Got the dreaded call.

mr_goo

You always know when the axe is about to drop. Internal communications go quiet, rumours and mumblings about restructuring ensue. And then a phone call yesterday from boss. 'Can you cancel all your appointments next tuesday and attend a meeting at head office'. 'I cannot go into anything as its confidential, and please don't tell anyone else', he states. End of call. What a naive tw4t. I immediately call a couple of other colleagues and same thing for them, however not all of my team seem to be affected. At my place this is the usual f@*k3d up effort they make of laying people off.

It will obviously be a shock when they give me my cards, but quite honestly it has been a bad 3 and half years to be in construction and to get out would be a huge weight lifted. I would have preferred to have left of my own volition, but frying pan and fire is the key phrase that springs to mind in construction sales at present.

Calculated my anticipated pack and should be okay into the new year. It will no doubt fly by if no job offers transpire but I am hopeful to get sorted quickly. Would be nice to use some of the leftover money to buy an Orca that I have lusted after for the last couple of years.

tim_wand

One door closes another door opens, dont know how old you are or what dependent responsibilities you have, it sure aint easy out there nowadays. It s took me the best part of 9 months to get back to even after similar circumstances,
In my experience its your friends , networks and word of mouth that get you back in to work nothing Government backed that's for sure.

Best of luck, I had to sell all my bikes !

Yellow Peril

Sorry to hear this Mr Goo. I am in another part of the property business and it has been squeaky bum time for the last 4 or 5 years. I've been at my present firm for about 5 years and after a year went through the redundancy consultation process but survived the cut. Half the department went and since then further wastage has resulted in just me being left.

I have to say I'm pretty tired of being under the microscope and it would be nice to get back to a time of growth. The only thing happy about this is my minging Ribble commuter which knows it is safe until the good times come back.

Fingers crossed you'll find something soon.

Laird_Attwood

Sorry to hear that Mr Goo.

I got the chop a couple of years ago. Around here the job market is horrid unless you have experience in a call centre or retail.
Worked in mobile industry/electronics for almost all working career. Sadly not much/none left around here so ended being a year of turned down for all jobs I applied for (over 2,500) Ended up getting a part time job at local bakery as a means to getting other work. A year later still there but at least its a job.

Dmak

Sorry to hear this, not good but I do like the way you finish on the fact that you're going to treat yourself to a new bike. Every cloud.....

mouth

Good luck mate. I got sweet FA after being made redundant 18 months into the job. Spent 70 hours a week slaving in a kitchen/restaurant for 12 months until my current job came up. Clouds, silver linings etc cos I love it and feel like I'll be here forever. Public transport is virtually recession proof if you stick to bus driving........

canbakay

while less important topics are getting pages, this is at its 6th post!!!!

lets how some support fellas!

Sorry to hear it buddy! Dramatic events in my life has always opened doors, sooner or later.

I struggled the market coming out with a first then a maters from UCL, what terrible times!


But thats the right spirit, nothing a new bike can't fix!

ps, orbeas need deep rims, the carbon kind

capt_slog

I used to work at British Steel in the 80's, and we had wave after wave of redundancies, the place I was at had 7000 workers when I started and 3000 by the time it was my turn 7 years later. (I took voluntary)

The thing about the OP that struck a chord with me was how you found out.
For us, a rumour would start one morning, swiftly followed by denials from the management. We would then listen to the local midday news to find out how many were going this time! For some reason this was always correct and could be relied upon.

Another favourite was to stop on-going maintenance at soon to be affected plants or offices. Again, the true reason for the stop was always denied by the bosses, but those in the buildings knew it was time to start looking elsewhere.

I hope you have luck in finding something else soon Mr Goo, if that's what it is.

-spider-

Sorry to hear of your situation Mr Goo - Best of luck to you.

FWIW I've been made redundant twice - not an easy thing to go through, but on both occasions it worked out for the better. Particularly the second time - I was contemplating leaving to find something else when redundancy came along. The redundancy payment gave me peace of mind without me having to dig into my (meagre) savings. Found a new job relatively quickly and invested the payment in new bike bits. I hope you have a similar happy outcome.

mr_goo

Thanks for all the kind words. Not new territory for me. Other half miffed as she was looking forward to booking next years summer holiday, but there are worse things in life than not getting away from it all.
Have been very unhappy at the firm for quite a long time. But at present the construction industry is so bad it just did not seem sensible to move. I have stuck it out knowing a few years service would get me some kind of package. Looks like that is going to be called in now.
The whole scenario is really weird as it appears they are picking quite random members of staff (sales/technical/office). One rumour doing the rounds is that a division of firm may have been sold off, and some staff are going with it. Not sure how they will manage that one with regards to contracts.

Anyhow, D-day Tuesday 11th Sept 11am. Will keep you posted.

disgruntledgoat

Mr Goo wrote:

Thanks for all the kind words. Not new territory for me. Other half miffed as she was looking forward to booking next years summer holiday, but there are worse things in life than not getting away from it all.
Have been very unhappy at the firm for quite a long time. But at present the construction industry is so bad it just did not seem sensible to move. I have stuck it out knowing a few years service would get me some kind of package. Looks like that is going to be called in now.
The whole scenario is really weird as it appears they are picking quite random members of staff (sales/technical/office). One rumour doing the rounds is that a division of firm may have been sold off, and some staff are going with it. Not sure how they will manage that one with regards to contracts.

Anyhow, D-day Tuesday 11th Sept 11am. Will keep you posted.

I just got out of Construction a couple of months ago and I regret nothing, it was a horible place to work.

The whole industry just seemed to be in a downward spiral of suicidally bidding jobs just for turnover, knowing they would never turn a profit and then caning rediculously understaffed delivery arms to deliver the job, then laying them all off afterwards.

I was only on the contractor side for a year but hated every minute. I was at the point of crying on the way to work because I didn't want to go in. When I told my boss that I was being asked to do 3 peoples work with no staff he just told me to "step up" and "work more hours" in addition to coming in at 0730 every day, never taking lunch and not having a days holiday for 3 months... I took a £7k pay cut just to get out.

dw300

Worked in Civil Engineering / Construction from 2007 till 2011 before getting made redundant. I'm still out of work 18 months later, but on the verge of a job, hopefully before Christmas.

I cut my spending way back and can survive on jobseekers allowance and the odd aid parcel from my dear old parents, having switched my mortgage to interest only and only spending money on food and working towards other employment. You do have to ride your bike a lot to stop you going crazy, but that's ok!

I know once I'm in another job that I'll look back and be glad that I'm out of that line of work! If it starts to get stressful, or you have questions regarding anything, post them here and I'm sure someone will help them out.

rick_chasey

Sorry to hear that mate.

Found out this morning I'm up for redundancy too.

Find out on Wednesday. Seems pretty likely tbh.

smidsy

There are clear rules that must be adhered to in redundancy situations. All existing staff should be equally at risk and all should have an opportunity to apply for jobs on a revised structure.

Companies can not just randomly select people - it has to be done fairly and to a system.

dylanfernley

in the construction game myself, at the sharp end, tis dead, been out for 3 months now, i'm well used to this caper though, i try and make the most of it, enjoying the time to have a life, not a consummerist so long as we've got food,shelter and friends , the rest is a bonus.

I always say no job is better than a hated one-- first world problem an all that.....



As others say, one door shuts, many more lie ahead..... good luck anyhows

dw300

We could all chip in and open a online / mail order bike company .. we could call it Giggle, or something ..

me-109

For what you are about to receive, best of luck.

If it goes pear-shaped, I'd blame Giggle! ;-)

mouth

Seems to me there are a lot of nearly or just become unemployed people on here. Why not band together and start a national cycle courier firm. I reckon there could be national coverage. Do it relay stylee...

mr_goo

Well here we are. One day in to the 'consultation process'. That is what my firm call it. Those affected already know who is staying who is going. I will be going. Got my first meeting Thursday with HR to go through first phase and find out redundancy package. I am hoping that my colleagues and I can drag it out till the end of the month. This will then give me a 3 month notice period to go on garden leave and take me to end of the year. Then whatever package is waiting at the end of that.

I work in a team of 6 field staff with one boss. 5 of us have been put on notice as the restructure will require only 3 in the field. The company state that the one person excluded from the process does not fall into the restructured region they have planned. I spoke with ACAS this morning and they tell me that the company cannot do this irrespective of redefined areas/regions. I am going to bring this up at my meeting. Are ACAS correct? Anyone with knowledge of the legalities of employment law out there?

Also of interest is the fact that the majority of those affected in other pools of consultation appear to be like me from an acquired company (4 years ago). Our contract of employment is apparently inferior (benefits/redundancy payments) to that of the employees of the parent company.

All good fun. Just off to clean the bathroom now. Must keep her indoors happy.

dylanfernley

Sounds like a mess, people doing the same roles on different pay/benefits-- ACAS is a toothless tiger/mouse, lots of noise but ultimately its just talk. in my experience the only time i have every got any progress with this type of thing is through collective action, doesn't sound to me the type of place where that might have been possible, people slag of Unions but they are the only ones who will bat your corner. Get the best you can out of a rum job, sounds like you will be better off out of there , so they could be doing you a favour....good luck

mr_goo

dylanfernley wrote:

Sounds like a mess, people doing the same roles on different pay/benefits-- ACAS is a toothless tiger/mouse, lots of noise but ultimately its just talk. in my experience the only time i have every got any progress with this type of thing is through collective action, doesn't sound to me the type of place where that might have been possible, people slag of Unions but they are the only ones who will bat your corner. Get the best you can out of a rum job, sounds like you will be better off out of there , so they could be doing you a favour....good luck

In my experience with this mob, they fly just inside the letter of the law and its interpretations. To leave will be a great weight lifted.

dylanfernley

Happy days then, i was 'sacked' a few months ago, was only after that i realised what a blessing that has been, its insidious how jobs get to affect you.

smidsy

Mr Goo wrote:

Well here we are. One day in to the 'consultation process'. That is what my firm call it.

That is the nationally recognised terminology. Even if you find a new job now and leave before the end of the process you are entitled to the redundancy - they made you look by officially putting your job at risk.

Those affected already know who is staying who is going. I will be going.

This is not legal. Everyone in your same role needs to have the same chance and they need to score everyone on defined criteria. Anything else and you can go for unfair or constructive dismissal depending on circumstances.

Got my first meeting Thursday with HR to go through first phase and find out redundancy package. I am hoping that my colleagues and I can drag it out till the end of the month. This will then give me a 3 month notice period to go on garden leave and take me to end of the year. Then whatever package is waiting at the end of that.

I work in a team of 6 field staff with one boss. 5 of us have been put on notice as the restructure will require only 3 in the field. The company state that the one person excluded from the process does not fall into the restructured region they have planned. I spoke with ACAS this morning and they tell me that the company cannot do this irrespective of redefined areas/regions. I am going to bring this up at my meeting. Are ACAS correct?

Yes ACAS are correct

Anyone with knowledge of the legalities of employment law out there? I have been through this 3 times in 5 years so have first hand knowledge. I too am in construction albeit on the white collar side.

Also of interest is the fact that the majority of those affected in other pools of consultation appear to be like me from an acquired company (4 years ago). Our contract of employment is apparently inferior (benefits/redundancy payments) to that of the employees of the parent company.

All good fun. Just off to clean the bathroom now. Must keep her indoors happy.

Pross

My understanding from when our company went through the process (they were very careful to do everything by the book) is as Smidsy says above - i.e. you have to make a post redundant and not a person. In our case this was fairly academic as there were quite a few people who were the only person on their grades but one of them still got an out-of-court settlement after making a claim of unfair dismissal. I believe that you have to also be given a chance to apply for any suitable vacancies within the company. However, if you are glad to see the back of the company would it be worth getting advice on the legallity of how they are carrying out the process and, if it is illegal, keeping quiet until they get rid of you then making a claim of unfair dismissal afterwards

Don't forget that the company has to give you paid time off to attend job interviews as well. Perfect world is to be made redundant, win an unfair dismissal case and have a new job lined up!

mr_goo

Job interview next week. Possibly first of many. But hope not. Am going to take the view point that may only be working for companies for 3-6 months at a time (probationary periods).

rick_chasey

Well I'm redundant too.

Not ideal, but not worst case. I should have been making more of an effort to leave anyway.

If I keep the gas on re applying and get a little lucky I should end up up financially after redundancy pay.

Gotta hit it hard mind.

dylanfernley

Rick Chasey wrote:

Well I'm redundant too.

Not ideal, but not worst case. I should have been making more of an effort to leave anyway.

If I keep the gas on re applying and get a little lucky I should end up up financially after redundancy pay.

Gotta hit it hard mind.

Another person who is glad to be out of a crap job, does this mean less time on here ?

rick_chasey

Yeah.

Anonymous

Meeting a partner on Tuesday week. Uh oh......

mr_goo

First meeting of the consulting process this morning. Went better than expected. In a way that my projected pay off is better than anticipated. Makes things a bit more comforting should job seeking become a bit drawn out. Was even told that if I find a job whilst working out notice/garden leave, I can start it and I would be receiving 2 wages!! Other good thing is that one of my colleagues in the consultation pool with me is now on holiday for 2 weeks, so hopefully this should extend my tenure a wee bit longer. As I do not think they company can make decision until all are available to be called in for final decision.
It is sad to see quite a few of the regular contributors on BR are 'in between jobs' as they used to say in the olden days. Good luck everyone.

rick_chasey

Mr Goo wrote:

'in between jobs'

That's optimistic.


My dilema - chances are I can get myself a pretty respectable job with respectable pay in my current industry (exec search).

However, I'm keen to move industry, either to mgnt consulting where I have some experience (though not much, 4 months paid internship) or more reserach/analyst orientated role.

Chances I can bag one of those? Pretty slim. So do I hold out or not?

If I take another search role, it'd make it even harder to change industry than it already is, since they'll inevitably ask the question 'if you wanted out, why did you go to another?'.

In a market environment where employers can be very picky, why take a risk on someone with no prior industry experience when they can, in all likelihood, get someone who can?

Not really asking for advice, I know the deal, I'm just stuck between the two.


(if you don't mind me hijacking your thread obviously...)