What Do We Do Now?

It's been 10 years since the General Motors Lordstown automotive plant closed it's doors. I remember it like it was yesterday. The owners of the company I had worked for asked us all to come to the main office for a "brief but important meeting". They led us into a stuffy conference room with ugly, brown, low-back chairs that had dark gray, worn-out, diamond-shaped pattern carpet from end to end. The room reeked of a musty, stale smell.

The owner of the company leaned forward at the end of the table with his hands clasped in front of him, paused and composed himself before speaking. "The plant has closed." He looked up at each of us, "It will remain closed until further notice. GM is filing for bankruptcy."

I remember looking into his eyes. "Well..what about us? What job are we going to do now?" I remember the owner twitching a little before speaking, already indicating what they had planned for us, "Well...the thing is...uh, we really don't have any room at this facility for you." Dead silence fell amongst the room. Little beads of sweat culminated on his forehead as he drew a long breath, "Eh, but we have a nice severance package of $10,000 for each of you and we are going to pay you your vacation pay for the next two weeks. We didn't want to let you go but..." His words trailed off into the distance as I began to pull myself away from situation. "...you've all done a phenomenal job for the company over the last...", I started to hide inside before the meeting was even over. "...wish we could do more for you but due to the current economic status..." I could feel the stress from the others that were in that meeting with me. We didn't want a severance package...we wanted our jobs. "...all we can do right now is hope that things start to get better and if business picks up again we will offer you a position within the company. Thank you for your hard work over the years. It will not be forgotten." But now, we were on our own.