In touch with Liam again

I have to admit that I have not been in frequent contact with my former colleagues, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it happened, one of them, a great friend of mine called Liam, contacted me last week.

He sent me a message on Facebook Messenger out of the blue, and let me know right away that he had been let go from Qualcomm, after more than thirty years at the company. Liam is a first class engineer and senior director. His manager told him that his next project had been canceled and therefore his job had also been eliminated. His manager, the vice president of engineering ,was also let go, as well as many of the engineers working on the same project. Wasn't it cruelly ironic that Liam had received an email the week before from the human resources department, thanking him for his thirty years of dedicated service to the company? Isn't it really braindead for the company to do that with one hand and then throw him out the door with the other immediately after? Things are even worse, because Liam has been extremely loyal to Qualcomm, year after year. Poor Liam suddenly found out that his company’s words were nothing but lies and lip service, unfortunately. Poor Liam is not only in low spirits but also in real trouble, because he has to find another job soon and that won't be easy at all. Workers in the high-tech sector are discriminated against on the basis of age all the time, and Liam is now 55 years old. Not only will it be difficult for him to find a new job, but even if he does find a job, it will undoubtedly be difficult for him to find the same salary and working conditions. I personally think it is unethical for a company to treat workers in that way. Although there are laws in place in California to protect workers over the age of 40, companies end up skirting the rules. In this case, with the company trying to implement sharp cuts, certain expensive projects were cancelled, projects that are not central to the company's strategy. The company finds other jobs for many workers, but it is not so easy to move the leaders, because there are not many such roles to be found. It is no coincidence that the most senior workers - those who earn the highest wages - are let go. In this way, companies are able to let members of the high income group who are over 40 years old go without breaking any law. I saw this when I was working, and sometimes I saw the same projects resurrected with a new team after a short while later.

  A Person of Principle!!

Liam, myself and our spouses, met for dinner right after I spoke to him on the phone. It was still difficult for Liam to accept what happened to him so abruptly. But he was enthusiastically looking for work in the area, and contacting other former colleagues who were working in other companies. He had done a few interviews and was hopeful that he had done well in one of them. Liam said he was very grateful for me spending time with him on the phone, giving him advice. Sometimes, you don't know how important it is to talk together, especially when things like this happen. What kind of great advice did I give him? The most important thing I did was to listen with empathy to him - that's all. We have a strong relationship and he trusts me completely, and vice versa. It turned out that Liam had not been happy in his job for the past three years but despite that, he continued to work because he was loyal to the company, and he wanted to protect the people who worked for him, because he saw increasing risks on the horizon. He did not surrender his principles, even when his livelihood was in danger. The bottom line is that I have the utmost respect for Liam, and it's a shame that Qualcomm didn't treat him with respect after his spending his life in their service, working hard and benefiting them all that time . Shame on you, Qualcomm!

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