Cross posting this from my post on Spiceworks to make sure it gets more eyes:
By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the layoffs announced here. The OGs who were laid off have put their blood, sweat and tears into building this community, some of them for the entire 10 year history. It’s time for us to help them in return.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is as follows:
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Find job for the affected SpiceWorkers. Post your company openings in this thread. Here’s Webroot’s: http://www.webroot.com/us/en/company/careers/search If a former SpiceWorker looks like a good fit, make a personal introduction and hand deliver their resume to your recruiting/HR office. There’s nothing a recruiter weighs more heavily than a personal recommendation from a good employee that they know and trust. There’s a reason they give you those referral bonuses for good hires. There’s some former Spiceworks recruiters that have moved on to other Austin companies that I’m reaching out to. If you know anyone who knows anyone please contact them and ask about openings. Remember, networking is the best way to get a job or help someone get a job. I have about 1,000 people in my LinkedIn network, so any OGs who need an intro or a recommendation or a connection to someone please let me know. SpiceHeads please also do the same.
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Help out those in financial need. All the laid off folks are probably ok for the next couple of months, unless they are unlucky enough to have their car transmission pick today to poop the bed. Between severance and unemployment, most of them will get another job before they hit dire straits. 3 months from now is a different story – those who haven’t managed to get a new gig yet might be needing our help. Take some of the money you were going to spend in today’s Steam sale and put it in a donation fund. I’ve had years of my life where I was unemployed and unemployable due to health issues and had to rely on the kindness of others. I now pay that forward by keeping a donation fund that I can tap into at a moment’s notice. When/if someone does need that help I’ll be the first to pitch in and I’ll organize a donation fund. Sometimes making this month’s rent or paying a medical bill is the difference between making it to the next job versus ending up living in your car. If you hear of an OG who needs such help make sure to let me know.
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Give moral support. Job loss is one in the top ten life stressors and it impacts everyone in the family and workplace on every level. This applies to the people who didn’t get laid off and have to carry on working. Reach out to an OG that you know and offer to listen. Maybe you got assigned a SpiceBuddy at some point. Maybe you went out drinking at an after-after party at SpiceWorld and an OG helped you find your way back to your hotel safely. Call, text, IM, PM or send them smoke signals to let them know you care about how they are doing. If you get a whiff of despair then do something about it. Trust any gut feelings that something is not ok and make a call. Better an embarrassing conversation than talking yourself out of doing something. My wife’s half-sister had a suicide attempt the week before last (fortunately unsuccessful). My wife was the last person who her sister was messaging with before her sister took a bunch of pills. Luckily her sister changed her mind and drove herself to the hospital, but it was a near miss. Her heart stopped for 90 seconds and she didn’t wake up until days later. Had it gone the other way my wife would be beating herself up for the rest of her life for not having done more to sound the alarm.
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Help Spiceworks rally. If you have an adblocker, turn it off for Spiceworks. Pay attention to some ads and click on ones that interest you. I’m not advocating click fraud, I’m just saying don’t ignore ads and remember that you’re part of the virtuous cycle. If Spiceworks influences a purchase or makes you aware of a new product, mention that to the vendor when you’re making a purchase and make sure they enter that in the referral field in Salesforce. That way the vendor can pull reports and see what impact their Spiceworks programs are having. When the “ROI of Spiceworks” conversation comes up at the next budget meeting, it helps a great deal to have some sales numbers. “Brand awareness” only gets you so far as a return on investment for the purse-string holders. I’m going through that conversation right now and it happens at least once a year come the new fiscal year.
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Help me brainstorm other good ideas. I’m running on about 2 hours of sleep so I’m sure there’s something I’m missing. Suggest it in the replies and I’ll edit this post to include any other top notch suggestions.
TL; DR - There’s a reason we call this a community and not a forum or Q&A site. When the fan meets the stuff, we pitch in and help each other out. Nobody wants to see what we’ve spent 10 years building turn into the next MySpace or Digg so it’s up to us to help the community through this rough patch.
