Anyone ever worked for a sinking company?

[UnixFreak]

I'm working in a field which could radically change in the next few years. It's pretty scary when your place of work is mandated by legislation that could change at any time. You just hope that somehow you'll be retained in the event of any reorganization. I made it through one restructuring, but I feel the big changes are still coming down the pipe.

Yeah, I've actually made it thru quite a bit.

Started in tech support, worked 2 months, word got to CIO that I had php/mysql skills, which they needed.

Promoted to team that was to develop php apps to replace telephony apps. One month later, team demolished, members laid off. I was retained (not sure why)

with nowhere to put me, I go to "documentation team" and I build corporate intranet site, and CBTs. Team demolished 7 months later. I am retained again and need a place.

Analysis team recruits me after a couple weeks in limbo. I am put on team to learn PL/SQL and build apps for analysis agents to use. Work this team for another 6 months or so. You guessed it "team demolished".

More limbo. Team created for building web apps to save time for agents. Current team.

Sound like reorganization to you? Its been crazy.

 

[Miramonti]

I'm not interested in the name of the company you work for...all I want is the stock symbol.

 

[imported_goku]

Are people running around the office, throwing paper planes? Are people playing computer games on their computers? Are people just litterally and obivously screwing around?

 

[MikeMike]

DWRI?

 

[UnixFreak]

Are people running around the office, throwing paper planes? Are people playing computer games on their computers? Are people just litterally and obivously screwing around?

Yep, pretty much. Depends on who is around, but a lot of times you'll see "meetings" which are usually guys sitting around chewing the fat. Either that, or they'll hold a "meeting" down at the restauraunt down the road, and everyone will sit around BSing the rest of the day and getting drunk. A lot of times people will "look" busy, which is at least something.

For instance, we have a guy who is "learning" a programming language, in our dept. He's been learning this language for about a month and a half. On company time, and hasnt even started a project yet. When asked about it, he just laughs and says "oh yeah I'm still learning" and starts laughing. He knows whats up.

 

[NL5]

I work for a company like that now. Management BARELY ever shows up. Everyone is just waiting for the ax to fall. Not a lot of fun.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I hope for your sake that the email in your profile isn't related to Company X

 

[mugs]

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. Worked for a startup service-oriented company. Company started out as the owner, his wife, and a couple of part-time laborers (including me). Grew steadily for several months, reached "profitability" surprisingly quickly. I was promoted to full-time team leader. At this point the owner was doing all sales on his own in the evenings and working on the jobs during the day. He decided to hire a salesman and another full-time laborer so he wouldn't have to do either. He also bought a heck of a lot of stuff he didn't need... we weren't THAT profitable. He tried to expand too quickly, but before long his monthly expenses were far in excess of his monthly revenues with no sign of the revenues increasing.

He took vacations all the time, and one time he got pissed because I called him on a Sunday night because there was a critical issue with the job we were supposed to start the next day - he was on vacation he said. Yeah, and it's my weekend, which I'm taking time out of to resolve this issue. He basically had no interest in running the company, he was more interested in hiring people to do the work. You can do that when you're bigger, not as a start-up. He should have been working 60 hour weeks, not 20 hour weeks.

Long story short, I left and the company is not doing so well. The guy moved out of his huge house and into a townhouse. I feel bad that it turned out so badly for him, he risked a lot by starting that company and he was more far generous to me than he needed to be.

 

[nakedfrog]

Odds are that programming here has one to three years left. The parent company has already gotten rid of the customer service people that used to be here and moved it to the main location (and lied to us about certain aspects about it).

 

[BurnItDwn]

Nope, I work for a VERY solid company.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: UnixFreak
Seriously, there are people who literally do nothing here. Their entire job is to answer questions about what they used to do, if needed.

Are they hiring?

 

[Zee]

do u work for omnicorp?

 

[RandomFool]

A company i used to work for was like that, they bought and renovated a new office and then wanted to shut it down and sell it...then ended up getting another new office and computer system. I was only temporary help thank god but it was a mess. Work never got done. Eventually i think they laid almost everyone off and eventually closed...last time i tried their phone number it wasn't listed. They did a pretty good business but just ended up leasing to many offices and buying new stuff they didn't need.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

my dad did. his engineering firm just did not have any contracts, so people had nothing to do. they would just sit around and eventually get fired when they couldnt be supported. i spent some time at his work before walking to my internship and it was just a ghosttown. a whole building of empty cubes, just some project managers in edge offices... creepy + depressing

 

[CKent]

I did. I just enjoyed the 'F-it-all' atmosphere. I tend not to worry even when something is worth worrying about, but this was a crap job anyway.

 

[Lounatik]

I worked for Delta Airlines 10 years ago and even then the company was talking about laying off employees, so i bailed and went to my current job. I was just about to enter school for my airframe/powerplant licensing , but I saw the writing on the wall even back then, that they were in trouble. I remember the first year I started ther, the old timers were ecstatic about their Delta stock going from 30-40 bucks a share to about 70.00 a share when I left. Now its down to about .70. Ouch thats a hit if I ever seen one. Luckily I never partook in the company stock option.

Edit:
And now it looks like bankruptcy protection is their only option. Yikes!


Peace

Lounatik

 

[UnixFreak]

my dad did. his engineering firm just did not have any contracts, so people had nothing to do. they would just sit around and eventually get fired when they couldnt be supported. i spent some time at his work before walking to my internship and it was just a ghosttown. a whole building of empty cubes, just some project managers in edge offices... creepy + depressing

I know exactly what you mean. We went trolling thru an abandoned area of the building, looking for supplies. It felt like walking thru a warzone. Papers everywhere, stuff left behind. It was surreal to see it in our own building, it was like a forgotten area, with calendars that say "April 2005" and such. Kind of reminded me of Omega man, if any of you have seen it.

We ended up with a lamp, a hole punch, and couple of staplers.