Always look on the bright side of……. work?

Finally after many weeks we would get an answer about who will be fired from their job, well at least that’s what they told us.

Here’s a little background info. I work in a Hospital in the Netherlands, and like most companies these days (yes the hospital is sort of a company believe me) the hospital has financial problems. Nobody knows why this has happened (well unnecessary moving of departments and unnecessary rebuilds of departments, or a operation centre that was really expensive and where they have only 1 operation a week….. must i continue?).
Well let’s just say the Ceo finally found out that the hospital has a lot of debts, and how do they solve it?
They want to save money on materials and personnel.
In December 2006 a reorganisation was held, they looked at the departments if they could do the same work with less people.
And so a number of people was considered unneeded, me included.
But like most unneeded employees i still work at the hospital.
Somewhere in April they told the personnel that the hospital was in serious trouble and that at least 255 jobs would disappear. The problem is that most jobs are done by more people so the number of people that actually have to leave will be higher then 255.

So now the latest developments, the unions don’t agree with forced dismissals, and the works council doesn’t trust the situation anymore, so nobody knows what’s going on. But today would make a difference.
So the whole department had to go to the chapel (they must have chosen that location so we would curse, or that’s what they believe )
It’s quite a walk to the chapel from out department, so we left early and went into the elevator…………

WRONG

That moment my worst fear became reality, we were stuck in the elevator, 13 people
We should have gone up but we went down instead, and then the lift didn’t go up anymore and the doors would open either.
Then someone saw a very little sign that only 6 people were allowed in the elevator
It was such a small sign, make it bigger! But we were still trapped.
A colleague thought to be funny and started jumping :0
It’s always been my fear to get stuck in an elevator and being claustrophobic doesnt help either.
Luckily for us someone from technical service was nearby, so we were stuck for about 5 minutes or so, but it felt much much longer.

Finally we got out, but we still needed to go up, so most people took the stairs
In the chapel we got an envelope with a paper inside with the amount of jobs that would have to disappear.
I was already out, but from my old department people still have to leave.
Also my old chef has to leave, almost every chef has to leave.

Conclusion: we still don’t know anything, but for now the forced dismissals are canceled due to the unions.
But everyone is encouraged to seek another job.
Well i hope i’ll have another job soon, preferably one where i don’t need to use elevators