Today, at work, was pretty much like the Reaping on the Hunger Games… Followed by anger, hugs, and lots of tears.

— Anne (@mangoluvv) May 9, 2015

After the owner of our company was charged with fraud by the SEC and our former CEO and CFO mishandling funds, our company’s financial status has been in limbo. The work atmosphere has been tension-filled for a month because nobody knew what was going to happen. Were we going to come in to the building one day and our key cards would stop working because we’ve shut down? Were they going to let us go one-by-one? Will we be sold to another company? Upper management kept us in the dark and tried to make it seem like everything was okay, even though everyone had a feeling it wasn’t.

Then, word spread that they laid off the part-time sourcing assistant on Wednesday. The next day they laid off the part-time apparel developer and a full-time sales associate. Everyone felt like something big was going to go down today. There were whispers: “I have a bad feeling about Friday. Be ready.”

And, they were right. Before the morning was over, almost 50% of the building was gone. It was surreal. I had prepared myself for it for days leading up to it, but it just didn’t sink in right away. I hugged a lot of people – all while trying not to cry. This was the first job I’ve had where I actually liked my coworkers and my boss…