After almost four months of unceasing rumors and one local newspaper article, the almost 300 souls employed at the Madison facility are no closer to knowing about their fate. The rumors have run the expected gamut. Most, especially those concerning mass layoffs, have no real basis in fact. Many of the comments have been quite, how shall we say this, less than flattering about the current President. Although this poster has refrained from cursing or commenting of what his anatomy may or may not taste like, this poster is as frustrated as the others and certainly does not hold the President in high esteem. At least not right now. In this facility of almost 300, there are probably only three or four people who truly know "what's what," as they say. The problem with this is that the other 290 or so, do not. Here is the really noteworthy part: ALL of three or four of these people know exactly how worried, scared, frustrated, etc., all of us are. The fact that NOTHING has been communicated is beyond the pale for most. It is a situation with no point of reference for most of the employees. Especially for those with some tenure. Especially for those who remember the Company, before L-3 bought it. I could write at length, but I won't, about just how disabused and disrespected this workforce feels. I could make many an entreaty about how we do not deserve this type of treatment. As these seem to fall on deaf ears, I will refrain. I will only say that Mr. Coffman and Mr. McNellis and Mr. Strianese ought to start looking at this situation the way they look at so many others: WHAT IS OUR LIABILITY? I am curious. What, exactly, is the liability of a Company who treats their employees this way and the pressure of not knowing, of feeling disabused, of being disrespected turns a frustrated person into an angry one. A person who can't see the forest for trees, as it were? This is yet another concern floating around in this facility: is there someone among us who can't handle it? is there someone who is in danger of losing their grip on reality? Is there someone who might do the unthinkable, because, in their worried and perhaps unstable mind, they can't take the "not knowing?" And, by the unthinkable, I do not mean they will tell their boss to "f off" and storm out. I do not mean they will get all wild eyed, goofy, disrobe and mumble unintelligently about their dead cat. I mean something much, much worse.
The unmitigated gall/hubris exhibited by the President as well as anyone else who feels that it is in any way "okay" to let the employees continue to go uninformed is remarkable. It might one day be criminal. It might one day be very expen$ive.
SJWH