"Shit, we're a dot-com statistic," gasped Sue, "a fucking dot-com cliche!"

Tim let out a hearty guffaw. Lisa and Elliot clanked glasses and hooted.

Though we were all drinking on rumors, they were confirmed when Jackie walked through the door with a solemn look in her eyes.

"Is it true?" someone asked from behind me.

Her lips curled and her face dropped. "Yes. The San Francisco office is closed."

I gulped to make a noise because the silence that followed was unbearable.

My friend from Atlanta seemed to know about the whole thing way before we did. Way before the random, foreboding message hit the Yahoo message boards.

The funny thing was, soon after she warned me about the next round of lay-offs, a friend from New York and a friend from Chicago both gave me similar (though not as dire) gossip. They didn't know about the closure of offices.

It was the New York friend that told me about the Yahoo message board. And judging by the concentrated look of all my coworkers around me as they stared intently at their monitors, the word was out.

Rumors always seem to be worse than reality. 40-50%, said the ominous message. Only 38% though, when the day came. 38% of the company, laid-off.

I found it curious that the rumors hit so quickly and spread so violently throughout the company. Unlike the previous quarter, we all had warning this time.

A meeting was called the very next day. The CEO was going to be in the office to say a few words to us. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen tomorrow.

So when tomorrow rolled around, we were somewhat prepared.

One phrase in particular sticks out in my mind.

"You can blame the market for what has happened. You can blame the leadership team for what has happened. You can even blame me for what has happened," sputtered Bob.

Tears swelled in his eyes.

"But don't…" he choked. "…please don't blame yourselves."

Sniffles and stifled sobs swirled the room.

Even I got teary-eyed.

Part of me felt the great sadness that was echoing in the room. Part of me felt sorry to see this office end in such a horrible way. And part of me just, well, felt sorry for Bob.

What a dreadful job it must be to tell a large audience that they all no longer had jobs. And more than that… he seemed so pathetic up there.

Everyone expected him to cry. It's as if he can call up those tears from the depths of his bowels and release them on cue.

Every other heartfelt speech that he's had to make to the company has been followed by the expected show of tears.

I was surprised that I felt this way. Quite shocked, actually.

But it was all-to-easily confirmed when, a minute later, he was smiling and answering questions from the audience.

Tsk tsk. He even became defensive when the questions became a bit harsh, which is perfectly understandable coming from a crowd that was just stabbed in the heart.

That was in bad taste, Bob, bad taste.

The rest of the day went by in a daze. Part of me couldn't believe that we all just lost our jobs. But part of me saw it coming too—we all knew that the second round of lay-offs was going to be extra-harsh.

We just had no idea it would be our entire office.

Well, I had an idea, thanks to my friend in Atlanta. But the Yahoo message boards had no indication of this.

"A dot-com cliche?" asked a friend when I told him about the news. "What do you mean?"

"Viant grew from a start-up to a successful company with a great IPO. The initial staff made millions as the company grew to a national, then an international reach. We were following the dot-com dream."

My friend nodded. "I see."

"We even had a fancy dot-com name. Oh-so-original. Very unlike Scient, Sapient, Teligent, Vivant, Noviant, Omnient, etc."

My friend laughed.

"Then, when we grew too arrogant and confident for our own good, the market was pulled out from under our feet, and we fell. We did what we said we never would do—lay off our talent."

My friend frowned.

"That's the dot-com cliche. And if we keep on following it, the rest of the company will either be acquired or shut down."

"Really? You think that will happen?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. But the way the market is going, Viant is in for more falls before it can get up again, if it can even ever do that again."

"That's pretty pessimistic of you."

"Pessimistic? Nah. I'd say that's just being realistic." I scratched my chin. "Or even a little bit bitter. But shit man, I was just laid off. Cut me some slack. I'm just another dot-com statistic now, a dot-com cliche."

. . .

Have you ever been laid-off from a dot-com?