Ashen faces as the news broke

On arrival at work yesterday morning there was an unnerving buzz about the place.

The Northern Echo had broken the news that the factory was to close. Although there were rumours the day before that management was about to serve notice on us all, surprisingly, there were still a lot of shocked and bemused faces.

As I walked to the coffee machine I was greeted by a hiss of whispers: "Have you seen the news?" "What am I going to do?"

People's faces were ashen. Many simply could not believe it.

On walking to the area where I work, I had to dodge the gangs of people swarming around copies of The Northern Echo. I heard one employee shout "We're in the paper".

She sounded a touch too jovial. Perhaps she had not yet considered the full ramifications of what was going on. She wasn't alone.

As the buzzer sounded, the usual routine is to leap into action on the power tool production line, but not this morning. The motivation had been lost. Once work started, anticipation started chewing at the nerves, then after what seemed like an eternity the news came that there was a meeting at 9.40am.

General manager Barry Bloomer held the meeting in the canteen. "It's not your fault, it's down to the global economy," he said.

But his attempt at consolation just washed over peoples' heads. "We are not interested in the global economy, how am I going to pay the mortgage?" was the common census. With his every word, you could almost feel workers' worlds crumbling around them.

There was a mix of emotions on people's faces. Some took it hard and it was plain to see they were awash with deep anxiety.

And of those who didn't talk of mortgages or loans, many seemed in denial, brushing it off rather than accepting the true implications.

After the meeting, everyone spent the rest of the day trying to put back the pieces and make sense of what to do next.

If only it were that easy..