re: Have you worked for a company that was "sinking ship"?

I worked as a network operations engineer for three failed telecom companies

First job out of the Navy (2000), I worked for a start up in Wash DC. In 9 months I watched the company blow through $500M in venture capital ultimately being forced into chapter 7 liquidation.

Our CEO told us on a Friday that a plan had been worked out to be acquired by a competitor. The following Monday evening (7pm) we receive a company wide email stating, "As of this moment, we are all out of jobs"

Apparently the deal fell through.

As a NOC tech, the last thing we did before turning off the lights was to forward our customer service toll free number to the CEO's cell phone. It was a legendary "Frick You" move



I was immediately hired by a company that I thought I'd finish my career with... Worldcom. There was so much shady shite going on. Middle managers knew the company was struggling and they knew that when the axe fell, it would hit them first. It was like an episode of Housewives of Atlanta with all the managers trying to set themselves above the other. Layoffs came and the managers were right, they were hit HARD. Of the 5 managers in my group, 1 survived the cut.

In the front lobby, they would display the closing price of WCOM stock. I watched it go from $65, $35, $25, $10, $5, $2, $1.25, to unlisted....What a way to start your day

After leaving WCom, I worked for a telecom startup in Lake Charles. the CEO was up front with us. He basically said, "We are going to build up this company, then I'm going to sell it"... Sure enough after 2 years, he sold it to Time Warner for $65M and wanted us to relocate to St. Louis. I declined and changed careers to IT.

My experience has been that the leaders will tell you whatever they need to in order to keep you doing your job. All the while they are working furiously to save their own asses while yours hangs out to dry.