Anyone ever worked for a sinking company?

UnixFreak

Platinum Member
Nov 27, 2000
2,008
0
76
Has anyone ever done this? Worked at a company that is obviously failing and going out of business??

Right now, I've been at this company for a year and half. We hit the iceberg about a year ago, and everyone knows it. This is a corporation, publicly held, and at one time was a dominant force in it's industry. There was a time this company had nowhere to go but up. I can't give out a lot of details, because I dont want to get fired for this post. But lets just say nearly all the talent in the entire company that was here when I was hired is now gone.

In the last 6 months, everyone good has been pulled from our company to another one, and a few other companies where people have gone. I've recieved two job offers from people who worked with me here, but now have moved on. I'm considering taking one of them right now.

I have never seen this kind of insanity. People here simply don't care. Remember office space? The things Peter did in that movie happens here with several people every day. We have no review process anymore. People who once performed jobs for a team, stay here and do nothing when the team dissolves. People are fired or laid off only when the very distant parent company checks up on us. Seriously, there are people who literally do nothing here. Their entire job is to answer questions about what they used to do, if needed.

People who are managers play golf sometimes for more than 1/2 a day. Are they big important executives? No, that would be expected. These are middle managers and other 4th teir type managment even participating in this. People take the company cards and max them out on stupid things. People exploit this company to eat up the rest of the profits.

If you talk to anyone in the company, nobody has hope. Everybody laughs and says "I'm working here until that final day comes when they close the doors". It will likely be in less than a year.

We have people that could do things to save it, but its too late. So its become a running joke. "Are we ever going to do.... " and the answer is "we would if it made a difference". I have never seen attitudes like this in my whole life.

We have software reaching the end of it's lifecycle. When asked about it, we tell people "The team that built is gone. We are going to run the software as long as we can". When the software fails to function, we stop using it.

Yes, you read that right. If it takes longer than a day to fix something, it is abandoned. I counted today, and this has happened 8 times in the last 6 months. Things written in visual basic are abandoned as we have no VB programmers. I am in the process of learning it, just so I can fix these and get them back on track.

But Its amazing. People screw around all day. They dont care about ROI, or anything like it. Things are only done as political favors, or to avoid firing. Our parent company is very distant, as I said. About every 2 months they do a walk through, and stuff happens then. A grip of people get fired, and then its back to normal. Stats are fudged, and things are propped up just enough to keep them in the dark.

This is crazy!!!! Has anyone worked at a place like this?
 

Ulfwald

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
May 27, 2000
8,646
0
76
Yes, I worked for a company just like that. And people had the same attitude, butthe ax fell sooner than expected, and a lot of people were out of work in a matter of 10 minutes. Everyone got an email saying to call into a number to listen to a recorded message, they did and it basically said pack your crap and get out. There were armed guards at the doors making sure company assets did not walk out the door. The assets were later sold off at public auction.
 

UnixFreak

Platinum Member
Nov 27, 2000
2,008
0
76
Yes, I worked for a company just like that. And people had the same attitude, butthe ax fell sooner than expected, and a lot of people were out of work in a matter of 10 minutes. Everyone got an email saying to call into a number to listen to a recorded message, they did and it basically said pack your crap and get out. There were armed guards at the doors making sure company assets did not walk out the door. The assets were later sold off at public auction.

This is the exact scenario that most people have predicted for us. We know there wont be "at the end of this month" or anything like that, it will likely be a one day "see ya later" type of thing. Some people are even excited about it.

I should point out that those on the "bottom" are still working hard. I guess thats what kind of ticks me off. Those at the entry level positions in this company are the ones who need the jobs the most, so they work very hard. If the managers and everyone above them gave a damn about these people, they would at least TRY to rescue this company so they everyone could keep their jobs. But it seems most people just dont care enough.

This isn't Microsoft is it?

I wish.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
Middle managers playing golf with no daily supervision by the parent company who hardly checks in...

So how's the parent company doing ? If nothing else, this is your [learning] experience phase.
 

tRaptor

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2002
1,227
1
0
WOW, you just scared the CRAP outta me, I clicked on your profile, and you have the same username for your email as the President of the company I work for....hehe. Seriously though, TAKE THE OFFER!!!
 

petejk

Senior member
Apr 6, 2002
463
0
0
my old employer reminds me of your current situation...but it was...software company in irvine....small...and its been on life support for years....

anyway...i was so glad to leave that place....
 

Mermaidman

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
7,987
93
91
I did. The company was pared down to a skeleton crew. Mgmt paid me a bonus to stay till the bitter end. It was kinda sad, but business is business.
 

UnixFreak

Platinum Member
Nov 27, 2000
2,008
0
76
Middle managers playing golf with no daily supervision by the parent company who hardly checks in...

So how's the parent company doing ? If nothing else, this is your [learning] experience phase.

The parent company is doing ok. Not great, not bad, but doing ok. They have aqquired a lot of companies lately, so I think part of the problem is, they dont have enough time to check up on us right now.

When they do a thorough audit, it will hit the fan. So far nothing like that has happened yet.

Right now this is a learning experience for me. Whats keeping me here is nobody gives a crap about what I'm doing. Seriously. So, I'm taking this opportunity to play around with stuff and learn valuable skills. Right now, I'm in one of the software development depts, my primary function is leading a team that is developing php/mysql apps, which I find really fun, and administering a few linux servers. The company has been converting to open source for 3 years now, and they have a lot of it going here so that's cool.

While i am having fun and learning stuff while getting paid, I do make a serious effort to improve the company, and work in their best interests. (Some of our projects have saved the company a lot of money). This is what has kept me here the past year or so. When I have new ideas, I have a working business model to apply them to. But the sad truth is, I could play around writing just for fun scripts and tinkering right now, and i dont think anyone would even care. We have two teams doing just that right now.
 

UnixFreak

Platinum Member
Nov 27, 2000
2,008
0
76
no, not posting from work. I'm not really complaining about it, just making an observation. I'd actually be very happy here if I thought the place wasn't going to die. I'm given freedom here like you wouldn't believe. If I suggested turning an entire department's computers into BeOS machines, my bosses would let me do it. From an IT standpoint, being able to tinker with different technologies on demand, and creating projects without formal approval is pretty neat. I try not to expliot that too much. But it is kind of frustrating that people are letting a good thing go down like this and nobody really cares about it.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
70,138
28,771
136
Yep, been there. You seem to like your job even with the insanity so keep being a professional and keep doing your job. Document your acheivements so when the ship sinks you can demonstrate to potential employers that you are a professional and the ship sinking wasn't your failure. Also, look at your big picture. Can you withstand unemployment should the company fire you with ten minutes notice? If not, you might take one of those offers.
 

UnixFreak

Platinum Member
Nov 27, 2000
2,008
0
76
thats another thing keeping me here. I have a healthy savings account built up. If they do go under, I could probably take 6 months or more to find another job. So thats kind of a nice luxury.

I agree with the documentation and staying professional. This is what I've been doing all along, I have a killer resume to hand out at this point, while the guys playing golf are going to have to make up something.
 

jonnyGURU

Moderator <BR> Power Supplies
Moderator
Oct 30, 1999
11,815
102
106
I wonder how many TCWO.com employees are going to respond to the title of this thread.

I abandoned ship one year before it sunk. Some got "laid off." Others stuck it out until they were unemployed. It sucks.
 

Svnla

Lifer
Nov 10, 2003
17,986
1,388
126
This is the 21st century, corporate loyalty is long gone and so is life time employment.
 

meltdown75

Lifer
Nov 17, 2004
37,548
7
81
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.
 
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