Employees said law enforcement officers are stationed on each floor and were checking boxes as people left the building.

What, they're afraid that somebody's going to steal a stapler? Who's going to be left behind that will need to staple something?

"Ma'am, that spider plant's company property. Put it down and step away slowly."

You can tell a lot about a company by the way that they difficult situations.

@Hawkins:

MICHAEL
Wow, our last day at Initech, I mean Circuit City.

SAMIR
I can't believe they had security escort us out. Not like we're gonna steal something.

PETER
I stole something.

MICHAEL
Oh yeah. I guess we all did.

PETER
No, I stole something else.

SAMIR
What did you steal?

PETER
We'll call it a going away present.

Hawkins: This is not unusual, and says nothing about Circuit City. Angry employees have indeed been known to walk off with laptops and the like.

Also, I'm assuming they were security guards, not "law enforcement officers."

I got let go today.. They were making sure that people weren't taking company sensitive stuff like internal documents and such.

Sorry to hear it, man...I had contracting firms contacting me about a 1 year gig there...needless to say, I wasn't about to touch it.

To me this is just more proof that the entire chain will be gone by the end of the year.

@FrancesRockish:

I'm assuming they were security guards, not "law enforcement officers."

Why, because the employees said it? Right, because they're not all just thieves, they're also liars too.

There's nothing left to steal. Except their dignity.

@FrancesRockish: With the likes of what happened, I have no doubt Henrico County cops were out there. It happened at the last big layoff there five years ago.

@Hawkins: seconded. a well-known manufacturer that makes household paper products (toilet paper, diapers, etc.) laid off 80% of its workforce 2 years ago around the corner from me. they shut down all the machines (which they hardly ever do - they run 24/7/365), had everyone escorted into the auditorium at 6am during shift change & let 2000+ employees go on the spot. "thank you for coming [to this mandatory meeting]. pick up your pink slip on the way out." everyone was escorted out by armed guards & had to make appointments w/ the contracted security force 2 weeks later for an escort to their lockers to get their personal matters.

contrast that with a layoff my mom went thru a few years back (at a different company). they were told 6 months in advance that their unit was going to be shut down & had experts come in to do resume building & assist in job placement. they didn't have a single guard or cop there on d-day - they didn't need one b/c they had prepared their employees for life after instead of just booting them out on the street.

fast forward ~1 year in both cases. both companies started hiring back. the first one made a short list of people they would like to return, called them & offered them their jobs back. a friend on the inside told me the names on that list started at 150, grew to 1000 & they still could only get 10 people actually take them up on the offer. almost everyone responded with "f- you" (literally, from what i heard). my mom's place called back 1/3 of people laid off & had no problem getting people to return. they came back b/c they were treated with respect & wanted to be a part of a company like that again.

you're absolutely right. if a management team can't manage their human resources properly, it's a huge indicator of how they manage the company as a whole. chasing the almighty dollar does not necessitate treating others like shit.

I always tried to stay positive when working there... Thinking things could get better, did whatever I could to make it work. Hell, I even helped a few people who posted stories on here get stuff resolved. But, with the ammount of people they let go today the main office is running on a skeleton crew. I would not be suprised if things go downhill quick.

CC just filed for Chapter 11.

@l0stn0tfound: No kidding - I just saw the news about them filing for Chapter 11. Between this and LandAmerica announcing they were being bought out, the job market here is about to be flooded.