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It's the holidays and many people are feeling cheerful, but if you're feeling Grinch-like instead this one's for you:
If you've been around for a while, the time will eventually come when a company you work for is in unfortunate shape and will need to "downsize." Having witnessed this at a client of mine this week, I've noticed a pattern and a few warning signs you may find useful...
Here are several warning signs you're about to be laid-off. If you've noticed more than perhaps one of these, your Spidey-Sense should be tingling—it's time to start polishing that resume/CV!
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I. Backups
"Have you backed-up all your work to XYZ?"
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II. Training
"Please train your co-worker on X, we need everyone up to speed on these components."
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III. Important Project or Person MIA
Just like the old Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life, where the very existence of the main character is erased from history, a similar fate will happen to $BIG_PROJECT or important people.
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IV. Mandatory Meeting
Subject: Moving Forward in $YEAR+1Content-free meeting invitations or email focused on date periods, especially late-in the year (a nod to tax purposes). "Let's discuss our plan for 2016." **gulp**
That's my list for now, please chime in with any others you can think of.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by rob_on_earth on Wednesday December 23 2015, @08:13AM
1st: big company no warning signs, entire department put on notice. My colleagues immediately tried to get legal support to fight it. I went to the head of department and asked what we could do to avoid this, work more hours, take a pay cut. The response was, another part of the company was being outsourced for big bucks and the web site (out department) was being replaced for free as part of the deal, so unless we were working for free we were all going. That talk got me an extra three months and then got my a next job(at twice the wage).
<snip>became a contractor did lots of different jobs then went back to permanent</snip>
2nd: small startup, just got to the point where the work was drying up and the web site could conceivably run unchanged for many years. We had made it to easy to administer. Took it as a compliment that the code was so good and moved on, the company folded just over 12 months later in very messy way, embellishment etc.
3rd: another startup this time everyone was called into a meeting and told everyone was fired including directors and managers. They had found a clever loophole that meant that by offering to rehire everyone with DIFFERENT job titles they could get around UK legislation. Of course none of the new roles paid as well. They offered me a job but I turned them down, with two kids I needed a more dependable job.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday December 23 2015, @04:50PM
Did you talk to a lawyer? Because I am reasonably sure it doesn't work like that in the UK.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jcross on Wednesday December 23 2015, @06:42PM
Even if it was illegal, would you really want to keep your job with such a jackass, along with any rancor they might feel after you exerted legal pressure to maintain your salary? Thinking pragmatically, it seems to me like the lawyer would be an almost total waste of money, unless you really enjoy bringing justice to petty tyrants.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 24 2015, @03:03AM
Compensation for illegal firing?