Wave of redundancy

I do goof off on ILX a lot when I'm at work, but that's because there's not much for me to do.

The thing that sucks is that two guys who were let go were new fathers (ie, within the past 9 months). I feel sick thinking about it.

Like Nicole, I don't have much to do, thus the time here. If you're on top of your work...*thinks*...well, a dumb question perhaps, but are you in a place in your office where people can readily see what you're doing?

As with the other person pls don't *identify* me.

To answer Ned: I'm in a very open spot where people can see my screen. I multitask a lot, though, so generally I spend the day flipping back and forth between doing work stuff and scanning/posting to ILX. Possibly I could fill the entire day with work by readjusting how I organize tasks, but since I'm getting stuff done anyway, I don't want to mess with a good system.

The more I think about it, the sillier the whole "Ooh, I'm ANONYMOUS!" thing seems to me, but I'm sticking with it on this thread. I want to reiterate that I'm not in immediate danger of losing my job right now; I'm just feeling paranoid.

Friday afternoon, we were given ballots to nominate people (two for engineering, because we're quite large) for the consultation committee.

Yesterday morning, the committee met, asked questions, gathered answers.

Yesterday afternoon, each department met their representatives, read the FAQ that had been put together, put forward additional questions.

Today, the previous step will be repeated twice.

And tomorrow, starting at 8.30, everyone meets their manager and finds out whether they're let go or not. Blimey.

with staying or going

Oh the best bit? That years work "roadshow" had the theme "Survior: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast". And no, they did not realise the inappropriateness until too late. Wankers.

??? How does that work?

We are in the situation where we're being let off for simply money reasons instead of refocussing or anything. So we're getting statutary minimum, plus a bit (because statutary minimum for people who've been here less than two years is zero). Also I forgot the best bit, which is that the people let go will be paid for the next month, but be free to go from tomorrow.

220 going out of about 700 in my division, we're all on three-month consultation now. which is bollocks cos there's nothing to consult about yet, no full plan, impossible to know whether to worry or not.

incredibly weird atmos, never seen this kind of thing.

so evil and apt when bosses have to ask workers about who to keep and who to fire when they want to fire a buttload of people

Are you getting union advice, LG?

Have you elected colleagues to represent you collectively / been balloted on the option?

Also are they offering voluntary to those that want it?

yeah there is union advice coming i think.

at the moment nothing being offered as such cos we're still in this "consultation" - for all i know my job could be kept, i don't really want to wait to find out, i guess. even if it was kept it sounds like it could be so different as to be unrecognisable.

on the plus side i got a call about a job with sky today, interview is being arranged.

i had kind of been looking around anyway so hopefully i can move quickly.

so evil and apt when bosses have to ask workers about who to keep and who to fire when they want to fire a buttload of people

This happened to me once, when I was away on holiday, and I was picked by some stupid colleagues who figured our office could run without an office manager. I think they thought I just answered the phones, and didn't realise that I did every single little bit of paperwork that kept the office running. I fought my case, but the management goons thought I was exaggerating my importance to keep my job, and were also of the attitude that middle management doesn't matter as long as we have a plan and some grunts to do the work. Except their plan was shit and their grunts were idiots and the management structure was in place to make sure that the business ran within the guidelines and received payment for all the work done. Hilariously, they closed down within the year, and my ex-colleague who shafted me was so stupidly stressed from all the paperwork and reporting and submissions and general "oh fuck we've run out of paper/envelopes/stamps/toner" that he kept forgetting to put reports in, figuring they didn't matter that much, then wondering why the fuck no money was coming in from the company that we were contracted to (the stuff he did submit was riddled with mistakes as well - I had a good laugh about it with the people I stayed in touch with from either side of the fence). Idiot.

It's definitely worth looking at collective rather than individual consultation. aiui, any company looking to make more than a certain number of people redundant is obliged to offer staff the option to vote on whether they want to only discuss things individually or whether they want to elect staff reps to negotiate collectively as well. I was a staff rep earlier this year and I think it was really beneficial.

I work in a division of a huge company but it was pretty clear that the business lead didn't know the law on redundancy at all and the HR people were pretty badly informed as well. There was also an element of not wanting to let people know their rights in full, I think. Going through the collective process meant they had to educate us (and themselves) on what those rights are in full.

Collective negotiation also means that you have the right to propose an alternative business plan that would safeguard more jobs. Management doesn't have to agree to it but they have to take it under serious consideration. I think we saved at least a couple of roles.

It's also a good forum for airing concerns about bad management behaviour / bad recruiting practice. We got the business lead censured by the head of HR for what was seen as intimidatory behavior. It basically gives a much stronger voice.

Either way it's worth knowing the letter of the law because infringements and bad practice can mean automatic fines at tribunal.

Our company laid off 100/1100 workers this summer. Then a month later, they announced that they had to lay off 25 more. We are a government contractor and the layoffs are a direct result of the sequester. I think I may be safe, because my division isn't paid for through government funds. However, they continue to implement other cost-saving measures. Official room temperature for the summer was 78 degrees. I'm sure for the winter it will be 63. We just cancelled our shuttle service that gets employees from our building on one side of DC to the other. We'll be taking cabs now, which they've said will be a reimbursable expense, but the reimbursement process requires actually going to the other building.

if i have a choice of interviews, is it best to take the earliest available one (a week swing between them, one on tuesday 1st and one on tuesday 8th.) i feel like you'd be better off being one of the first people, but i think i'd prob prefer to do the 8th really, just suits me a bit more.

early imo

Definitely early, the later you go the more likely interview fatigue is to set in.

in the end only had the later date offered, subsequently. will see how it goes, it's actually a bit early to be jumping at first job, but if it pays well i'll take it.

my entire office was called in at 9am today, meeting set last week. everyone all hyped and they just say "okay guys so more will become clear in the next three days, back to work". almost sadistic.