Today's announcement that AOL will move its headquarters from Dulles to New York City spread like wildfire throughout the Loudoun campus and around town.

Employees, both current and former, reacted with a range of emotions -- but really, few were surprised. And as you can imagine, more questions than answers at this time.

For the most part, it was business as usual for many who went to Wegmans for lunch today and spent their break talking about anything but the NYC move. A few noted that CEO Randy Falco's e-mail to staff concentrated mostly on how this will affect the advertising side of the business. But one person said that this email is just about semantics -- most of the executive team is already in New York and they fly into Dulles when they have to.

A Yahoo! truck passes the AOL campus at Waxpool and Broderick soon after the announcement that AOL will move its headquarters from Dulles to New York City.

There has been concern over the last six months with some VP-level executives that they have been out of the loop since Ted Leonsis and Jim Bankoff departed, and everyone has been waiting to see if the company will stick with a strategy without reorg'ing staffs to death or cutting popular and profitable programs.

Consider that news of the move comes right after the valleywag.com rumor that AOL will have a 25% layoff in the fourth quarter. This layoff has sadly become an annual rite of passage for employees the last five years or so, but it does not make it easier to get through.

We (former AOL'ers) watch these layoffs and see the impact on our communities. How long it takes people to find new jobs, how their families stress out about whether or not they can stay in the area and keep their kids in school here, how the glut of AOL employees brings out serious competition for the few jobs with other media companies -- and not nearly the kind of pay that AOL provided to offset the culture of fear.

And when these folks do land in a new job, more often than not, the commutes are much further away than the five to ten miles from other parts of Loudoun to Dulles. Yes, going from local to regional commuters adds more cars to already overcrowded roads.

Regardless of what the executives and economic development people say about "keeping a significant presence" in Dulles, AOL seems to be going the way of the company next door. What started out as UUNet, then became MCI and Worldcom, and is now Verizon, is reported to house so few employees that it is a half-empty building.

It is a time of confusion and uncertainty, yet there is news of growth -- AOL is building a second daycare center (a much-needed and appreciated employee benefit) and new Network Operations Center (NOC) is under construction near the CC1 building on campus.

But word around the company is that not every department from the current Reston NOC will be transferred over. So does that mean people are going away, going to NY, or will that part of the business go to Bangalore? Employees are mulling over all these questions now.

Others whom I spoke with this morning and early afternoon were not surprised at all, but they fear the worst about losing their own jobs. Falco's e-mail said "programming" will also be in New York. It is well-worn discussion that both News channel VP Lewis D'Vorkin and Sports GM Neal Scarbrough have been ready for operations to shift to NYC for years. The Music, Entertainment and Health channels are already in New York. So what will be left of Dulles -- technology functions, the search team, marketing? All remains to be seen.

Consider the options for employees -- wait in fearful anticipation to see if you get to keep your job or get hit with a layoff, start looking around for another job pronto, or just keep trucking - que sera sera.

And of all ironies, I caught the above photo of a giant 18-wheeler truck traveling down Waxpool Road in front of the AOL campus with a fully wrapped Yahoo! logo around the trailer today. I wonder if this is some kind of omen...