My job is to be eliminated - things will change.....

[ScepticalScotty]

Well, we have been restructured and they certainly had thier sights on well paid specialists* like EHOs, so 4 of us will now have to compete for 2 jobs - and even if you are lucky to get one of the two jobs, the job spec has been written by someone who does not have a clue.  If we dont get that we will be "expected" to apply for 2 lower level jobs at a mere £7500 pay cut. Or be made redundant.

Great fun eh???


*Talking to a few freinds current management practice really hates people who don't manage anyone, but really know what they are talking about and are experienced and highly qualified. 

[charlie b]

Almost as much as being told to go to half time, or being fired (PC term is laid off).  BTDT too.

The joys of being in a company or in government.  It seems the folks on top have no clue what is going on, even if they worked their way up from the trenches.

Glad I retired.

[JJ]

Sorry to hear this news, and I feel your pain.

Having been "downsized" several times myself  in my 40+ year career, in the soul-draining semiconductor industry, my only advice is put your best foot forward for those two jobs slots, and also have a "Plan B."

Also, use your NETWORK to land your next gig.  It gets much tougher after age 50, believe me....

"Adapt-Improvise-Overcome" as they say in the US Marines, and good luck!

[trippah]

Been there, as have most of us in the wonderful world of Capitalism.  The more you cost your company, the  brighter the target on your shirt. Best of luck, perhaps you'll be the kept 50%.  As many suggested to me at the time, warm up your telephone list and reach out ....someone might need you making for a smoother transition.  Perhaps the management saw too many pictures of the lone piper.  

[oldbike54]

 Good luck Scotty .

 Dusty

[Jim Rich]

That is tough to deal with, I understand.  If you are a survivor you get to do the departed guys work as well as your old job.  Sometimes getting laid off can be a blessing in disguise.  I hope it works out to your advantage. 

[Lannis]

Well, we have been restructured and they certainly had thier sights on well paid specialists* like EHOs, so 4 of us will now have to compete for 2 jobs - and even if you are lucky to get one of the two jobs, the job spec has been written by someone who does not have a clue.  If we dont get that we will be "expected" to apply for 2 lower level jobs at a mere �7500 pay cut. Or be made redundant.

Great fun eh???


*Talking to a few freinds current management practice really hates people who don't manage anyone, but really know what they are talking about and are experienced and highly qualified.

Most of us have been through it ... just like you have the freedom to move around and take a better job if one comes up, the company has the freedom to eliminate your job if they restructure or merge. 

It often can be a blessing in disguise ... you might realize that you were just marking time, or getting stale, and a forced move can be the thing that makes you refocus and refigure what it is you really want to do.

The one thing I can tell you IF you are "out" and looking for a job is that the new job will most likely come from a network of people you know; a Friend of a Friend, maybe.   Looking for a job is itself a full-time job - you'll be spending your days making phone calls, meeting people you know, having lunch with someone who knows someone that you know.   Gotta keep after it and not give up.

Hope whatever the outcome is, it's the best one for you!

Lannis

[menzies]

What Lannis said. Doors close and a window will open.

I had four major relocations and job changes in my working life.

[LowRyter]

Best of luck.

[Cool Runnings]

Retired @ age 50 (how did I do it, my lips are sealed), enjoy...

[Guzzistajohn]

I got $*!+canned from a 14 yr job just about a year ago. I'm thankful for the door that opened, much happier now.

Good luck!

[lucydad]

Lannis speaks truth.

Many times in my 40 year oil industry career:  same situation.   Be flexible.  Be the willow in the wind.

Cast your nets.  Keep your self confidence. 

"Non illigetimus carborundum"

[Lannis]

Retired @ age 50 (how did I do it, my lips are sealed), enjoy...

That's OK; I got MY retirement advice from a famous retired-at-age-50 guy on this very list, our own Texas Turnip, probably 15 years ago.   I've never forgotten it.  He approaches life like he approaches a long motorcycle ride ... 

It takes realism, the right attitude, the right work ethic, lots of flexibility.   I quit at 52 and took a year off (how often do you get a year's vacation at that age?), and then went back to work and retired for good at age 60.

Do it if you can!   If not, keep on finding work, it might not be what you thought it would be, but it's out there.

Lannis

[twowings]

I hope you find what you want! 

[azguzzirep]

  Sometimes getting laid off can be a blessing in disguise.  I hope it works out to your advantage.

 :1:

I worked for the same company 15.5 years. Getting kicked got me to Germany!

Had I not , I'd still be fat, single and sitting in the same desk.

Tom

[John Ulrich]

It's called the "Global Economy".  Jobs go overseas unless it can be done for competitive prices here.  Notice all the fast food chains installing kiosks.  They cannot afford to pay the new $15 minimum wages. They have 20 $10.00 an hour jobs or 13 $15.00 an hour jobs.  7 people less needed.

[Lannis]

Yes actually, capitalism is great.

It is if you're willing and able to make your own way in the world, to take the initiative, to find something you're good at and do it, and to accept that nothing is guaranteed.

If you just want any sort of job "guaranteed" to you so you never have to "worry" and don't have to compete, well, history shows us the alternatives.    All on the ash heap now, though.

Lannis

[JJ]

:1:

I worked for the same company 15.5 years. Getting kicked got me to Germany!

Had I not , I'd still be fat, single and sitting in the same desk.

Tom

Tom - Consider yourself "blessed and fortunate!"

[lucydad]

Part of the reason we stayed near Houston was the possibility of consulting in an oil gig.  Oil prices and the crash, have so far, prevented that.
Frankly I prefer to let those who need a job to have the few available ones.

Did get approached to move and live and work in Cairo by former employer.  Decided the new Pharaoh is not much to my liking.  Had my fill of North Africa living.   Crummy beer there anyway, and the riding is pretty insane in the city.  View of pyramids is supreme though.

[JJ]

It's called the "Global Economy".  Jobs go overseas unless it can be done for competitive prices here.  Notice all the fast food chains installing kiosks.  They cannot afford to pay the new $15 minimum wages. They have 20 $10.00 an hour jobs or 13 $15.00 an hour jobs.  7 people less needed.u

The Global economy changed everything, especially in my old industry, (semiconductors). 

"Adaptability is the key to survival..."  True in nature...and absolutely true in the business world.

[Red Dog]

It is if you're willing and able to make your own way in the world, to take the initiative, to find something you're good at and do it, and to accept that nothing is guaranteed.

If you just want any sort of job "guaranteed" to you so you never have to "worry" and don't have to compete, well, history shows us the alternatives.    All on the ash heap now, though.

Lannis

Well Spoken!!

I have never been un-employed except when I wanted to be. 

Now for the rest of the story:
That means that I have dug ditches for laying sewer lines, stood in sh8t up to my knees when some joker (my Dad LOL) opened the wrong valve, changed clutches while snow & ice ran down my shirt, worked 60hrs a week in a gas station for $125.00 @ week, opened my own shop, spent a lot of money on cars & bikes, closed shop due to finances, worked, saved, opened another business, succeded/failed, get the picture???

Yeah capitalism has got my vote.  I'm 64, semi retired, have 4 bikes, and everything I have is paid for including the business & inventory.  Oh, I have never taken a dime from the government.

[Lannis]

Part of the reason we stayed near Houston was the possibility of consulting in an oil gig.  Oil prices and the crash, have so far, prevented that.
Frankly I prefer to let those who need a job to have the few available ones.

Did get approached to move and live and work in Cairo by former employer.  Decided the new Pharaoh is not much to my liking.  Had my fill of North Africa living.   Crummy beer there anyway, and the riding is pretty insane in the city.  View of pyramids is supreme though.

Back when I was working on an advanced physics degree at Georgia Tech, our department director introduced us to a Libyan official who wanted to speak to us.

At the time, Libya was flush with oil money, and had the intention of creating a world-class, cost is no object university that would be the pride of the Near East.   The man speaking to us was the head recruiter, and they wanted a mix of experienced professors and new PhDs to staff their new school, and Georgia Tech had one of the top nuclear physics programs (we even had our own on-site reactor) in the USA.

The terms were unbelievably liberal, but vouched for by our department.   Eight months on site in Libya each year, four months at home.   Salary was $80,000 a year (this at a time when a Georgia Tech assistant professor starting salary was $13,000 a year), paid in GBP to the Swiss bank of your choice.   Housing already paid for.

We were all abuzz, with many of the more adventurous ready to pull the trigger and go.  And then, two weeks later, Gaddafi took over and the whole country went to shyte.    I'm not even sure we'd have had time to get out of the country .... !    So my ambition and initiative thereafter was focused on the good ol' US of A ....

Lannis

[Rough Edge racing]

 I worked as a construction electrician...Was union so we worked from a hiring hall and were on the job for one minute or until it was done. There were no guaratees of work or senority...If the contractor had more work I might be sent to another job or sent back to the hall....Some years work was slow, some years were great. I was often a foreman but after a year or two with the same contractor I was ready to move on......Many people can't deal with this and it does require careful spending and thinking ahead...I loved being a hired gun and not going to the same place for years on end...At 56 I retired and started my own small electric contraction business..Retired again a few years ago at 65....

[Cool Runnings]

Beer, Bread and salt. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_HrYdMlppE

[Toecutter]

Yeah, I was hired 4+ years ago, didn't get a raise the first year, as "yearly pay increases" came only a couple of months after I was brought on.

Wage freeze the next year.

Promoted the next year, came with a small raise.

Wage freeze the following year.

This year, a 10% salary cut.

I now make less than I did before I was hired.

[Lannis]

Yeah, I was hired 4+ years ago, didn't get a raise the first year, as "yearly pay increases" came only a couple of months after I was brought on.

Wage freeze the next year.

Promoted the next year, came with a small raise.

Wage freeze the following year.

This year, a 10% salary cut.

I now make less than I did before I was hired.

Your namesake wouldn't have stood still for that!   Get on the bike and get to another town where the pickings are better .....

Lannis

[normzone]

It's been more than 20 years since a company came across with the money they offered me to sign on with them. Revenue sharing always seems to evaporate or be halted as soon as I'm eligible.

I'm beginning to think those sports stars with their insistence on a signing bonus are on to something.

[PJPR01]

Did get approached to move and live and work in Cairo by former employer.  Decided the new Pharaoh is not much to my liking.  Had my fill of North Africa living.   Crummy beer there anyway, and the riding is pretty insane in the city.  View of pyramids is supreme though.

 

Ah perspective...sort of makes Houston traffic look like a day at Disneyland by comparison, doesn't it?!! Cooler too!! 

It's always relative...some countries have figured out the proper balance between providing a safety net at a reasonable cost on some items, others don't.  The U.S. model is most definitely sink or swim and you had better be swimming all the time, there's plenty of stability and upside for those who have the education/skills/guts/willingness/flexibility and are able to jump or relocate when their job gets shifted elsewhere, but lots of downside if you're not and your skill set isn't needed any longer.  It's a country of extreme contrasts, but luckily with a massive middle class, and yet still quite a large number of people in poverty, but the country doesn't lack in resources, just isn't aligned always on where to spend them.  Not so bad as many 3rd world countries which typically have a very small upper class, a very modest sized middle class and a massive lower class with no safety net either and not as much access to resources - natural, physical or financial.

Wish you the best on finding something new that you enjoy and keeps the lights on and the Guzzi's fully tanked up!

[Mark West]

*Talking to a few freinds current management practice really hates people who don't manage anyone, but really know what they are talking about and are experienced and highly qualified.

Most senior level managers these days came out of business school and not up through the ranks like in the old days. Therefore they know nothing of the product or industry and don't see that knowledge as having any value. All they see is how this or that effects the bottom line and that is why they make so many stupid decisions. The fallout can't be seen on a spreadsheet so people with knowledge who can explain why a certain decision was dumb are seen as a threat.

[charlie b]

We did have an engineer who came up through the ranks as a CEO.  He became just like the rest.  Cut about 1/3 of the workforce and got the company into the 'modern' technologies years after the competition.

OTOH, in a previous life had a company CEO who also came up from operating a machine in a factory.  Worked up to the top and made the company a lot of money.  Financial investment company bought us.  Within a year our 30% return on investment was down to 10% and they started selling off factories to make money.  They went from a 70% of market share in that sector to less than 10%.

These days it takes a good CEO to make a company run well.  Forward thinking and outguessing the competition.  When the companies get really big, that's hard to do without taking a lot of risk, something boards of directors and stockholders don't like.