Clearing my desk?

IF you do have to clear your desk, can you send any exciting stationery to me for drooling troll purposes mmm.

(and see you soon also?)

I think I will call them now. Should be interesting at least.

Once, I had taken the day off from work, had lunch with a friend and got home to a phone call from an out of town friend. He said, "So, did you quit X company?" Me: "Uh, no, just took the day off." Him: "Well I just called up there and when I asked for you they said you didn't work there anymore."

I frantically call up to work and discovered they had laid off my entire department that morning. The next day I went up to sign the severence documents and was escorted to my desk by security to clean it out. Couldn't go back on my computer or speak to other employees. It was insane!

The upside was I got 3 mths severance and unemployment. But what a shitty way they handled it.

this however will not happen to Dr. C since he has the good will collective of ILx behind him!

Woo! I am a genius! A genius who thinks up devious ways of pissing off her employers!

Latest status : I rang HR yesterday. No-one available to speak to me! Funny that. I've rang again today and left various messages as evidence that I've been f@cked around. One of the people who has been let go has been trying to get hold of me and has left a message on my mobile about 'what is going on there'. (Sounds like devil worshipping!). I haven't managed to speak to him.

Looks dodgy. Will update later.

HR actually rang back! It looks like it's the worst possible outcome :

1)I am being kept on
2)They're going to give me a REALLY shit job that no-one else wants.

I know 1) from HR and I know 2) from two trusted workmates who phned me yesterday.

I am extremely pissed off that everyone seems to know what my new job is before I have heard anything at all. The new job is useless - and to make the situation worse there are at least 2 jobs in the new org that I am well suited for and should have at least been interviewed for. The word is that I'm not being considered for either.

So - why didn't they just let me go with the others? Anyway, unless there are other circumstances I don't know about, I am going to try and get a redundancy package, as I cannot possibly stomach doing the shit new job.

I know how much the package is as one of my mates who got the chop told me exactly what he got- I'd get approx 15 months salary tax free. I don't know whether they'd let me go, but usually when there are mass lay-offs there is a significant budget available.

Suzy - you're right it would be expensive to let me go, but the way it works is that the cost is accounted for as a one-off 'restructuring charge' which doesn't impact profits in the way that our salary would as a fixed cost. Having laid off a couple of hundred people globally another one wouldn't make any difference.

Thanks for all the kind words. Watch this space!

(Cricket & Beer are worth fighting for!)

I'll say! Fight the good fight, get out with that and plan ahead wisely and well. :-)

Sock it to the man dude.

I am at work now and have been told that, yes - I am being offered the shitty job, although they cannot confirm it until I speak to my *new* boss - who is in the USA. So cannot speak to him until later. Shitehawks.

Keep a record of EVERYTHING they're doing. And use a loaded tape recorder to freak them out.

Employment tribunals have held that it is the employer’s responsibility to show that an offer of an alternative job has been made.

Any offer should therefore be put in writing, even where the employer believes that it may be rejected. The offer should show how the new employment differs from the old and by law must be made before the employment under the previous contract ends. The offer must be for the new job to start either immediately after the end of the old job or after an interval of not more than four weeks.

Employees who unreasonably refuse an offer of suitable alternative employment may lose any entitlement to redundancy pay. Unreasonable refusal may arise where the differences between the new and old jobs are negligible or where the employee assumes rather than investigates the changes that a new job might involve in, for example, travelling time or working conditions. Refusal may be reasonable if the new job would cause domestic upheaval, for example if there was a considerable change in working hours or a need to move house. In deciding whether to accept an offer of alternative employment it will be sensible for employees to bear in mind the availability of other employment should they refuse the offer.

Trial period

An employee who is under notice of redundancy has a statutory right to a trial period of four weeks in an alternative job where the provisions of the new contract differ from the original contract, the period to begin when the previous contract has ended.

The effect of the trial period is to give the employee a chance to decide whether the new job is suitable without necessarily losing the right to a redundancy payment. The four-week trial period can be extended for retraining purposes by an agreement which is in writing, specifies the date on which the trial period ends and sets out the employee’s terms and conditions after it ends. If the employee works beyond the end of the four week period or the jointly agreed extended period any redundancy entitlement will be lost because the employee will be deemed to have accepted the new employment. Employers should communicate this to the employee when the alternative job offer is made.

The employer should also use the trial period to assess the employee’s suitability. Should the employer wish to end the new contract within the four weeks for a reason connected with the new job, the employee will preserve the right to a redundancy payment under the old contract. If the dismissal was due to a reason unconnected with redundancy, the employee may lose that entitlement.

I have to finalise details of new job with the guv'nor in an hour from now.

Despite the chance to do some stuff *I* want to, I still feel like I am selling out by staying at all. I decided that the devil you know + steady income will be better for a while, until I've finished my second set of exams in december at least. Chances are they'll cull me at some point in the future anyway - now that they know I don't much care about redundancy it makes it easier for them.

whatever happens I hope it works out well for you.

*better = little/no supervision (i.e boss in america, me here)

I am by default doing the crap one as it's the one they wanted me to do after the (ahem) 'reshuffle', but I am being interviewed for the good one this evening. My boss has agreed to let me go if I get it, but there is competition for it obv.

good luck!