Circuit City to ex-employees: Want a job?

It looks like consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) is extending an odd olive branch to some of the 3,400 ex-employees it sluffed off this past Spring by offering some of them their jobs back.

How nice! Although almost every retailer ramps up employee counts for the holidays, one has to wonder if the invitation Circuit City is extending to these former workers is for month-long help or something more. If the retailer is offering former employees jobs again for a month-long retail period filled with stressed customers, long hours and nightmarish retail conditions, who would take up the offer?

From one perspective, it's like the retailer is pouring salt on the wounds of its former workers. From another point of view, a holiday income is not a bad thing, regardless. With the retailer's 650 U.S. stores, company officials say that several thousand temporary workers could be needed to provide sufficient staffing in stores this holiday season.

If you're a former employee who was fired by the retailer and you had an offer come in the mail, what would you do? Inquiring minds want to know.