The San Francisco staffers of this doomed dot-com knew something was coming the week before, when they were summoned to a mandatory all-hands meeting. But the real tip-off that restructuring was imminent came when staffers arrived at the office and ran into a group of thugs -- security guards hired to make sure no one lost his marbles or tried to steal office supplies.

The meeting began at 10 a.m. and lasted about 45 minutes, during which time nearly the entire staff was let go. Ex-employees were given exactly half an hour to gather their belongings and files before the building was shut at 11:15. As employees left via the elevator, the security guards checked bags and interrogated staff members about headphones and laptops and other paraphernalia.

Business card confetti at the Industry Standard

There's nothing worse than finding out about your company's layoffs by reading about them in the news -- which is how staff at the Industry Standard discovered the ax was about to fall. After a Jan. 5 article in Inside.com reported that the Industry Standard was about to tighten its belt, staffers went home for a weekend of speculation about whether their days at the company were numbered.

On Monday, when the news was finally handed down, tensions ran high. And so it seemed appropriate for staff in an information services office overlooking San Francisco's financial district to fling their business cards over the balcony, down 14 floors to the street below. The sky rained red-and-white business cards, said observers, and people below stopped to stare up at the confetti drifting down to the street.

"I found out who was being laid off when I went to lunch and found their business cards out on the street," said one staff member who was spared. "Until I saw the cards, I didn't know they'd been laid off."

Sorry about that, Bob!

What's worse than getting a pink slip? How about getting a pink slip that you weren't supposed to get? "Bob," after toiling several years at a large dot-com, knew that layoffs were imminent but never suspected that he would be one of the unlucky many. Nor, for that matter, did upper management.

On the day of the layoffs, Bob was dismissed by a midlevel manager he had never worked with directly. He collected his last paycheck, signed his dismissal papers and jumped in a cab to go home and fume. Only the next day did he get a phone call from the boss with whom he had worked closely in the past; it turned out that his sacking was the result of an administrative foul-up. The management was as surprised by Bob's dismissal as Bob was. Whoops.

After an effusive apology, Bob is now back at his job -- for the time being, at least.

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