I was an intern at IBM in the EARLY 80s. At that time, people actually had the expectation of lifetime employment at IBM (as long as you were willing to reloca

I was an intern at IBM in the EARLY 80s. At that time, people actually had the expectation of lifetime employment at IBM (as long as you were willing to relocate as needed). A project had just been cancelled when I arrived, and everyone in the department would come in every day and drink coffee and read the paper for 8 hours, waiting for the company to figure out how to re-deploy them. Not a care in the world about a lay off. In the end of the 80s when you showed up, the lay off must have been a huge shock.