Well, I never gave an update on this...
So, I also found out, the internals from our dept. were a way for our boss to evaluate how we were doing, if we "got" the whole jist of the process, etc. That's fine... Apparently, I was the best of the internals. So, I find out the bigger boss wants a bigger fish... they would love to have a PhD, but it is a pay level for a bachelor's applicant. So, that's kinda ignorant.
SO... Last week was very tense around here. We were purchased about a year ago by a coroporation called OMG. They are leading producers of battery materials and chemicals.
So, we have a 5 year rolling plan on our contracts. We are mainly a company that has government contracts for space & defense applications. Well, I don't have to explain what's going on with those sectors, right now. Basically, we don't have much scheduled in 2012, and we were going to be WAY off on budget, so my company went to the corporates and said, we're in trouble, and have a plan in place. Thus, began the "workforce reduction". We were getting hints, info, etc. from cohorts in all our plants, telling of the firings, etc. And were alerted everytime HR and security were on their way to our building.
When all the dust settled, we lost 31 jobs. 21 completely eliminated, and the other 10 were "virtual" jobs... aka: openings that are on freeze. (I'll let you guess what that means for my promotion chance.) Among those lost, a VP over Human Resources, VP of Operations, 2nd in charge of the entire Health & Safety department, and for a bit, the head of security was axed. He was immediately brought back when the cost of outside contracted security was figured out. And several engineers were cut. Our company NEVER touches our engineers. And they did, this time. It was pretty serious.
So, that's the update. I had my Oktoberfest celebration with NO beard, and NO chance of promotion.
Thanks for all the positive thoughts, and prayers, guys. I truly appreciate it.