25 Stories From People Who Watched A Company Collapse

Before a company goes under, they exhibit some signs of the impending implosion. Cost-cutting measures, layoffs, and a drop in morale are some of the initial indicators that an organisation may be on the verge of being shut down.  Someone online recently asked, “People working at dying companies (Yahoo, AOL, JC Penney, etc.) what’s the morale/ general mood like?” The question sparked an interesting discussion with many Redditors weighing in with their observations. Our team has run through the responses to find the top picks, and we’ve shared them in the gallery below.

#1

Image source: shroom_in_bloom, Ahmet Kurt/unsplash (not the actual photo) Didn’t take the job but I interviewed for Claire’s a few months ago and the interviewer explicitly mentioned they’re really struggling and asked me my strategy to target customers from the demographics of competition stores. I’d never actually shopped at a Claire’s before but walked out of the interview thinking ‘oh they’re going under soon’. .

#2

Image source: Cold_Entertainer9564, cottonbro studio/pexels (not the actual photo) Not necessarily a company, but I’ve worked on broadway shows that have closed and the morale can be pretty bad. Looking at grosses and being like we are gonna have a company meeting any week now, and not knowing if you were gonna close immediately or have a couple more weeks can be pretty stressful. It’s hard to predict what’s gonna be successful and there’s nothing worse than thinking you are on a sure fire hit and seeing the house is only at 60 percent capacity most days lol.

#3

Image source: lookyloolookingatyou, Bank Phrom/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked in newspapers, on the printing side. It was staffed entirely by older people who were basically unhirable trying to pad out their 401k before they hit 70 and younger uneducated people who are glad to be doing anything other than food service or retail. Generally speaking, we were overworked and underpaid but for someone like me it was godsend opportunity. I went from washing dishes 7 days a week and barely making ends meet, to having weekends off and two weeks of paid vacation every year. .

#4

Image source: pbradley179, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at a telephony service out of university, they were selling VOIP technology to big customers like CISCO and Nortel. At one point they were massive, almost 500 people working at the main headquarters' call centre. By the time I joined there were 10 of us, operating out of a tiny section of this once massive, mothballed office. Our chief IT guy had an entire floor to himself and worked on the complete other side of the building... At night he would construct massive castles out of old desks and divider walls. Working there was alright, mostly we were there to maintain support on the remaining existing contracts but it was pretty clear the company was just waiting to be put out of its misery by the new bigger companies in the market. It was a kind of boring job and ultimately after being a mediocre employee for five years, I was fired for watching Invader Zim episodes I'd downloaded off Napster on the company computers.

#5

Image source: fredzout In our 100 year old company, they hired a CEO from outside the company. Previously, the CEO always came up through the ranks and was promoted into the position. The first thing the new CEO did was start cutting senior people because people were too "comfortable". In a few months 900 people were "separated". Morale tanked, productivity dropped, and a bunch of clients went to competitors. Those of us who were left started a low key "Say Hello" campaign. If anyone, especially a manager said, "Good Morning." our reply would be , "Hello." Someone eventually asked why, and got the explanation that there hasn't been a good morning here since the new CEO took over. The company tried to show how wonderful and responsive it was by doing an "employee satisfaction survey". The results were dismal. Rather than address the employees' concerns, The CEO decided to solve the problem by not doing any more satisfaction surveys. The CEO eventually "left the company to pursue other opportunities", which was code for he was fired. The damage was already done. Fewer clients meant a declining workload, and I was eventually "separated", but I was already mid-60's and just took retirement. The company still exists, but it is a mere shadow of its former status.

#6

Image source: peaveyftw, freepik (not the actual photo) A friend of mine retired from the local paper where he'd worked for 25 years. By the time he left, the paper's staff consisted of: - The editor/publisher/reporter - The adman (himself) who doubled as photographer - one constantly-turning-over-reporter position, which didn't require a journalism degree - one stringer photographer who also did some reporting When he started in 1999 they had a staff of 20+, including a stable of reporters and dedicated photographers, and numerous ad-peeps. He said he was glad he got into it when he did, but he effectively worked through the post-peak years of local journalism.

#7

Image source: bondsman333, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I’ve worked for some failing startups. Upper management is very stressed because they think they can possibly turn things around if we just… bagged another investor, sold a few more units, etc. Rest of us know the end is near. Lunch talks are all about interviews and who’s hiring. We are happy when someone leaves. I’m just collecting the paycheck and padding my 401k. The call from HR is coming before the end of the year. It’s inevitable. But I show up, do my job, document everything, and go home at 5pm. Every day.

#8

Image source: deadR0, Arlington Research/unsplash (not the actual photo) Morale at one of the most profitable companies is at an all time low. Doesn't matter if a company is going under or not, its the greed/ blindness of leadership that changes morale.

#9

Image source: sexrockandroll, Campaign Creators/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked for corporate a dying company once and like... most days, it just doesn't come up. There's projects, you do your work, you have some laughs with coworkers, you get paid. Everyone knows it's likely the job will eventually end. There are people who are very, very paranoid about layoffs and will talk about them a lot. Those people are annoying, honestly, it's not worth being paranoid all the time. Make a plan/decision about what you'll do and do that thing. The decision could be finding another job and leaving soon, or waiting it out to see what happens.

#10

Image source: jupfold, Nick Fewings/unsplash (not the actual photo) I don’t work at a dying company, but I have in the past. Think big tech company that almost went under. Honestly, it really sucked. From the time I started there just out of university to when I was finally let go 4 years later, the company lost 90% of its employees and was one quarter of bad news after another. I was constantly having to weigh leaving vs. hoping for something good to turn things around. There was always some sort of hopeful news from the execs, some turn around just around the corner that never came. The work dried up. Days took longer and longer to pass by. Pretending to work became more difficult. Watching whole teams get let go and lose their jobs was hard. Re-organized from team to team to team. New leaders who didn’t know what I did, or cared. The eventual realization that my peers at other companies were learning, progressing, getting promoted, get bonuses, etc. while I languished was devastating. I finally told my boss I would take a package if another round of layoffs came and then it was just a matter of time. Thank god I don’t work there anymore and have found myself in far better pastures.

#11

Image source: VoiceGuyNextDoor, Andrej Lišakov/unsplash (not the actual photo) Like many of you, I got out of my chosen career radio, because of corporate America. When good/great ratings and decently paid announcers were looked at as solely a cost and no benefit, I bailed. There is VERY little original content being produced in your local markets. One reason why they lean so heavily on sports. Other than that, a few major broadcast companies own most of the radio stations and they force announcers to record daily radio shows in markets that they have never even set foot into. Basically, "that was ____, here is _____." Local radio, with a few exceptions, is dead.

#12

Image source: non_clever_username, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at a tiny failing airline once and tbh the morale was no worse than any other company I’ve worked at. Me and pretty much everyone I knew had no real vested interest in that company other than a paycheck, so none of us really GAF about the company at all. It was annoying having to deal with vendors refusing service on occasion because the company wasn’t paying its bills and there were jokes with each other about hoping our paychecks didn’t bounce, but beyond that it was like any other job. Somehow it managed to limp along for another 15 years or so after I left.

#13

I was a staffer at one of the top dailies (newspapers) in my state for eight years. In 2000, the newsroom had about 200 employees. Today, the number is four. The region we covered had about 200k people; today, there’s 400,000. Image source: notsosubtlethr0waway

#14

My first serious job outta high school (class of ‘99) was a company riding high, only to crumble due to lack of foresight and planning. Started at Blockbuster video in 2000, worked my way from cashier all the way to store manager, actually had the pleasure of opening the store and closing the store. Fun times, great workers and always make sure u rewind. Even now i can remember the head winds Netflix, RedBox, streaming, investing heavily in Blu Ray. Underestimating the threat RedBox, laughing at the thought of buying Netflix (allegedly), turning there nose up at streaming. Then there is the “no more late fees” campaign that was completely mis managed. But honestly morale didn’t suffer, naturally there were mumbles about not meeting goals, cut hours, days with more employees then customers in the store, but none of us (employees) thought things were that bad. Then one day an urgent e-mail came thru everything in my store had to go so if u in Long Beach Ca, I was the first and only store manger at the Blockbuster on Long Beach Blvd and Pine. Image source: SwimmingFeisty7245

#15

Image source: WillingPublic, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) Many years ago my brother Byron worked for an American oil company that was once a regional powerhouse and had a big skyscraper. They got bought by a European company who didn’t want to immediately fire all the Americans for PR reasons, but everyone there knew that their days were numbered. Morale was terrible. It seemed like each week about 1/2 of a floor would be fired. Byron was particularly worried since he worked in an area easy to outsource. So the day his boss came into his office Byron was sure he was going to be let go. Much to his surprise, his boss let him know that he was the one who had been fired and told Byron, that as far as he knew, Byron still had a job. So Byron kept coming to work but had no one to report to. His direct deposit kept coming thru every two weeks and he came into the office and worked on getting a new job. Finally one of the European managers who showed up periodically told him he might as well “work from home” and that he would call him if they needed him to come in. Byron was pretty depressed since no one else was hiring. So he stopped looking for a job. He stayed home and started drywalling his unfinished basement. And the direct deposits kept coming. Months later, in-laws came to visit and they got on his nerves after a few days so he got dressed up and went into his office to get away from them. As it turns out, the European manager was in town also and came into his office and said “Byron - that’s an English name, right?” Byron agrees that it is, and the manager invited him to a meeting that afternoon. When he showed up, the manager greeted him by his name and told everyone “this is Byron and he is going to take notes.” So Byron takes notes, gets several assignments, and is back working full time. No one asks what he has been doing for six months. He figured that having a non-American sounding name was all it took.

#16

I worked closely with both AOL and Yahoo for about 6 years up until about a year ago. AOL isn't dying, it's dead and gone. It was absorbed by Yahoo while they were both owed by Verizon and is fully assimilated at this point. I knew them when they were going through the process. Morale was fine. Everyone I worked with there was awesome. Yahoo is definitely not dying. Their business model has changed and they're definitely not as big as they once were, but they're doing well and morale is fine. I wouldn't say they're a high energy company, but I never felt that this was due to poor morale. They just tend to be a no nonsense, straight to business kind of group. They were very professional and I enjoyed working with them. Image source: neurotictinker

#17

Image source: fresh-n-spicy, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked for a retail company and left about a year before they fully went under. Morale at my store was fine, largely because the head office tried really hard to hide their struggles. We knew the writing was on the wall eventually because the products the stores sold were becoming obsolete, but we didn't think it would happen so fast. I worked at a location that was doing well, so we didn't notice much except when we suddenly stopped getting product from some big suppliers. The head office would say things were just delayed while they "negotiated contracts." I found out they were going under in a news article one morning and sent it to my friends who still worked there. The head office hadn't told their staff yet... but it was circulating in the news, so I was the one who broke the news to them that they were all losing their jobs. I felt so bad for them. It came out then that the company had been really struggling for years, and those "contract negotiations" were suppliers pulling product because the company owed them millions of dollars.

#18

Image source: Clementinecutie13, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at Justice RIGHT before they filed bankruptcy and it was miserable. None of us knew just how bad the company was doing until we got an email. Everyone put in their 2 week notice and all but 6 people quit on the same day.

#19

Image source: raptorclvb, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at a dying company. It was insane going into every single f*****g meeting thinking I was losing my job. Then, when it came to upper leadership, 50+ year olds would start crying (nothing bad about crying) because they don’t know how to build a resume, or network, or know what to do if they ended up getting fired. HQ restructured the jobs and areas like… I feel like 5 times since I was there and left? Every few months you hear about them struggling to breathe.

#20

Image source: Soakmyspongewithinfo, Getty Images/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at a David’s Bridal. The staff regularly got cut and we always wondered how corporate still kept its doors open. It was just bleeding money.

#21

It’s like working on the Titanic, but the band’s been on coffee break since 2019. Image source: raquel_deepsearch

#22

Image source: Klutzy-Spend-6947, Sumaid pal Singh Bakshi/unsplash (not the actual photo) I work at a Kohl’s e-commerce center that is closing next month. Everyone was surprised, but not shocked when we closed, and understand why it happened. The company can handle so much volume through it’s two most modern efc’s, our location-and the one in California also, became redundant. That said, the overall company is a total mess, as brick and mortar sales are tanking, and efficiencies had to be found wherever possible. Kohls is on the same path as Sears, imo., I give it 10-15 more years.

#23

Image source: zippie26, Curt Rochon/unsplash (not the actual photo) I work at a super famous, 150 year old company that is dying the slowest of deaths (hint: they had their own tower in Chicago at one point). There’s some great people that have been there a long time. General mood is people are trying their best but turning things around and restoring the glory to this once great company is like pissing up a rope.

#24

I interned at a newspaper in 2010. One day my mentor was there, the next she wasn't. I asked what happened and they said she was on vacation. Yeah, right, she cleared out her entire office to go on vacation. Then the entire department I was interning with shut down and I was awkwardly shuttled to a different one and they didn't know what to do with me. It was just weird. Image source: Neon_and_Dinosaurs

#25

Image source: PorgCT, Andrej Lišakov/unsplash (not the actual photo) I worked at a “green energy” firm whose stock has dropped 90% over the last 18 months. Everyone is there just to collect a paycheck. Bare minimum is done on a daily basis. Thankfully EHS is a priority, sometimes it’s an excuse not to do work.