2009/11/1 Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
Like, say, if you have two offices that combine into one big office?
Yes, that would generally result in genuine redundancies.
And, of course, is exactly what the Wikimedia Foundation just did.
Sure, but in this case there wasn't any duplication of roles between the offices, to the best of my knowledge. The Staff page on the foundation site mentions two people involved with Office IT Support, Ariel Glenn and Steve Kent. I may be completely wrong, but I was under the impression they both worked in the main office prior to the move. I didn't think there was anyone in the usability office handling IT support - half the group are programmers, so I doubt they have many problems on a day-to-day basis and someone could go over from the main office pretty quickly if needed.