December 28, 2000

7:21 AM

Merry Christmas; you're fired.K-Mart thanks a bunch of the people who helped it stay open 24/3 by canning them. I thought only the military and CIA called it a RIF...
posted by baylink (6 comments total)

It's the usual "let's replace full-timers with cheaper part-timers whom we don't have to pay benefits on". My entire area (maybe 20 or 30 stores) only lost 75 people, so it's not like this was a wholesale firing, but still...
posted by baylink at 7:22 AM on December 28, 2000

Here at the Big U we call it RIF too, though we haven't had any since the Bad Old Days of Bush I.

Why do these things always happen the day after (or before) Christmas?
posted by rodii at 8:00 AM on December 28, 2000

Mine was the week before. Personally, it's all the fault of that subversive guy Jesus who was born just before the end of the fiscal year, simply to make RIFfing employers feel guilty.

If I'd been working retail the last few weeks, I'd have been worried. Some of those stores had more people walking the floor than customers.
posted by dhartung at 11:57 AM on December 28, 2000

RIF's happen. that's part of business. what makes the real difference is how a company handles their "rif". our company had to fire about 40 corporate staffers during a one day period with no notice. to soften the blow, they provided a generous severance package and brought in an outside employment firm (at company expense) to help with resume prepping and job placement.
posted by bliss322 at 1:02 PM on December 28, 2000

I believe most Biblical scholars believe that Jesus was actually born sometime in the spring, which means it's the Catholic Church's fault there's a major holiday right before the end of the fiscal year -- they're the ones who put it there, not God.
posted by kindall at 4:27 PM on December 28, 2000

In it's true practice , capitalism does
promote a maximization of 'personal' profit,
but does NOT promote the betterment of
society at large.
posted by ojsbuddy at 10:33 PM on December 28, 2000