Threats of Layoffs

Since Obama was elected President in November, there has been more and more talk in our office about potential layoffs. This all came to a head last week when a meeting was called at 5 minutes to 5PM to announce that everyone would soon be changing their job duties. The reason given is that with potential layoffs looming on the horizon, management now wants everyone in the office cross trained on the different desk duties. It was said that the company is more likely to keep the workers who can perform different job skills. I have worked every job in the office and have finally returned to the job I like best. Most of my coworkers have worked various job duties also. I don't see this as cross training so much as a way for management to get everyone stirred up. Once or twice a year our second in command gets bored and moves people around the office like pieces on a Chess Board. Now she has a reason to move people around even more often and threaten everyone with layoffs. Every year at our evaluations we are asked how we like our job duty, I am very non committal with my answer. I say," I like it okay", and when I am asked if there is something else I would like to do, I just shrug and tell them it doesn't matter to me, one job is as good as the next. I know that if I admit to liking or desiring a particular job then that job will forever elude me. I will be placed doing the job I like the least. Our second in command is famous for doing this, not to make for a lot of unhappy clerks, but out of her misinterpretation of a long ago management class she took. It is hard on a company and it's employees when someone is put in charge who misunderstands or misinterprets company directives to the detriment of everyone else in the office.