[Closed] Seasons Greetings. How many others are being made redundant or have it looming?

A few years ago my brother was made redundant just before xmas - but the double whammy was the boss had spazzed the company so magnificently that not only was there no redundancy payment there was no pay full stop. A month where everyone could have been looking for other work, had they known the position the company was in, had been spent instead working for free.

For comedy the boss, when explaining the situation everyone was in, fluffed the phrase 'my door is always open' instead stating that if anyone had anyone had any concerns they needed to discuss with him in person 'then you know where the door is'.

If it's any consolation, I got made redundant on new year's eve, 2010. Best career move ever.

I admitted defeat and folded my business shortly before christmas a few years back. I pretty much lost everything. It was without doubt the bleakest time of my life. It was horrible. I was a mess. I now find myself, as christmas approaches, getting really anxious, just remembering how really, really bad things were.

So in comparison, now I'm back on my feet, things are pretty good nowadays. Life is damn sweet in fact. So I take the positives. But this time of year always brings back some very very dark memories at some point. I can't imagine that ever changing

Hey ho... thats my little ray of sunshine contribution for the day. Sorry about that. As you were

I keep volunteering but so far unsuccessful, decided just to be shite for a while see if that works.

Redundant and quite happy about it.

After 15 years I needed a change anyway.

My last day is tomorrow 🙂

I'm quitting my job for Christmas

I know my brother Peterpoddy has been made redundant the last two Christmas's - not great. Thankfully I've been ok in this job but my sister was almost affected and we are both public sector.

I quit my job last month and now have no money for Miss Houns' birthday on Monday and no money for Christmas*

*i should get paid from my temp job on Christmas Eve, but this amount has to go on bills.

Luckily for me Miss Houns is superawesome

I quit my job yesterday.Still enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling of doing the right thing.
Shortly to be replaced by the panicky feeling of f#£$%$^&("?><@:[}{kkkkkkk.....

I quit my job and felt great for 2 weeks, then receiving my 'pay'slip and an invoice from ex employers for £750 for holiday overpayments soon ruined that! (Still being looked in to)

I'm lucky in that the job I'm quitting is part time and I'm just going to work in my other, 1.5 days a week part time job. Due to various circumstances I can easily support myself on that and 2015 will be all about 'me time'

I got redundant a year ago, just before Christmas (well, my official termination date was 31st of December). It supposed to be really stressful.

But I have to admit - it wasn't... I found a better job quickly, being unemployed less then two weeks. Spending redundancy money was nice and I managed to do few nice long rides in that time too!

All I miss is my old country lanes/bridleway 15 miles commute each way... 8)

I quit my job yesterday

why wouldn't you quit in the New Year and the statutory holidays paid for?

I was recently told, during performance review, that my zero hour contract hr could not be increased ...

I have not under performed nor done anything wrong etc but because I do not fit in the definition of zombie maggot bureaucrat (sucking up to others) they are slowly side lining me.

I have been doing the same job (job remains exactly the same) for the past/nearly 15 years so how do I get obsolete in an instant I don't know. (the organisation is not making a loss or anything like that)

Sort the wishing well shite, they get what they deserve.

😯

raises hand.

Will find out via couriered letter on 23rd Dec.

Merry Christmas!

why wouldn't you quit in the New Year and the statutory holidays paid for?

I found out on Tuesday that I am being made redundant on January 16th.

On balance it is a positive thing because I have been actively looking for other jobs for a wee while.

However, now the adrenaline has worn off and I feel quite anxious about the whole thing.

Oh well, it will pass.

My job will be made redundant at some point next year, but there is a new job for me doing what I do now with extra/different duties and responsibilities, on the next pay scale with room to negotiate pay and perks. They're also paying for me to do a work related degree and might involve a bit of foreign travel as well, so overall I'd actually like it to happen as soon as possible!

Thoughts with those facing 'proper' redundancy now or at any point, when I first found out my stomach dropped and I was really worried for a few days until everything was made clear, horrible thing to have to go fully through, I'd imagine.

A few years ago my brother was made redundant just before xmas - but the double whammy was the boss had spazzed the company so magnificently that not only was there no redundancy payment there was no pay full stop. A month where everyone could have been looking for other work, had they known the position the company was in, had been spent instead working for free.

My local gym just folded like this, the owner left it to 1 min after closing on Friday (2 weeks ago) to say, sorry Lads, the games over we've gone bust. Turns out he'd been planning it for months as well....

I now find myself, as christmas approaches, getting really anxious, just remembering how really, really bad things were.

I get that if I go anywhere the company which caused my nervous breakdown 6 years ago. I can't cycle or drive near it without a sudden surge of anxiety rising up inside me, even after years have passed.

Full time dad. No redundancy looming anytime soon. 😀

Big buyout looming on January. No idea what's gonna happen.
Motivation is at the bottom of the chart.

I'll be quitting my job tomorrow.....

....just waiting for the official offer to come through on the next one.

20km commute....can also be done off road too....can't bloody wait!!

one of our "partner companies" (the people who supply building services) saw fit to make someone redundant in the open plan kitchen whilst there were several people around making their afternoon brews.

thought that was a bit below the belt..

No thankfully, but I've been laid off twice in 5 years - both times it really was the best thing to happen, honesty. Neither was at Xmas, though - this year is tough financially because me wife and I had a baby in Summer and her maternity pay period has now ended - it's not like redundancy though, we know to the day when it will end. My Wife is a picnicker - "oh, what if A or what if B" but I don't really care about presents and all that.

I really wish the best to anyone losing their job, try to take some heart from the fact that, whilst it's hard - at least there's a job market now, it's a tough one, but it always is and thanks to the welfare state and various rules and laws we have, you won't starve and you won't become homeless. Christmas is just a day, and like it's adult brother NYE, it's never as good as you'd hope it would be, and you're usually glad when it's over.

Just been told our pay is frozen till Q2 next year.

I'd like to take this oppertunity to thank the politicians for F*** with the oil prices and our backslaping cluster* of CEO and directors who I'm sure will be nice and warm this winter wrapped up in all those millions of dollars of share certificates they issued themselves last month for being so awesome while the rest of us turn the heating down a notch.

You poor thing

[quote=Houns said]You poor thing

+1

"Just been told our pay is frozen till Q2 next year.

I'd like to take this oppertunity to thank the politicians for F*** with the oil prices and our backslaping cluster* of CEO and directors who I'm sure will be nice and warm this winter wrapped up in all those millions of dollars of share certificates they issued themselves last month for being so awesome while the rest of us turn the heating down a notch."

prepare to ride the storm , it could be a wild ride.

its all doom and gloom up here in aberdeen. I'm sure many of the folk on here are far more experianced in this than i am but seeing as its my second weathering of the storm i feel much better prepared this time round than the last......... some of my friends are not at risk of redundancy but have been effected by the contractor rate cuts - and are now claiming that this means they are struggling to meat their monthlies.......they too were round the last time this happened - 2007/2008 they should know better - its easy to forget the past when things are going well.

i have very little sympathy for them.

10% off of 6 figures and you cant meat your monthlies....poor money management.

Aw diddums to those so hard hit they don't know how lucky they are

Not enough takers for the volunary redundacy at our place so we've just been told people will be going involuntary. Have to wait till Jan to find out who's out 🙁

There was a rate cut here too, struggling to feel sorry for them doing the same job as staff on 4x the sallary, its only the less productive ones that ever seem to be out of work.

No redundancies this year, but we did last year. I'm the only guy in my department, and I was quite pissed (off) it had come up before xmas, so I volunteered and told the MD it wasn't on. They didn't accept though (probably had something to do with the few million £ worth of projects I was doing the design work on at the time).

this year said MD is being pushed out by the parent company. 🙂

They are doing them at our place now. Another ruond of reorganisation, they did the last ones in 2012.

I've been here for 6 years, have mixed feelings about the place. Walked into the meeting thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm staying, but wondering if I should be.

Yep, me! Not wide scale redundancies, just me. A bit of wrong place, wrong time and a bit of getting slightly shafted by the company!

Not in the least bit worried, if it happens I walk off with quite a nice cheque, but the likelihood is that I'll find another internal role in that time anyway.

No redundancy but might get fired for just being shit. Lost all interest in the job, took on a bigger job than I wanted to (2nd nipper this year) just cos it was there and reaping the whirlwind at the mo. Trouble is I can't think of anything that would be better/equally lucrative/low risk particulalry living where i do. Should just pull my finger out and crack on but the job's just corporate BS.

For infor - my firm has had a volatile 3-4 years but it seems that eeryone that got the bullet has moved on to bigger annd better things so don't despair, change is usuall a good thing IME. It's just the useless institutionalised morons like me that hang on for ever.

I've been there, redundancy effective 31st December, last day in work the 24th, a few years ago.

This year I'm on the other side of the table - I'm the one working out how many redundancies we have to make, and where. It's not much fun, I can tell you.

Some bosses are shitheads for sure, but being the boss having "that" talk with people who work for you is no walk in the park.

The situation when I got made redundant was a whole head office being closed following a takeover. My boss (who was also losing his job eventually) had to spend several days with each member of the department, people he'd hired, trained, developed and in many cases had some right good laughs with over the years, trooping into his office one by one to be given the standard script, accompanied by HR, statutory consultation blah, possible redeployment blah, effective date of notice blah, equivalent to blah weeks of pay for years service, support to look for other employment, blah, blah, blah.

And he had to take all the reactions - the ones who broke down in tears in front of him, the ones who got angry and started shouting, the ones who blamed him personally and the ones who laid massive guilt trips on him about the effects on their families. Not in any way negating the impact on those individuals and the validity of their responses, but bloody hell it was tough as hell for him doing what he had to do.

It's crap being made redundant at Christmas - it's also crap making people redundant.

Happy Christmas everyone

Just been through it . It was terrible , and still is tbh .
Sales guy got canned , 1 guy got rotated slightly to cover a part timer who has also gone ,and I offered voluntary and was refused although was told maybe next year , which is something to look forward to.
I was manipulated into a 15% pay cut , manager wanted 20%. So now all the money we loose through his direct ineptness is kind of being underwritten by me , which is nice.

So simple , make stuff , sell stuff. However book keeping 101 and reading about JIT stock ordering and low stock overheads means selling out of stuff every week , and turning down orders , its clear to see why bean counters should never be allowed to manage. A penny saved is apenny earned . No , it really isnt, and if you cannot see that then please foxtrot away now.

Not quite redundant yet, but got some news yesterday that means my days are pretty much numbered now (genuine mistake + an individual high up with an unfounded grudge = no way to win this one)...

Still feeling a bit numb TBH, and slightly worried (to say the least) about finding something else in my line at the same level. Quite probably going to have to take a fair-sized financial hit.

Having said that, was talking to someone the day before whose mum has been sent back home from a MacMillan hospice and will not see Santa arrive...

I'll be fine.

it's also crap making people redundant.

One of the least pleasant things I've ever done. The most unpleasant was serving an eviction and turfing a family with a young child onto the streets.....

Been there too - two years ago planning to make two jobs redundant over Christmas with my business partner. This year we've taken two people on again and looking to take at least one more on next year.

So, can be shit but hopefully for some it can have a good outcome eventually.

footflaps - Member
One of the least pleasant things I've ever done. The most unpleasant was serving an eviction and turfing a family with a young child onto the streets.....

Is that your decision or someone else?

😯

Slight twist on the redundancy experience for me this year. Managed to get a new role today after having no contract since the end of September. Won't pretend my situation is as desperate as many but so grateful to secure some work today. Feeling very relieved indeed.

Nope, Ive just set up my own company and I'm turning work down...
Not wanting to sound a knob or anything, but Mobile Telecomms is booming at the minute..
Day rates haven't been higher for a long, long time..
And it's showing no sign of slowing down. I'll have broken even by the end of Jan, and I started at the end of October.

Me last tuesday. off sick 4 months(starting back jan 2nd) and get phone call off work mate to tell me liquidators have taken all vans and everyone is out

edlong, you make a good point about the one person having to have the same difficult talk with many people,, not easy. My last company director couldnt face this so he dodged it and got someone else from another office to manage it for him..... I thought less of him for that as it sort of comes with teh territory...

Just as a matter of interest, if your having these conversations now.... roughly how long before now were the initial thoughts about having to make redundancies, ie, the lead time to the "at risk" conversations...

10 weeks ? 6 months ? 1 year ?

Completely understand if you cant say.

You make a good point edlong. It often gets forgotten. I remember around the time of the miners strike. My girlfriend at the time had an uncle who was a pit manager. A lovely bloke. When they closed it, he had to get them all one by one, and give them their cards. Blokes who he'd worked with for 30 years.

I'm sure he had all the reactions you mentioned. He was devastated by what he had to do. It absolutely destroyed him.

Teetosugars - Member

Nope, Ive just set up my own company and I'm turning work down...

Are you OK if I drop you a quick mail?

Not this year, but in 2012 I was made redundant at the Christmas party.

A week later, got a job with a partner company. Month later, another redundancy.

Business was Business.

>One of the least pleasant things I've ever done. The most unpleasant was serving an eviction and turfing a family with a young child onto the streets.....
Is that your decision or someone else?

To be fair in these cases it's never a surprise when they're turfed out - plenty of time to sort something out but if they don't then who's faults that? I am not a landlord - partly as would hate to have to deal with things like this.

I was a plasterer for 20 years,until I was self employed Christmas was when the axe would swing. Crap,three weeks wages and no/little prospect of anything else till March. I retrained as a teacher and don't ever pass 23rd December without a shudder. My thoughts are with anybody who is facing uncertaintly this year.

Currently on garden leave with my last day 23rd January. In continuous employment for 29 years, so redundancy is good. Sadly not old enough (or rich enough) to retire so I need to find another job. However enjoying the chance to ride some more, but feeling guilty for not finding another job yet

Is that your decision or someone else?

Our decision, we can't afford to indefinitely pay the mortgage on a flat where the tenant doesn't pay rent. From start to finish we lost about £6k over 6 months in lost rent / solicitor / barrister / court fees / redecorating the place post eviction.

Just as a matter of interest, if your having these conversations now.... roughly how long before now were the initial thoughts about having to make redundancies, ie, the lead time to the "at risk" conversations...

Interesting question that - I used to work in the commercial sector, and the big, mass Christmas redundancy office closure I wrote about yesterday was a done deal by the time any of us got the slightest hint, I wasn't party to the decision making process but I'm sure they hadn't had the idea that morning...

My current situation is a bit different - I work for a charity and we try as hard as we can to do right by our people. So the short answer is, as soon as we know, they know.

The slightly longer answer is that we'll work it out together. As FD, I'm not going to teams and saying "we've got to save £100K next year, so you're going to lose x FTE staff", I'm saying "we have a budget gap next year of £100K. We either need to find another £100K of funding, or save £100K of expense. If we don't find it as income, saving £100K would be equivalent to losing x FTE staff if we don't find any other savings" (The nature of our activities are that the vast majority of our costs are the staff - we can't manage a 15% funding cut by cutting back on the paperclip budget). Then we'll talk about it, and explore the options. If it comes down to compulsory redundancies, everyone knows why, at least, and it's not coming as a bolt from the blue.

Worst case, everyone understands what is happening and why, and it makes the process less painful for all concerned. Best case, we come up with ways to avoid redundancies.