Jobs. Microsoft has put $1.5 billion on the table to retain Yahoo employees, but what about the kids in Redmond? The combined workforce — around 79,000 at Microsoft and 13,800 at Yahoo — is a lot closer to 100,000 than any investor would like to see. Many of the employees at the two companies are investors through stock and option programs. All the same, they might take a dimmer view of new staff efficiencies than your typical equity holder. (Photo by AP/Virginia Mayo)

At an all hands meeting last week [Symantec COO] Enrique Salem tap-danced around the question from an employee dealing with "If Symatnec claims to be a security company why are we laying off the folks that do security, authentication and authorization, for Netbackup, and other Veritas products?"

One employee during his smoke break told me, "I guess I'm fine." His friend said, "We're moving on to Google. Looking forward to the free food." Others weren't so dispassionate: "It's never a good day when you lose colleagues that you know and love to work with." Another told me, "There's sadness on both sides." Most of the DoubleClickers turned Googlers I spoke with — those moving on to Google's scooters, free Odwalla juices and inflatable toys — told me they feel "survivors' guilt."

But not all of them. One told me that when he found out who was laid off, he wasn't surprised. "They had performance issues," he said. He also told me that Google did not make DoubleClick employees reapply for their jobs. "There some committees," he said," but most of it happened behind closed doors."

I spotted two guys smoking by the curb, and before I noticed the Google logos on their apparel, I asked: "You work at DoubleClick?" They answered at the same time: "No." OK, then.

Most said that people who lost their jobs today pretty much knew it was coming. But there was still suspense. Waiting to interview people as they left the building, I noticed a man standing near me also waiting. He looked nervous. I asked him if he worked in the bulidng. "No, my friend does." "DoubleClick?" "Yes." "Did he get laid off?" "When he comes out he's going to tell me." He came out. I asked him "You work at DoubleClick?" "I used to," he said. His friend flinched before he continued: "I work at Google now."

I caught one last DoubleClick employee hurriedly shuffling off toward his subway stop. "How was your day?" He answered, halfway down the subway station stairs: "I'm employed!"

Yahoo! has promised, at a minimum, a 4 month severance package to anyone who might be terminated in the event of a Microsoft takeover. So whose not evil, anyway?

The DoubleClick employees told our source that Google leadership did a "totem pole" ranking of all DoubleClick employees to determine whom to cut; in this variation of forced ranking, every employee gets assigned a number representing his value to the organization, and the lowest get the axe. The office is "very tense," our source tells us, "very tense and anxious." If the results from our latest poll are to be believed, that's because over 68 percent of them are worried they're going to have to work at Google.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

• The piggy post: Pranksters — either Googlers or mischief-makers posing as them — bought a Facebook ad targeted at DoubleClick employees with the copy "Please stop gorging on all our food. Maybe we won't fire you. Thanks!" DoubleClickers reportedly clicked through at astounding rates. Why? Because they felt insecure about how Googlers view them. Don't ignore your intuition, DoubleClickers. Your insecurities are real. Google employees — the armies of Harvard and Stanford grads who believe they are as smart Larry Page and Sergey Brin — will never cease to remind you that you went to Rutgers. How can we be sure of this? See our next reason.
• They made you reapply for your jobs: After Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned DoubleClickers that their jobs were not safe postmerger, Google managers echoed the threat by requiring DoubleClickers to submit their resumes for approval by committee. Then HR held job interviews. We can imagine how that went: "How do we know you aren't just some Rutgers graduate with a 2.75 GPA who will ruin our really useful company with your utter banality?"
• Underlings at Google aren't happy at Google, and they went to Yale: Even customer-service rep Googlers will look down on DoubleClickers. Why? To make their miserable lives seem fuller. As one tipster recently told us:

  The management within Google, especially AdWords and AdSense (the money making machines of the entire company ... engineering gets the glory but advertising brings in the big bucks) are completely disorganized and chaotic.

  Guess who's going to run DoubleClick.
• Not an advertising underling? There's equity to be had elsewhere: We just heard that ex-Yahoos are asking for $200,000 to $250,000 to join ad-supported startups in New York and the Valley. And if the startups are too cash-poor for that, they're getting big chunks of equity. At Google, you'll get, well, Google stock.

It is a possible sign of a bad first quarter for Google. April 1, as opposed to March 31, allows Google accountants to push expenses from the bloodletting into the second quarter. Too bad it's for real: DoubleClickers could use the laugh. One tipster tells us the suspense is killing morale at DoubleClick: "People are all halfway out the door."

I was one of the CNET layoffs today. I was shocked to have my position eliminated after I worked full-time while undergoing cancer treatment. Holy God, how much more committed could I be? Our benefits were extended through May 31. I hope I have a job by then, otherwise I am SCREWED.

As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we'll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.

Some think a reduction in workforce is likely. There are no sacred cows, [Ask's proprietary search technology] may be sold or simply abandoned which is hundreds of engineers who work on the core search engine, in place of just using Google's search with our special brand of user interface.