Coming in on this thread a little late, but my company is doing something very similar, roughly 10% of the workforce or 9k people not including agency which are a large portion of our workforce. They are giving them essentially 3-4 months to find a new job within the company and if that doesn't pan out (which it won't for many), a calculated severance.
There has been major league uncertainty for the last month. I can say with certainty I checked out and was working at maybe 20%. Not so much trying to screw the man as knowing that different parts / all of my work don't matter depending on the final resolution. That being said, it got better after things starting sorting themselves out. I don't have a "termination date" but to be honest, the way this company and our industries are heading, anyones termination date could be any time. In a way I'd love to have June / July 2016 in my pocket because it gives you an end date. But of course it they are saying you are gone then, I could see someone viewing it as tacit acknowledgment that their work doesn't matter...
So just having been through this with a slightly different result - here are my takeaways:
- You have to figure out a way to mentally deal with this. Therapy, medications, etc. If you have a strong defense mechanism / survival mechanism you will need less of this.
- You have to look at the positives. You have time to figure stuff out, really, with severance, around a year. That's tons of time to figure out things like living situation, finances, etc. Maybe it will end up pushing you to a different, better career or workplace.
- A positive for me is understanding a little bit better that there is no benevolence in business. Business has no loyalty to you but the flip side is that you can make decisions without no loyalty to the business. Before I learned this I listened to people like my supervisor who really didn't want me to leave / apply for jobs for selfish reasons (e.g. no backfilling of a position) and therefore missed out on what might have been good opportunities with more stability.
- I tend to forget to be frugal when things are good. Things like the above really drive me back to where I need to be financially.
Just some thoughts..