Laying people off?

[ChadAmberg]

The company I and a few others here on the forum work at (*cough giant black and red telco cough*) lay off people so often, on Friday I said to my boss "Hey, there hasn't been a layoff since January. Must be because of ..."
I've survived probably 30 layoffs in the past 10 years. Now there's only 2 of us left and my boss. At least it's handled well. Everyone knows it's 2 weeks pay for every year working + saved vacation time, pro-rated yearly bonus, etc. When you get notified, you also still work for a month to "find a new internal job" if you want, or just don't show up, it's up to you.

Now, I've been laid off from other jobs. One was classic: I was in the car, driving to my recruiter's office for a meeting on a new job, when the guy my company hired to do layoffs called. At the end of the discussion, he asked why I was so calm, I replied that I still had time to get to the interview I was driving to.

[Irving]

Having police is standard procedure. I had a boss lie about me once. The company couldn't take the chance she wasn't lying, even though they knew she was, and after they got rid of me, a police officer sat AT MY DESK for a month. My picture was hung in the lobby for two years.

[gnihcraes]

I've got one for ya, not a layoff but a Bankruptcy.

Nations Way Transport in commerce city. My brother worked there as a mechanic. They gave them a 4 hour notice that the bankruptcy was happening at midnight, locking the doors, get your sh*t out or lose it.

He called me in a panic, they needed all trucks, trailers and hands on deck. They ran three shifts of mechanics, not all obviously were there to get their tools. They loaded every last toolbox they could find of any guys that were not there and took them to my brothers house up the street. Some guys were destined to lose $k's of tools. Once the doors were locked, it would be a long time in heck to get your stuff if at all.

Everyone there lost most of their 401k's too. Really screwed a ton of people. Thank you Mr. McMorris. (Former owner of rockies) Protected his ass, but didn't give a crap about anyone else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_McMorris

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

Everyone there lost most of their 401k's too.

Why would that have happened? If it was a 401(k), it is yours.



Edit: You mean defined benefit pension?

[gnihcraes]

Why would that have happened? If it was a 401(k), it is yours.

Edit: You mean defined benefit pension?

Unknown. I just know that everyone lost most everything. I'd ask my brother but I don't want to bring it up.

[TheGrey]

2008, I was hired by a respected firm at their satellite office in Denver. I worked my ass off there for five months. One day out of the blue when the boss was on assignment in anther state, the HR guy from the head office stepped off the elevator. Everyone immediately knew something was up; his name was John but his unofficial title was the "Angel of Death." I figured I was certainly in for it, being the last hired. Although I loved the job dearly, I sure didn't relish getting up at 5:00 am in order to take the light rail in so I was ready to close the door on that chapter. Everyone gave me sympathetic looks when Angel called me in to the office.

What wasn't expected was that he chopped -everyone-, behind the boss's back. We were given an hour to clear out our stuff. Angel spent most of that time on the phone, describing the equipment that they were going to cannibalize from this office back to the head office. They didn't even let the boss know what was going on until they had packed up the desks and carted off the giant POS printer.

I felt horrible for my co-workers and my boss; he wasn't like the jerks at the head office at all.

[th3w01f]

Some crazy stories here, to be honest I'm surprised it doesn't go horribly wrong more often with the way some companies handle things.

[ClangClang]

The most important thing to take away from this discussion is that EVERYONE needs to have a liquid emergency fund on hand at all times. Anywhere from 3-9 months of expenses is what's generally recommended. That money should sit in a separate bank account (or cash under the mattress if you're paranoid) and never be touched except in a real emergency.

Layoffs (or bankruptcies) can happen at any time and you need to be able to pay rent, keep food on the table, and keep the lights on until you can start getting an income rolling again. Personally, I like to keep a 6 month emergency fund because I work in a somewhat specialized field and I have to bet on at least 3-4 months of searching before I'll land a new job.

[ray1970]

Layoffs (or bankruptcies) can happen at any time and you need to be able to pay rent, keep food on the table, and keep the lights on until you can start getting an income rolling again. Personally, I like to keep a 6 month emergency fund because I work in a somewhat specialized field and I have to bet on at least 3-4 months of searching before I'll land a new job.

Eh. Why bother. Isn't that what unemployment and welfare are for?

[fj605]

I have been fortunate to have avoided any layoffs thus far. When we had layoffs a couple months ago, it was a surprise to everyone, even the managers that had to swing the ax. They were only given a couple hours to decide who was going and those that were let go weren't given time to empty their desks. Luckily, most of the moves that happened in my department were re-assigning people to other departments.

I talked to other people in the industry that went through layoffs. Some said they were told to stay in their offices all day while HR roamed the halls, and others have said it was more of a trickle of layoffs lasting weeks. Everyday there's a new vacant office.