Pros
I was recently laid off in the second round. When I was hired at Startech.com, the director at the time told me he didn't think the role would be around in 1-2 years. I never took the job for granted.It is a very dynamic environment. I am grateful for the time I spent Startech.com. I was probably under qualified for the job when I started and Startech.com gave me an opportunity few other employers would have. They paid for my education to become certified in my field and exponentially increased my knowledge and experience. I cannot sympathize with the negative comments about a lack loyalty to long term employees. The company had legitimately become bloated. Processes had remained stagnant for years. The ERP launch was in the long term best interest of the company and certainty has and will streamline processes and eliminate jobs in the long run. I do not expect to get rehired, which makes the temporary layoff illogical to me. If the company rebounds it did so without the additional workforce, so why hire it back? If it does not rebound then the company cannot afford to hire it back. The only scenario that I see is if the company rebounds and then returns to high growth and legitimately needs workers experienced with the system quickly and cannot retrain new employees. But by this time the best of the layed off workers will have probably found jobs else were, leaving only those who didn't really know how to use the new ERP system left for rehire. Capitalistic creative destruction is the "process of industrial mutation that continuously revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one" ( Joseph Schumpeter). Don't hate Startech.com, because its operating in its own best interest, be grateful that it remained in the backwaters of London Ontario long enough to let you grow from the experience. I only knew one SLT member he was awesome! Now off to get me a public sector job :P
Kontras
Some employees didn't know how good they had it.