Sharpening the Axe

Today, Anita pulled half of the project into a meeting. Apparently, she informed the group that their portion of the project would be ending on Monday. She pleaded with the group not to worry, however, as the firm was planning on creating "special projects" to keep the group employed until the second phase of the project begins in early June.

As far as I am concerned, the following may be happening:

a) Anita could be telling the truth

b) Anita will fire the group at the end of the week. Firing the entire group without notice would lower morale for those remaining on the project. {Why work hard at a place that engages in mass-layoffs without notice? -- you could be next!} The "special projects" story could have been fabricated in order to make it seem like Anita was doing everything in her power to keep everyone around. It would ease tensions.

c) Anita is trying to keep everyone around until the second phase of the project begins. In order to keep people from jumping onto other projects, Anita is enticing people to stay on with phantom projects. By the time people realize that they are being jerked around (by only being allowed to bill 20 hours per week), it will be too late to find other work. At that point, people will decide just to suck it up and remain on for the second half of the project.