Are you too awesome to get laid off?

[CPA]

let me put it this way, when my company rolled out a voluntary retirement plan last September and I went to my boss to tell her I was seriously considering it, she said "don't even think about it, you're not going anywhere". So, yes, I am too awesome. BTW, my company has had 5 restructurings/reduction-in-force initiatives in the last 15 years. I haven't come close to being on one of them.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I get to beg to not be fired for the next 6 years... but I've met the official criteria to get not-fired already; so what I need now is to just not piss people off.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Tough choice.

My first job... I was laid off. Amongst 3 teams, we were being consolidated down to 1 Team (same size team as previously). Which means... 2 teams worth of people had to go. They were putting the rest of the jobs in Guadalajara. Yay, I lost to outsourcing. Not surprising, I was the newest employee of 2 years! Everyone else that joined after me had already quit, and everyone else was old women that had been there for 10+ years. Someone else mentioned leaving HP before layoffs to our sourcing... Yeaaah, that' where I was Oh well, I already had another job lined up.

(In reality, it was a leaving bonus for starting my next job at an accounting firm for a 50% pay increase less than 1 month later. Suckers bwahaha)

So where I am now with accounting: Anyone can go at anytime. No one is too safe. You can be a partner of the firm, if you aren't pulling money they are going to can you. Staff levels, YOU will leave far before they ever fire you because you will be pulling your hair-out every time you go to work. People don't get fired usually, they quit to keep their own sanity.

 

[DaWhim]

I run my own business, so I don't think I can get laid off. there is no one for me to laid off either.

when I first started my job at bnymellon in 2008, bank of ny and mellon bank just got merged. my colleagues were telling me the signs for some changes, when the company was asking you do write up protocol on the things you did or new people, aka consultant, started showing up at work. Two months after I first started, the whole group got called into a big conference room. The message was that they would like to move to Pittsburgh to save money and you can move there or they would try to find another role within the bank (bs basically).

At that moment as a fresh grad out of college who really didn't have an idea what the hell was going on, I didn't have much to lose either. But these people in the conference room with me who worked their whole life for this company, I will never forget their faces just look beyond sad and it was EVERY SINGLE ONE of them collectively had a blacken face. The only thing I got out of this was I vowed not to be a sucker like them to have a lay off hand to me. corporate loyalty goes to hell!

The move never materialized, but I took a work abroad internship in London and quit after 8 more months and never looked back.

I came back a year later and found a job with another bank, the interview went so well that it was like a job on the spot. They were looking for consultant/contractor for about 6 months gig and also a full time employee has left, so there was an opening. It was 11/2009 and the worst job market out there. I refused to take a full time job and would only do contract for them. All my colleagues puzzled why I would not take a job and all I had to do was say yes.

I would rather work 6 months for a lot of money to working for a full time job. It worked out pretty well for me, I went off to travel after I finish my contract for 5-6 months and by nov, they would call me back to work for another tax season.

This went on until last year when I finally decided that I had to fully burned the bridge with them in order for me to focus on my business that was growing. When I left, the company is moving the operation to Nashville in TN from NJ. People are being laid off or they can move to nashville. Why am I not surprised?

I have always keep this in mind, permanent job is permanent until the moment it is not.

 

[Phokus]

No. But my boss has told me on numerous occasions that I will be the last one to go. I am the only one here that does a vital part of our business but I could be replaced without too much trouble.

I do have a couple of trump cards in my back pocket that I could play but I generally don't have to because the owners know I have them. So I am more concerned about lack of advancement than being let go.

What do you do, what are your trump cards?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I run my own business, so I don't think I can get laid off. there is no one for me to laid off either.

when I first started my job at bnymellon in 2008, bank of ny and mellon bank just got merged. my colleagues were telling me the signs for some changes, when the company was asking you do write up protocol on the things you did or new people, aka consultant, started showing up at work. Two months after I first started, the whole group got called into a big conference room. The message was that they would like to move to Pittsburgh to save money and you can move there or they would try to find another role within the bank (bs basically).

At that moment as a fresh grad out of college who really didn't have an idea what the hell was going on, I didn't have much to lose either. But these people in the conference room with me who worked their whole life for this company, I will never forget their faces just look beyond sad and it was EVERY SINGLE ONE of them collectively had a blacken face. The only thing I got out of this was I vowed not to be a sucker like them to have a lay off hand to me. corporate loyalty goes to hell!

The move never materialized, but I took a work abroad internship in London and quit after 8 more months and never looked back.

I came back a year later and found a job with another bank, the interview went so well that it was like a job on the spot. They were looking for consultant/contractor for about 6 months gig and also a full time employee has left, so there was an opening. It was 11/2009 and the worst job market out there. I refused to take a full time job and would only do contract for them. All my colleagues puzzled why I would not take a job and all I had to do was say yes.

I would rather work 6 months for a lot of money to working for a full time job. It worked out pretty well for me, I went off to travel after I finish my contract for 5-6 months and by nov, they would call me back to work for another tax season.

This went on until last year when I finally decided that I had to fully burned the bridge with them in order for me to focus on my business that was growing. When I left, the company is moving the operation to Nashville in TN from NJ. People are being laid off or they can move to nashville. Why am I not surprised?

I have always keep this in mind, permanent job is permanent until the moment it is not.

You dont have dick for savings/retirement, do you?

Sounds young and stupid. But hey - I guess lessons need to be made in order to learn.

 

[Kelvrick]

I'm not too awesome to be replaced, but my billing rate is low compared to my actual compensation and all the managers still fight over me. So unless my company is closing the entire office, I'm not getting laid off.

 

[DaWhim]

What do you do, what are your trump cards?

tax reporting, I picked it up from my first job and absolutely hated it but at least I made it worked for me.

If you have certain skills, jobs do look for you.

 

[DaWhim]

You dont have dick for savings/retirement, do you?

Sounds young and stupid. But hey - I guess lessons need to be made in order to learn.

let see, my friend. I worked 5-6 months and net about 30k-30k from this job (I got paid 30ish an hour and there were 6 weeks we got busy with unlimited OT, I used to do 75-80 hrs during the busy weeks. The longest I worked with no break was 17 days.

Uncle Sam took 1/3. I left with 20k to blow. I save 10k and went travel with another 10k. Traveling to 3rd world country is just cheap, the most expensive item is transportation. It turned out I averaged about $50 a day. (CC card opening bonus + mileage for flights, FTW)

I have minimized bills. no cell phone bills, this item has been on prepaid since 2009. T-mobile grandfathered PAYO plan is awesome, I still keep it to these days even though I am not in the country. fill up $10 and my sim card balance is good for another a year. anything else, there is google voice.

for phone data, there is prepaid mifi. Most people will spend more money on telecommunication in a month than what I spend in a year.

I really do NOT see myself retiring in the US.

I have yet to meet someone my age who is more savvy than me on personal finance. it helped that I have been on FWF since I was in high school.

 

[TheVrolok]

Yep

 

[Paratus]

I know one person that could do my job. I trained him, and he's no longer here.

Was this the guy?

 

[Engineer]

Nobody is above getting laid off. Life has taught me that.

I wouldn't mind getting laid off for a few months.

 

[Telgin]

I was the last person out the door at my Company where I worked for 33 years (except for a maintenance guy who kept the boiler going for heat, and the HR director). It closed up after being in business since 1882. I landed on my feet, however, and work for one of the world's largest companies now. I love it here, but I'm not a manager like I was at the previous company. Actually, it's very nice not to have to take the job home with me.

 

[purbeast0]

Well, when a mgr told you that you almost got let go, he was doing you a favor.

When you told the HR and the higher you about that, you were stabbing him in the back.

I would appreciate any warnings from my boss. The fact that the boss (or ppl above him) values me less than other co-workers does not bother me. I can't change his (or ppl above him) personal view but I sure appreciate the information.

i didn't stab anyone in the back. they asked me what the reasons were for me leaving, and i told them the truth.

and no he definitely wasn't trying to help me. he was one of those power hungry micro managers.

i'm 200% certain i make more money than he does now too.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

How do layoffs seem to sneak up on people? Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I've worked, you knew how the co. was doing.

Depends greatly on the individual company and the industry. I can guarantee you that in the corporate hospitality world, NO ONE actually knows how the company is doing because there are numerous vice presidents whose entire job is disinformation, pardon me, writing metrics.

 

[SSSnail]

I'm very awesome, but I'm getting laid-off, but that's on my own terms. I call it the "give-me-a-bunch-of-moneys-so-I-can-go-take-that-other-job-that's-waiting-for-me" move.

 

[skyking]

I work construction, so no. I get laid off all the time.

 

[Spydermag68]

I was laid off twice. The first one was a month after 9/11. I had a hard time finding a job since it was a very specialized type of programming. The next job I had was a contract job. There was a total of 6 people that were hired, one on the east coast , one on the west coast and 4 where I worked. One left at where I worked after a month on the job. He was out of office during the day for 2 hours at a time. The east coast person left after a few months. The last two people in my place of work were goofing off more that working on what we were contracted to work on. About 9 months after starting my team leader called me to meeting and asked if I wanted to join as an employee. My first question was what about the other three contractors. He then told me that I had done more that twice the work they did combined and they were not getting hired. I told him that I would like to join. It the time there was about 40 people in my group. Over the next five years i was number three person for work getting done. I was if you looked at what I was doing compared to the the top two performers I was doing more work then them. During this there were several lay offs. The weaker people on the team cut and after the five years we were about 15 people in our group. One month after my wife had our second child I was told that I was getting let go. I had a one month working severance and then 3 months healthcare, and 6 months pay. I really like that job. The people were great and I would go back if I could. Right now I am stuck in a job looking over my shoulder.

 

[pcgeek11]

If you think you cannot be replaced. Get a glass of water. Stick your finger in it. Pull it out. Did it leave a hole where your finger was? No....

You can be replaced.

 

[child of wonder]

Unless my company decided to entirely abandon our region for hardware and professional services sales, my job is pretty safe. However, I'm not irreplaceable if I don't do a good job.

Still, even if I was laid off or let go, with my skill set and experience I could have another job in less than a month.

 

[brainhulk]

If you think you cannot be replaced. Get a glass of water. Stick your finger in it. Pull it out. Did it leave a hole where your finger was? No....

You can be replaced.

I think of myself more as a butt plug...

remove Brainhulk - shit hits the fan

 

[dr150]

My wife worked at Cisco for quite some time.

Although she was never let go b/c she was an exceptional worker, you NEVER knew where you stood.

There were constant regular "secret" employee paper reviews written by the manager with a forced ranking system. Very political!

Someone had to be at the bottom, even if you were great at your job. So when layoffs came around almost every year, that person at the bottom in a group was in trouble, unless they were in an essential growth unit.

The one thing Cisco had going for it is that it was pretty easy to find another job in another unit b/c the company was so damn big.

Alternatively, if you did ultimately end up in the street, the package was very respectable and the reputation of Cisco led people to easily find jobs elsewhere.

Smaller companies are better to work for, b/c if you're good, top management who know you will make sure you're not weeded out indiscriminately like a cold Cisco spreadsheet headcount exercise.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

My wife worked at Cisco for quite some time.

Although she was never let go b/c she was an exceptional worker, you NEVER knew where you stood.

There were constant regular "secret" employee paper reviews written by the manager with a forced ranking system. Very political!

Someone had to be at the bottom, even if you were great at your job. So when layoffs came around almost every year, that person at the bottom in a group was in trouble, unless they were in an essential growth unit.

This is why I hate every big company in the US.

THIS SHIT. Employee "ratings". Usually yearly ones to determine your pay/raise/bonus for the year. It's utter bullshit.

Theoretically, it is VERY much possible for EVERYONE to be working at an equal (or close to equal) rate. So everyone could be working like complete shitbags (*Cough*Any Government Jobs*Cough*), or everyone could be working at 110%. Well, that doesn't matter, because the company has a simple logic of: "We have 70% lvl 3's to give out, 10% lvl 2/4's to give out, and 5% lvl 1/5's to give out".

I think of myself more as a butt plug...

remove Brainhulk - shit hits the fan

Oh lawdy.... Why do you have to give the mental imagery with it?

 

[kranky]

Someone had to be at the bottom, even if you were great at your job.

I once worked at a place like that. Divide the ratings into categories and there was a set percentage for each category. The new managers quickly learned never to proactively cut a low performer (like you should!) because you'd need that person at rating time to help populate the bottom tier. If you cut them before then, that meant one more person had to drop down a rating.

I remember one group who went from 13 people to 5 over 3-4 years. The 5 left standing had practically absorbed the all workload of the 8 who were no longer there. And at rating time they forced one of the 5 into the lowest tier to meet percentages. Meanwhile, they had 5 amazing people doing the work. The manager begged for mercy, his manager likewise, but the person above didn't care. The person who got the short straw left the company due to getting that raw deal. Two years later, the group had grown to 10 since the remaining people were no longer going to kill themselves and they ramped down their output, and they ended up hiring new people. At that point they had an actual range of employee performance, but had they simply understood they had 5 superstars at one time, and rated accordingly, they would have been way ahead.

The guy who quit due to the low rating ended up being a group VP at a competitor, I later heard from someone who still worked there.

I also heard at one time GE had a policy of laying off the lowest-rated 5% of the people every year. I always figured that system would keep managers from working hard to grow the employees, not encourage it.

 

[dr150]

The guy who quit due to the low rating ended up being a group VP at a competitor, I later heard from someone who still worked there.

Folks,
I hope that the most important lesson you take away from this thread is IF you want to advance your career, you have to LEAVE after a while (2-3 years).

Companies promote very slowly and give jobs deserved by existing employees to outsiders.

You can literally knock years/decades off career stagnation by simply moving about every 2 years.....Of course, you have to be in a healthy economic environment like Silicon Valley/NYC versus a place like Detroit.