Unfortunately, no... Most of the upper managers that were let go in the past week had no clue. They were the ones telling their employees after the merger announcement that lay offs were imminent... But no one had any clue it was going to start so high on the management ladder. I'm so sorry your husband went through that... But it sounds like much the same has been going on as of late. . No one has ANY CLUE who, what, or how... We just know when and that will be this week. @QuispNQuake

I think logistics in Morton is fine. The majority of the cuts will be happening in the ASCD and PD> divisions. We're spread over several areas with the majority being in Mossville and East Peoria. @leslie110

Much the same this go around EXCEPT no one is getting meetings scheduled. That's how they did it back in 2008 and it was nice because at least you knew if you had a meeting request it didn't automatically mean you're being let go. To my knowledge, meetings have not been scheduled though building-wide conference rooms have been booked Monday-Wednesday. We have no idea what is coming on Monday. @MamaBird

@Puhhhhlease : Wow, that just blows, big time! That's awful. I don't care where you are in the food chain. To be blindsided like that is just plain unprofessional. I mean, at least tell your employees that NO ONE is safe!At least have a heart in that department, you know?? And yes, the ideal situation would be to ALWAYS prepare for disaster, even when disaster is not imminent, but who is perfect???And thanks, I appreciate the empathy. I just want people who aren't members of this site to know that yes, there is life after a layoff. You CAN make it happen!!And to those reading this who are not sure what is going to happen: 1) You've probably already done this, but sit down and determine what you're going to do if you lose your job.2) If this helps, know that the best thing that ever happened to my family was getting laid off from CAT.

@Puhhhhlease ..PD would be Project Development?? What is ASCD?...so lots of engineers???

There are lots of engineers in both divisions, yes. I'm not an engineer but work in a supporting role on many projects. Those support roles are especially vulnerable to the lay offs as we're a service and not necessarily required. No one has any idea who is being impacted this week... Any role in these 2 groups is at risk, in my opinion. PD> is Product Development & Global Technologies. ASCD is Advanced Components & Systems Division. @craftywoman

@Puhhhhlease : So, are there security people all over the place again, like last Fall when the last big slash and burn took place?

@QuispNQuake Yeah god forbid somebody takes a pen out of the building. Wanna bet upper upper management will be nowhere onsite during this round of cullings. Gotta be getting harder to recruit new people when they find out how they like to fire folks with no warnings. So much for union backing up its members.

I had the impression that the security presence was to guard against the possibility of someone having an overly vehement reaction to being canned. A couple of years ago they informed a woman at the director level that she was being demoted and moved to another area; she reacted by trashing her office. She was escorted out and a crew was summoned to "clean up broken glass". That was an eye-opener for the powers that be.

@MamaBird Can't say as I would blame folks for going off you know put in 10-15 years busting your butt for company then don't even get good job just a get the #$%^ out of here.

@MamaBird : Absolutely. A necessity. It's just got to be even more stressful, this time around, for these people, since no one is really safe. I just feel terrible for anyone going in there tomorrow. I know of one particular family who just moved back to Dunlap from spending a few years overseas after CAT sent them there. They're the nicest family. I hope nothing happens to them.

My heart goes out to everyone who's still working there. I have so many friends inside, and they'll be on my mind tomorrow. It's just such a wretched situation.

@EyeintheSky : Anyone who is an engineer is considered "management". There are no unions for them. I'm learning that with markets being so global now, there are certain professions where a person has to be willing to just go where the money is to be made. I think some types of engineering are a few of them.

@EyeintheSky
A number of years ago there w as a front page article in the WSJ about the challenges CAT was starting to have regarding the recruiting of recent college graduates that were engineers . Among the issues was that many of the jobs available where in places that were considered more attractive than Peoria and at cos. that were innovative and with a company culture that was considered better than CAT. Still CAT did not seem to learn anything from that.

Does anyone know if retired security employees have been called back to work a few days this week? It does not sound like that could be ruled out. Just saying.