前老板打了个电话，说有Co-op的位置，问我要不要去？我说怎么还有Co-op的program？他说全厂只招一个Co-op了，你要不要来？我说算了，做了一次就足够了，老子还要毕业呢。

我问了老板最近如何，他就长须一口气：唉，260从原先近五百人到现在只省下48人，全部被重新放到一楼，然后把公司在Sunset Hills的IT部门里的人裁了一批后剩下的人在另外的三层楼里上班。老板说，过一段时间等我们手头的project全部做完估计又要裁一批人，再剩下可能二三十个人就会被再分配到厂里。

也就是说，A-B没有“Corporate Engineer”这个Title了。意思就是说在可预见的未来，公司是不会在硬件上做更大的改进，只需要每个厂有几十个Field Engineer维护一下机器周转就可以了。

但是“Corporate Engineer”不光是创新，他们的职责在于和硬件供应商联系以及在后续技术支持方面有很大的关联。比如说一台机器坏了或者换零件或者要装新的感应器什么的，都是CE们要和德国的工程师取得联系然后规划新的机器标准。现在人去楼空，不要说规划了，Corporate Engineers带走的不光是他们自己，更多的则是人脉，所以现在的Field Engineers很头疼，因为机器出问题要从德国公司的Receptionist开始一点点重新绕圈子找人，很是麻烦。

然后我问老板：那你现在办公室在哪儿？老板听了哈哈大笑：厂长都做Cubical了！然后他说现在么叫做是经济危机，大家都窝在这里混个饭吃，其实等经济稍微起来了不光是我们，Field Engineer都想跑。

这个星期一，公司发了一个public release:

Anheuser-Busch InBev (Euronext: ABI) today announced that, as part of its previously announced plans to effectively integrate Anheuser-Busch Inc., the U.S. business unit today communicated plans to cut approximately 1,400 U.S. salaried positions in its beer-related divisions, affecting about 6 percent of the company’s total U.S. workforce.
About 75 percent of the affected positions are based at the brewer’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, at downtown offices or at its Sunset Hills campus, while other reductions will occur in field and brewery locations. In addition, more than 250 U.S. positions that are currently open will not be filled. An additional 415 contractor positions will be eliminated.
Most of the reductions will occur by the end of this year, with the remainder taking effect next year.

确切地说在要裁的1400个美国员工里75%的员工是St.Louis的，主要针对的裁员对象就是Engineering。所以大家其实早就很坦然了。

星期二，我们packaging的director发了一封给全体员工的信，作为道别和感谢：

All PETG Employees

In conjunction with yesterday’s announcements my career with AB will be ending shortly.  My last day in the office will be Thurs.

I just wanted to send you all a note to thank you all for all your support over the years!  More importantly I want to wish you and your families all the best.  I know this is a very difficult time and that it is hard to be positive but I want you all to know how great it has been to part of such an awesome team.  No matter what the future has in store for each of us individually please remember all the great accomplishments you all have been apart of!  I know in this uncertain time that may not mean a lot now but when it is all said and done we all need to be proud of ourselves in what we have done and the accomplishments we were apart of.

It is amazing when you think back that in just the last few years our group has done the following:

Lead a bottle line recapitalization of 7 plants, over $500mm capital, savings over in the $100mm range, increased bottle line capacity
Brought APL on board which kept Bud Light as the number one selling beer in the world.  This effort cost over $135MM and was done in amazing amount of time
Converted over to 202 lids which saved over $20mm/year and cost over $100mm
Modernized can  and lid plants
Brought on new technology like ATL’s, IMS, robots, shrink packers, shrink film labelers
Brought many new packages and products like Bud Light Lime, Chelada, micro brands, Mich bottles, craft bottles, alum bottles, widget cans,
Modernized can lines in FF, STL, MER
Assisted the breweries in getting the highest level asset utilization of packaging lines in the brewery industry
Assisted in the new vendor development and design of the first AB greenfield brewery in China
Assisted in getting Bud production up in countries like Russia, India, Italy, Panama
Improved and resolved many technical issues
Designed many new packages that brought $mm of savings to AB like 18/20 pack sideload, 12/12 partitionless,
Worked with wholesalers and WOD on things like chill chambers and deposit issues
Brought on the most automated case picking system in beer wholesaler in the country
Jumped in when there was a crisis like a hurricane and left to go help plants deal with issues

This list doesn’t even come close to listing all the things that you have accomplished over these past few years and what allowed AB to be the GREAT COMPANY it is!  I know that in many cases these accomplishments meant many hours, days, weeks, and some cases months of time away from your families and what to thank them also and to let you know I appreciate the sacrifices you made!  Whether you were the lead manager, lead engineer, support engineer, or administrative assistant you played a vital role in these accomplishments along with the other engineering, operations, plant, marketing personnel that worked on these projects.

So no matter what always be proud of what you were apart of!  One thing my dad always told me that the one thing that is yours to keep is your name and what it stands for!  You all should be very proud!

Again thank you for all your support and best wishes!

If I can be of any help to you in the future please contact me.

Ron

我的老板平时上班很凶悍，但是其实是一个很友善的家伙。他有一副我们称为”poker face”的面孔。就是他一项很严肃，从来不告诉你他的感受，而且他的直觉很敏锐。Engineering的VP已经走了，他是第二个，其实所有Engineering的department的director都走了。大家都怪不舍得的。

周一晚上公司宣布新一轮省下的员工，我的manager被升为新的director。这就意味这我是拿不到他的推荐信了。因为按照公司的规定，manager是不能给员工写推荐信的，因为假如他写员工的坏处我们可以去告公司的。不过我还是为我的顶头上司感到高兴。

星期三我做了两个presentation。我的活也基本干完了，老板把我叫到办公室给我做final appraisal。最后将我评价为：exceed expectation。属于是比较成功的。

今天星期四上班，发现每层楼的咖啡室都放了很多纸板箱，大家立刻意识到：开始裁员了。

我仍旧装作没事地干活。结果下午我们HR给所有的Co-op写了封信，信上写到：周五和周一不要上班，因为周五和周一就是所有的judgement day，你们没必要来，而且工资照付。

我走到HR的办公室问她们是不是要把time sheet先交了。走进HR办公室发现她的眼眶已经泛红，而且眼睛湿润，肯定是哭过了。想想也是可以理解的：她明天将直接告诉每个员工是走是留，每开除一个员工对她的内心也是很巨大的打击，谁愿意做宣告坏消息的人呢？

我的老板很聪明的，每次不管大会小会他都是坐第一排，每次都要问问题。而且此人做人比较严谨。比如今天的散伙饭他就没来，因为他已经确定留下，所以就不出面让大家嫉妒了。

今天周四有一个happy hour是大家的散伙饭，我们就到那边给所有的人道别，假如见不到那些人就祝愿他们好运。我和我的mentor已经握手，跟他说谢谢你的栽培。我的Mentor说假如未来需要recommendation什么的经管跟他说好了。我真心希望这些人能留下。尽管这是不可能的。

我就在酒吧里和大家做最后的晚餐，两个大老板给我们co-op各点了两个tequila，浓度很高的shots。我们又喝了不少酒，大家每次toast的时候都是大叫“to Budweiser!”，真是一个很优秀的团队，美国最现金的生产线，就要这样散伙了。我其实还是很难过的。

很多engineer都跟我们说：“你们的运气其实是很好的，见证到了历史性的一刻，却不用付出代价。”这个是真的，我们公司被买下来的案例是世界上第二大公司被吞并的案例，肯定会被收入MBA的经典案例里。大家肯定会分析，我作为公司里的一员有幸看到这一幕很悲伤，但是却增长了眼界。

喝醉了，先写到这儿。