I don't want to diminish any of your fears,
@lostforgottensoul - because you are laying out the realities of your situation pretty clearly. But there are a few things to keep in mind. I'm not bringing these up to try and put a positive spin on anything - they might not even qualify as positives. They are just facts.
I get its mainly voluntary but im under zero impression up to 3,400 people will go out voluntarly. Sure, the close to retirement, those looking to leave anyway, and the normal churn but i cant fathom 3,400 people nationally will step up. They are offering 130% severance to try to encourage voluntary.
So, first they are trying to get rid of those with the most seniority, the highest wages, and are offering incentives. This is nationally. I agree that in this job market, it's not realistic to think that 3,400 people will volunteer. However, 7-8% of the company across all departments - not just in one division - could be more people than you think, who are very close to retirement and are incentivized out. Without knowing the demographics for the organization, it's hard to say. But it's not 7-8% across entry-level positions.
To be fair, I dont if HR knows as the paper work goes to an independant company but the company knows I have FMLA for 2 extra breaks a day if needed.
It depends on how this all went down, but the reason there's an outside company that manages the paperwork is so that the employee can maintain some degree of confidentiality. Not iron-clad, but just something to keep in mind - that you don't really know exactly what HR knows. Maybe finding out would be good? I don't know.
it makes sense that the people the bring along with them will be the people that are well trained in IPTV (I just got trained in that product a few weeks ago) and the department that takes fiber calls.
So, you're not at the bottom of the pool, and you're not at the top. You're squarely in the middle, with training in a certain product set. You've got half that training, if I'm reading correctly, but you don't have the promotion to the next level. Sometimes it's better business sense for a company to get their top to voluntarily leave, cut the bottom because the least time is invested, then get rid of the high middle, because they earn more, and need to move a class of low middles (like yourself) up to the high-middle jobs for less pay. In other words, not pay you more, but give you more responsibility, and expect you to be grateful for having kept your job at all and shut up about it. I don't know if you are unionized, but if not, you could be better off being right at the level you are at right now. It's very hard to know how these things will play out, because they are dynamic. All this goes to say - there's literally no way to know who, and when, and how many. Spending too much time puzzling about it will only drive you nuts.
Which gets us to the bigger picture...you are going to need to be not working this job at some point, because you do have bigger dreams for yourself. I know that all hell broke loose on your life recently, but just before that you were trying to understand how to not be living with your dad anymore. It's a double-edged sword, I know, but it does have two sides. And there's never a good time for a big life upheaval - but when they come, they are always opportunities to have something change, and the change could be good. Looking into how to really get subsidized housing, temporary disability, increase your education/certification, live on your own - these are not bad things by default. The fact is, you were going to need to do this sometime in the next few years anyway, right? So, it's happening now instead.
You've done a great job coming down from your initial panic - and instead of defending all the reasons why it's impossible and it'll never be survivable, you're making a solid transition into opening up your mind to the possibilities of how you might make some next steps. I think for you, that's really pretty big. It's not always only about what we do to navigate change - how we navigate it is just as important a piece, so try and pat yourself on the back for not continuing to spiral down with rumination on all this stuff.
It'll be up and down I'm sure, coping almost never happens in a straight, consistent line - but overall, you're doing great with transitioning from big fear to person coping well with challenging realities. So, awesome :tup::)
