I imagine this isn’t so uncommon in this day and age, but…
10 years ago, I “worked” (unpaid) as a teacher for a company that was massive in its field…
At one point, it was the biggest company doing what it did (without going into too much detail - international work and travel stuff). It’s actually where we get the term “gap year” from - the company originally coined that term…
Anyway, I just looked them up - after a series of scandals, they’ve been completely liquidated. This happened during the “pandemic”, which would no doubt have eaten into their revenue streams, but still…
I would never have expected this.
Quite a weird feeling. I’m never overly surprised when it’s something like a sports team or a festival or a local business, or even a (minor) political party, but for a multinational company that I once worked for, and nearly continued working for, in the years that followed, to just cease to exist like this..? Feels a bit weird.
Like how ex-Blockbuster or RadioShack employees must feel, I guess… Or people who worked for airlines and travel companies…
It’s just… Gone.
No wonder they stopped sending me promotional emails! 😅
Sure, I worked a couple years at Circuit City, which was cool and fun, until they changed the incentive structure so you couldn't make money except by hocking their utterly terrible extended warranty plan.
Worked for Egghead Software too, while it was in deep shit. I worked a Christmas there, and we could barely get inventory. My days were spent manning a store with bare shelves during the busiest part of the year, assuring people we'd get what they wanted "next week," and tomorrow and tomorrow, but never today.
I also worked for a latex mattress factory that literally exploded then burnt down to rubble a few months after I left for college. Made national news because it was some kind of environmental catastrophe. It was a naturally dangerous sort of factory, since a latex fire is very hard to put out. The plant had had a huge fire while I was there--coincidentally on a day my girlfriend came to visit me--and while middle-managers ran around trying to play hero, I decided the best course of action was to take my gf to a 3-hour lunch. That formative incident helped prepare me to recognize what all the covid fuckery was about.