Page 141 - MY STORY

of metals, ceramics and several labs with a staff of about

50 to 60 souls. The effect of the MOL cancellation was
immediate and draconian. I had to lay off approximately
1/3 of my people, and they were to be gone within one

week!! I had never been through a major layoff in my
career. The thought of having to select 20 of my reports
for layoff was more than traumatic.

Many of my reports were engineers and technicians I had
grown up within Douglas, some were personal friends,

and the thought of calling them into my office, or “going
for a walk” in our plant atrium, to let them know they

were no longer needed was almost beyond my
comprehension. The fear in the organization was palpable.
We did everything we could think of to find them
employment with other aerospace companies in the Los

Angeles area and succeeded for the most part. This was,
and still is, one of the worst periods of my life as a

manager.

I suppose that every manager has to go through something

like this at least once in their career and the decision
process on how one reduces staff while retaining core
competency in the organization is not easy. This is

especially difficult when the loss of people runs