Company ruthlessness and redundancy.

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Member for

14 years 6 months

Posts: 2,536

I left school in 1984 with no qualifications.
I started work straight away in a warehouse, and apart from redundancy due to factory closure worked continuously until 2009 when I was made redundant (for no specific reason other than my role was no longer part of the grand strategy).
I worked voluntarily until September 2010 when I landed a contract role with a large company.
I was then made permanent and now face redundancy again.
Four of us in a room, told one will go. Then the same four told only three will now go. We are being used as pawns to suit whatever plan the company is working towards.
I ask is this fair?
British companies are crying out for workers and yet when they get them they manipulate, bully and threaten them with the idea of teasing out the `best` while leaving the rest as redundancy wreckage. No longer is turning up for work and doing your job good enough. It's all about continuous assessment, team play and having a face that fits with the ultimate aim of ridding themselves periodically of the so called `chaff`.
So, my question to you all is have you been down this road and is it fair?
I feel I've done wrong yet I excel at my job, have no time sick, never late and always do what i'm asked. Yet I feel I've done wrong, that I've failed? Ultimately I'll loose my job?
Or is this just the sign of the times?

BTW I obtained my Degree and Certs in 2009, for what end I don't know.

Original post

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,828

Thats how it is now. I think theres no respect and to add to it you get managers that don't know how to manage.
I remember a job I had a few years ago when me and a woman was assigned to a task. I finished about 10mins ahead of her (she had been there about 20yrs and I had been there for about 2 months) My boss then said 'you worked too slow' So I said 'I actually finished before Sandra, remember?' To which he ignored my comment. After numerous situations from his poor management I left and ended up in a nice job at a flying school.
Theres too much of a 'Plenty more where you came from' attitude from companies and managers these days.

Member for

18 years 8 months

Posts: 1,706

I worked for 15 years in a factory,redundancies where a yearly threat,usually around this time of year.
I was asked to apply for my position yearly for the last 5 years of my employ.Often in the interview i was informed i had a poor attitude towards the company,i always replied with ,poor management,lack of respect towards others and using the threat of loosing a job every year has bread this attitude.
My last year there i did not reapply for my job,but still got it.:confused:

Member for

15 years 8 months

Posts: 1,320

Many managers are of the opinion that if they play you off against each other they will get more work out of you. They themselves spend their time proposing new management practices (bullsh1t) to their bosses to try and get promotion, and fire their workers and outsource the work to save costs before being fired themselves. Generally speaking, if you work for someone, you're going to get the short end of the stick.

Member for

18 years 7 months

Posts: 1,376

I've worked for the same large company for 35 years, and faced various threats of redundancy about 5 times, though by the grace of God I've always "made the cut" so far. I often wish those Daily Mail reader types who love to complain about miltiant "dinosaur" unions would realise there is another side to the coin, in inept, macho management who treat their staff as just another piece of disposable kit. Last year we had the latest in what now seems an annual cull, and by their own grudging admission Management made way too many redundant; result, they're now employing dozens of expensive agency staff who lack the experience, and because they're on short term contracts have no real motivation either. I even know several people who are back doing exactly the same job they lost, but getting paid more because they now work through an agency. Madness. And for anyone who has never faced redundancy, it's a horrible, horrible experience, worrying for months whether you can hang onto your home, whether you can take your kids on the holiday you promised them, wondering if it will put a strain on your marriage, getting edgy with your workmates. And all the time, Management seem almost to enjoy it all, presenting it as positive "Restructuring," bragging to the local press about bringing in JobCentre staff to advise those threatened, and glossing over the fact the union has to fight tooth and nail to get even the barest payoffs the law permits. (Sorry, rant over)

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,389

I have been all through that system several times.

I couldnt go on with a job as it was making me physically ill. All the stress of the job etc so I found myself another job which came along at the right time. I was taken on as there was only 1 other person working in the sales department and there should have been 3. Anyhow I was taken on with a view to expanding the company and providing long term illness cover. I was made redundant the next year along with 1 of the warehouse staff because there were too many staff. It was a big multinational company and they simply didnt care it was all just cost cutting. We all knew the company would have problems as there wasnt enough staff to do all the task as it was. 6 months later they employed another staff member again and then they eventually sold that part of the business because it was underperforming.

I have been unemployed since july this year. It was a small company who only worked to pay the bills no profit and the boss decided enough was enough and closed the business to go and work out of his van so he had little overheads. Basically there was no help for a young business just starting out and the landlord was just after as much money as possible. So rather than have a building in use it is now sitting empty with no rent coming in.

Hopefully I find a job soon but I just take it day to day.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Every single year at the lead up to Christmas these BAs 888rds sack men and women like theres no tomorrow, I bet none of them think about the sacked folks wives and families, but WTSHTF with them' they always seem to get a golden handshake.
For those on here that this has happened to' my sympathies lie with you, and your families. I hope 2012 see better things for you and your families.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

I have every sympathy with Hampden for the position he finds himself in, and for all the others who have had bad experiences. I too have been 'redundant' in the past and it is not a barrel of laughs.

But there is another side to it. I have had to lay off people who worked for me, people whose families I know, who have shared good times. People I know have mortgages and children

But you face the relentless march of the figures as the overdraft nears its limit and you know there is no more from the bank, and the creditors are pushing. You either cut the overheads, or drive the company into the ground so that everybody loses their job, and without the funds available to pay compensation / redundancy.

Having been both firer and firee, I have to tell you the latter is actually easier.

Moggy

Member for

15 years 8 months

Posts: 1,320

@moggy
But why is the company so close to the overdraft limit in the first place? Surely the idea of business is to make profit not rack up debts?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

Yes, of course. I'd forgotten that. Silly me. Think of all the worry I could have saved myself if I'd remembered to make a profit. :rolleyes:

Moggy

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

Firing people is tough. I had to do that some 20 years ago(my wifes business)
All I got was abuse and threats of violence from the staff and their partners.(it was a hairdressers BTW) 15 years later my wife and I finished paying off the bank the money we owed them trying to keep them in a job. We should have pulled the plug earlier as we could have lived on my income.
That is not to say I don't have a great deal of sympathy for those facing redundancy,I do but there are two sides to every coin.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

[QUOTE=Moggy C;1836897]Yes, of course. I'd forgotten that. Silly me. Think of all the worry I could have saved myself if I'd remembered to make a profit.
Trouble is with you Moggs, is that beneath that swinging brick of a heart, you were an old softie, inasmuch as you put your employees before yourself. OUTSTANDING.;)
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Member for

18 years 7 months

Posts: 1,376

I think most people acknowledge redundancies as a necessary evil, but what is inexcusable is the cavalier attitude and the hypocrisy of so many companies. I've been with the company 35 years now, and what was once seen only as the very last resort (and God knows the company had some tough times before) now seems to be regarded as a legitimate management tool with which to beat the workforce. A few years ago they announced they were going to outsource one large dept to Scandinavia (hardly renowned for it's low manufacturing costs) and only after putting scores of people through about 14 months of agonised waiting, did they blithely announce they'd changed their minds. Another time they made people redundant at the same time as sponsoring a modern "art" project (the sort Arthur Pewtey would approve of) and sponsoring the local football team to the tune of about £300,000 ; effectively saying to those made redundant "actually, your job means less to us than seeing our name on the shirts of a fifth-rate football team." A few months later they're sending out questionaires asking why morale and productivity are so low. You really couldn't make it up.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,389

With me apart from maybe the first and second time I was made unemployed I now have a redundancy radar and can tell when its coming.

The second last job I had I tried to tell the immediate staff that I was working with that we were losing our jobs or some of us at least and the rest were going to other branches. This was because a big meeting we were all to attend was called but apparently this was their normal way of working and a three monthly meeting thats all. Imagine the strange look on my face when we were told and came out the office. The smug grin on my face and the pain of being told I was losing my job after only 4 weeks on the books.

When my latest boss told me he was shutting the doors he gave me a very decent payment that set me up for a few months which was more than I expected having only been in the job for 2 1/2 years but the redundancy came as no surprise and I completely supported his decision and we both spoke calmly and constructively about what should now happen as we had about 3 days to close an entire branch. Without a doubt probably the best redundancy I have had as there were no hard feelings only understanding.

I myself had looked into starting up a business once and have started other peoples businesses for them and with the latest job I was in I dealt with the accounts side of things daily so I saw incomings and outgoings and on such a tight budget we were treading water.

I have respect for anyone who starts a business and wish them lots of success.

Some bigger businesses I dont really have any respect for as its simply financial cuts they are making for whatever reason without a care for the remaining staff or those going they are simply complying with any rules that they have to while making their cuts.

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 2,820

hampden98's situation sounds like "collective consultation", a nightmare for all, and a cop out by the company as they leave people to "fight it out", often using consulatants to run it (lowest bidder....) we did it at our place a few years ago, I was "affected" as my job was mentioned in consultation discussions, but I wasn't part of the consultation. So when it ended I was presented with a pile of work from the group who cherry picked what they wanted to create the roles that stayed within the company.

I was in luck, a friend was married to an employment law specialist who went through the paperwork with me and a big red pen. I would say to hampden98, get some advice if you can at all, the C.A.B if you can't access a solicitor, but mistakes are made in these processes, especially if they outsource to the cheapest one supplier that they can find.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

I may be being a bit ignorant here, regarding whats going on, when it always seems to me to happen at Christmas?. I know it happens throughout the year, but seems to be on a grander scale at this time of year. It's bound to rub off on the kids, and a nightmare for their parents, trying to put a brave face on, just for them.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 1,190

To management these days, experience means the member of staff has been in the job too long, and gets paid far too much. Get rid of them, and employ a youngster for half the price.
What a way to run a country...

Member for

18 years 8 months

Posts: 1,706

Al,all too true.
The factory had a purge after i left,the lad who took my job was made redundant and now they have two kids doing the same job,rumor has it not that well ,with more errors and wastage...

Member for

14 years 6 months

Posts: 2,536

Thanks for all the replies and support.
It's not the fact of being made redundant, it's the way companies use redundancy as just another management tool.
It used to be we are doing bad, lets make redundancies. Now it's just the normal state of affairs. People are being recruited as others are being lost.

Member for

18 years 7 months

Posts: 1,376

It stinks mate, it really does. Hopefully soon you'll find a company that deserves you.

Member for

19 years 2 months

Posts: 585

I got made redundant by a well known airline just before Christmas 5 years ago, having been one of the longest serving employees.

Since then I have worked for a number of companies, some good some not quite so good.

I eventually found a place with an excellent carrier and wonderful employer.

I wish you and everyone in a similar situation very good wishes and every possible good fortune. You will be in my thoughts this festive season.

I have "suffered" redundancy more than once and if I can help anyone please pm me.....

All the very,very best.