Beware - Anonymous employee Essendant Employee Review

I was there for 14 unbelievable months, which began with a three month training program (1 month in class, 2 months on the headsets), and all kinds of horn-blowing about "company culture," (even tests on reciting it), and how secure a company it was, the long tenure of (some of) the employees (the ones that were not in the disposable outer circle, the ones who had names, other than "sir" or "ma'am). By about the tenth month, this Orwellian "doublethink" began happening: on the one hand, the company was having serious revenue problems, distribution centers were being shut down, and lots of people taken down with them; on the other hand, a slick "namechange" strategy was being concocted, and we were all being told how much better everything is going to be now. Posters started going up featuring the word "CH"A"NGE (with the symbolic chevron replacing the letter "A".)... change was coming all right. Near the end of April an emergency meeting was held where we were informed that about 30 people had lost their jobs, many of them our co-workers, and everyone left was scared to death. Many people just quit. (I wish I had now.) That same week an article appeared in the Chicago Tribune about massive layoffs being planned, and we were all told that "our" location was safe and we were all needed. It made sense, because after the layoff everybody's job got twice as hard, from the increased per-rep call flow (and the increased amounts of QA's being done on our recorded calls, and a new set of "Benchmarks" which were quoted by number as if they were the Ten Commandments or the Bill of Rights.) The stress level went up about 200 percent after the first round of layoffs, but we were constantly told that things were looking up and that our jobs were safe. Around late July or early August, we were told that a new training class was going to come in after the alleged "relocation" to downtown. Then on August 13, about 7 of were sent messages to meet in the training room, with about 6 other people dialed in on the conference phone. We were told that we were being "temporarily laid off..." that is, if anyone could survive indefinitely without a paycheck until January... maybe. We beat our heads against the walls for months to put out the fires, constantly made excuses for the long back-order times and the price hikes, and if something wasn't in stock, we had better find an alternative "equivalent" item, even if we don't know what it is... all to keep long time customers from leaving us. We got very skilled as a result of this crisis we were charged with fixing. And then, poof... later.. see ya', don't let the door hit you on the way out.