Layoffs, downsizing, whatever you want to call it

So Thursday I went in to work and only had time to check emails and start testing my latest fixes when we were called into an unexpected meeting. When I walked into the room Sheri from HR was there with a folder on the table in front of her. Once everyone from my team was gathered she began saying that the company was having financial difficulties and needed to down-size. She then began listing the names of those who would no longer be working for the company. When she reached my name in the list I was stunned; too stunned to listen to the other names in the list. In all there were around 10 names on the list, mostly engineers. At the time there were about 50 people employed by the company so 20% of the company was affected by the layoff. Basically the company for the last couple of years has been making around $1 million per month. For the last 2 or 3 months profits have been declining, in fact this month so far they have made 1/4 of that. Something had to go and the fairly new CEO was the one who made the decision who to lay off. I'm pretty sure he decided to make the decision based on dollars, not only because that is what my supervisor said but also it is apparent to me that those on the list were long time employees and obviously had higher salaries.

I have many good friends there and learned a lot from them. I learned quite a lot from them and I will miss working with them. Now it's time to look for work. We are fine for a little while because I have been given 2 months worth of severence pay. I just hope I can find a new job soon.