Harry Reid and Jobs

I know what Harry Reid was trying to say, but my goodness, what an idiot.  The job report came out today, and was a bit better than expected.  Unfortunately, the country still lost jobs; 36000 of them.  But in Harry Reid's world that is a "big day in America," and is "really good."  Reid's comments reminded me of an event that occurred several years ago in one of my positions.

Several years ago, I worked in the division office of a grocery store chain here in the DC area.  We had all heard rumors about impending layoffs, and centralizing several positions to the corporate office. The big day came when the company held a meeting.  In the meeting, one of the company VP's announced that most of the people in the room would be losing their jobs.  Then, as everyone sat there in a bit of shock, the VP went on to talk about how much stronger the company was going to be in the long run.

The last thing anybody in that meeting room wanted to hear after being told they were losing their jobs was how much better off the company was going to be without them.  They wanted to know how they were going to pay their bills.  If you were one of the 36000 who lost your job, the last thing you want to hear is what great news it is that only 36000 people lost their jobs.  My reaction to Harry Reid's comments are pretty much the same as my reaction to our VP during that meeting.  "What an ass!"

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