Andersen Employees: Tough Days at the Office

N E W   Y O R K, April 9 -- You thought you were having a rough time at the office?

If so, consider the atmosphere at accounting firm Arthur Andersen this week. Battling a federal grand jury indictment stemming from the Enron scandal, trying to sell divisions and uncertain of its existence, the Chicago-based company announced on Monday it would lay off a quarter of its 28,000 U.S. workers over the coming months.

The announcement constitutes another major upheaval at the 89-year-old firm — and one that is being taken hard by the company's workers. Indeed, in a series of interviews conducted in recent days with Andersen employees, all of whom were well aware of the impending layoffs, the workers described a welter of emotions as they try to go about their jobs, knowing their firm may soon be history.

"It's irreparable damage, and we'll never recover from it," says Julie Lathrop, a consultant in Los Angeles and a 14-year Andersen employee who has kept her position. "It's a loss. It's a grieving process. These layoffs will bring the reality truly home."

And home is where some Andersen workers say the company's problems are following them.

"It's having to deal with Mom and your aunt and somebody in the grocery store," explains Sally Landmark, a member of Andersen's business consulting group in Denver. "You don't want to say you work with Andersen … It's embarrassing."

And Keith Lupton, an audit manager and 11-year company veteran in the Los Angeles office, says his feelings these days are of "disbelief, shock and frustration" at the firm's plight. Lupton sees a "fear of uncertainty" hanging over the heads of his colleagues.

Andersen Employees: Indictment Unfair

Those emotions aside, Andersen employees emphasize one central point when analyzing the firm's woes. They say the indictment of the entire firm for obstruction of justice, announced by the Justice Department on March 14, has unfairly punished people who had nothing to do with the Enron affair.