Egreetings gives three cheers to loyal workers

After several of its engineering and marketing employees resigned, Egreetings said it threw a party last week to tell the remaining employees, "Thanks for not leaving."

The San Francisco-based online greeting card company took some of its
roughly 175 staff members to a local pub called the Thirsty Bear after
morale hit a low.

"Some engineers have left because a site re-architecture project they were working on was completed," spokeswoman Mimi Sells said. "When they finally got done, some of them were ready for a new challenge.

"We had a party to celebrate that we're not leaving, and we're all happy," she said.

The night out comes amid a general malaise among many dot-com employees, prompted by layoffs, going-out-of-business sales and investor disdain. Reel.com, Boo.com and APBnews.com are just a few of the Net companies that have laid off employees or closed shop.

Egreetings has struggled in the stock market since its public offering in December. Its shares closed today at $1.88, near their all-time low. The company's shares have traded as high as $16.25 and as low as $1.65 during the past 52 weeks.

Sells would not say how many employees have left.

The remaining employees are a tight-knit group, she said. "People love each other here," said Sells, who said she was looking forward to next week's company talent show.