Being Laid Off

While it does generally suck to be laid off, it is even worse to be laid off by incompetent people. Having an exit interview that provided not one ounce of vital information for me was an absolute turning point.

If you are in HR and reading this here are a few tips:

Prepare for the meeting by having COBRA, unemployment, vacation hours, current pay rate and any other severance package information ready for the exit interview

Seems simple eh?

My experience:

Exit interview set 12 days in advance
Show up 15 minutes early
Seen 10 minutes early
Given 3 pieces of paper, only 2 of which were supposed to be filled out by me.
Paper number 3 was supposed to be done by my supervisor (she did not receive this document from HR to be done)
Sat in directors office filling out papers while she sat at her desk doing other work
After 5 or so minutes was told that she would not be able to meet with me as she had a meeting with her boss. (Keep in mind I was 15 minutes early)
I stopped her walking out the door to answer my questions that I had prepared.

End of exit interview with nothing provided for me at all.

Send an email the next day to get the questions answered. Get a phone call with apology for the interview and lame excuse. My response "If you had another meeting you could have called me to reschedule it".

I ask for the link to file unemployment online. I am sent the link for New York state. We are located in Illinois. When I mention this she replies "Too much work and not enough time to do it" WTF????????????????????????????

I could go into much greater detail but my blood pressure is in a very unhealthy range right now.

Moral of the story. Always work for people smarter than you.