It’s coming up on two years since my last layoff, but even so, news of a layoff affects me deeply. Today it was PalmOne, the company formerly known as Palm, Inc that recently acquired Handspring.
I’m well aware that businesses cannot guarantee employment to their people if the tides of business change. Nor am I enough of a Socialist to think that it’s their obligation to do so. But after having been laid off multiple times in the dot-com implosion and also once back in the recession of the early 90’s, my sympathy is much more with the people being let go than with the companies who make the cuts. Especially so because the trend these days is that jobs which vanish do not come back. Bob Herbert’s latest column is one of many pointing out this trend.
The good news in today’s announcement is that PalmOne is going to be focusing more heavily on smartphone convergence devices like their Treo line. As a longtime Treo fan, that pleases me. But to do so at the cost of people’s jobs also gives me pain.
Ironically, I found the URL reporting the layoffs because the battery on my much-loved Treo 180 is showing signs of permanent failure and I’m starting to think about replacing it. I don’t have the cash in hand for a new Treo 600, and even if I did, there are other things on my “to buy” list that come higher – like a new SLR camera to take with me to Italy.
There’s an abundance of Treo 180s on eBay for about $100, so if necessary I can go there for a replacement. Despite its slow processor and B&W screen, the Treo 180 is an excellent balance between a PDA and phone and I’ve been really happy with it. Faster access to the Internet, a color screen, and other bells and whistles would be nice, of course, but that’s what my Tungsten C is for.
But getting back to my original point, I hope that what comes out of PalmOne in the future is really, really good. Otherwise those people’s lives will have been kicked to pieces for nothing.