other locations. They pretty much had their pick. The ones who wouldn't move but who were within 10 years of retirement (at that time it was 62 years of age or 30 years of service with IBM) were given an option of early retirement with full (very generous benefits).
The rest were laid off. They were given a year's salary and 2 years of full benefits. As I type this today more than 30 years later, it sounds dreamy but at the time it was End Of The World horrible.
I wrote reams and reams of speeches, press releases, talking points, Q&A's.
It was actually one of the most interesting projects I worked on.
I have actually never been to Indiana.
But, I just looked it up and it wasn't Greenwood, it was Greencastle - a town about an hour west of the tornado. But still, memory.
It was 1986 and I had just been promoted at IBM and moved to the real estate division in New York. I was one of 3 who handled the communications related to real estate in the U.S.
Up until that point, IBM had never laid off an employee and was quite famous for it. But times were getting tough. And the decision was made to close the plant at Greencastle. The plant was the major employer in the small town. Almost 1,000 employees.
The preparation and planning and detail that went into that closure was amazing and very IBM. I was involved in all of it because I had to write the words for the press, for the executives and for our HR team (which was then called Personnel). Months of planning meetings. With espionage like secrecy. Every single aspect of every single thing was debated and planned for.
We flew in a heart specialist as part of the team to work with the town because the mayor had had a heart attack the year before and we didn't want the news to bring on another one. No shit. Really.
All of the employees were given many different options for transferring to other locations. They pretty much had their pick. The ones who wouldn't move but who were within 10 years of retirement (at that time it was 62 years of age or 30 years of service with IBM) were given an option of early retirement with full (very generous benefits).
The rest were laid off. They were given a year's salary and 2 years of full benefits. As I type this today more than 30 years later, it sounds dreamy but at the time it was End Of The World horrible.
I wrote reams and reams of speeches, press releases, talking points, Q&A's.
It was actually one of the most interesting projects I worked on.
I have actually never been to Indiana.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-27 04:17 pm (UTC)How long was each work day for you back then?? were you an over-worker and took stuff home with you? i've always wanted to know how that worked (pun not intended) out for you back then.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-27 04:24 pm (UTC)But, back then, you didn't take work home at least I didn't because most of what I worked on was top secret shit - unannounced products - so not allowed off premises.
I did, however, have one of the first 'home' computers. It was a dumb terminal connected to the mainframe via a 300 baud modem. (Again, my choice.) Wild days!!
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