Off Topic: - Impending Redundancy

[dpSparhawk]

Firstly, my apologies for posting off topic in the photo section. To be honest, I rarely post anything anywhere else on DF and I know you guys in here better anyway


Well, a couple of weeks ago we were notified that we are at risk of being made redundant. I work as a Network Surveillance Analyst for a pretty large commercially well known company. At this time I can not tell you who it is for professional reasons.

Of a 43 person strong team, 23 people will be losing their jobs.

They've developed a selection criteria for who will be made redundant based on various factors such such as Disciplinaries, Absences, Performance, Appraisal and Length of service.

As it stood I was sitting pretty because I have no disciplinaries on my record, I've not failed a bonus for as long as I can remember, my appraisal was fine (considering one of the managers marked mine and a bunch of others significantly lower than the other two managers - it has been disputed by 15 or so people) and my length of service was in the higher end of the bracket to ensure less penalty.

However, due to the dispute over the very dodgy appraisal marking by one manager, it has been replaced with amount of days taken off in a 12 month period as opposed to just occasions of absence (that is times you take a period of absence off as opposed to individual days)

As a result of this, I'm screwed because this time last year, I was recovering from having my gall bladder removed. HR have said they don't legally have to take that into consideration and the end result is that I am highly likely to lose my job based on the fact I had an operation to remove my gall bladder which, had it NOT been removed would have eventually become so bad as to be life threatening. The condition wasn't treatable with medicine. The only option was removal.


There is a very mild possibility that I'll survive the "cull" but we'll see. It stinks of absolutle bovine faeces because I went to work and did my job spot on whereas others who f00ked around and took the piss will likely keep theirs because they didn't have an operation... !!!

So... not too sure what the next step will be. My redundancy pay out is estimated to be about £7.5K but it means nothing unless I walk into another job quickly.

Anyway.. I'll keep you posted. Still ain't gonna stop me from takin photo's but dependant on a few things, my time may be occupied more with job hunting for a hopefully short while.

[peterc4]

good luck mate, hope it all works out

[LilacHarryQuinn]

dp - depending on how they do they do things you may also be entitled to notice pay as well (although it sounds like they may well be giving you the proper consultation periods and notice). If it does happen you won't like hearing this but sign on immediately. You can do it over the phone initially these days and then you have to go to the job centre for a follow-up. You will continue to get your stamp paid if you do this, the £55 a week will be neither here nor there. It's not a nice thing to have to do, well it wasn't for me, but you should do it anyway.

Let's hope you miss the cut, good luck.

[dragon69]

Good luck surviving. And if they do get ride of you sue for unfair dismissal, the tribunals will most likely see there change from the normal method of points calculation for absence to number of days as constructive dismissal.

For those that do not know the normal method to allow for those that might normally would not have been off, is to take the number of times off times it by the amount of time off and then put it in to a table. table normal ranges with a final score out of 25.

[willp2003]

good luck with it mate, hope you can keep your job

[neo2810]

All the best with that mate...

[Bilbo_baggin]

That's not good news m8. I have been faced with this recently on 2 occasions. No matter what we say - it doesn't really help, nor will it make any difference to your outcome. But I add my hopes that you'll come through stillemployed.

Have you spoken to DF's legal beagle? Perhaps there will be some constructive advice from him.


Paul.

[dpSparhawk]

Thanks for your replies guys. I'll definitely be looking at my options wih regards to a number of things.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

[dpSparhawk]

Update:

Well, it would appear at this time that I have been fortunate enough to avoid the "culling". It would appear that those people charged with deciding who should or shouldn't keep their job have taken into consideration the reasons for my absence and quite possibly all the other positives for me and decided that I am not going to be one of the people who will be made redundant.

Of course, this is fantastic news because lets face it, losing your job isn't normally on your list of things to do. However, the only downside to this is that of course how long will it be before we enter a second consultancy and the rest of us go.

Still, I am still currently employed which is the most important thing

[peterc4]

glad to hear it, maybe you should start looking for another job know

[Bilbo_baggin]

Great news Ian. Hopefully, things will stay shipshape.

You wanna try working for who I do... lol...


Paul.

[dpSparhawk]

Oh I'll certainly be on the lookout to see what the job market is doing. It's now becoming a trade off between: Staying put and waiting for redundancy for £7.5K in my pocket and then hoping I can get a job straight away or soon after

Or, getting another job as soon as possible, finding out the grass isn't greener and then hearing about the people who stayed being made redundant, getting paid off and then getting good jobs.. lol
I'll be staying put for the time being unless I see something that pays nicely. I guess getting a nicely paid job would be the more important of the two.

[muttleymacclad]

Glad to hear things have worked out Ian. Must be a great relief.

MML

[dpSparhawk]

Cheers MML

It is a relief in one respect mate but now those of us whom are keeping our jobs are kinda hanging by a thread. We know the rest of us will go at some point... it's just a case of when.

[Geezah]

I'm sort of in the same boat - 44 redundancies out of 250ish workforce.
I'm quite safe (for now) in my position as I hold key skills that no-one else on site has, and a good 12yr record (allbeit a 6 month random drug testing for my admitance to canabis use - long story)

I could apply for volentary redundancy which would put 10k in my pocket, and a local company are taking on (even assembly workers are on 3k pa more than my current pay) and i'm confident I could get in there, but little things like my pension, and the (normally) security of a 'job for life' are stopping me from moving on.
The uncertainty of the future is the biggest problem as we seemingly face a recession, so any move is taking a big chance.

Good news you got through the first cull, good luck with the christmas cull

[dpSparhawk]

Another update.

I'm now provisionally being made redundant again.. lol. The incompetency of this company knows NO bounds .

They're basing it upon Q3 last year when I was recovering from my operation. During that period, I was not available to have my work performance scored (which gets us our quarterly bonus). They are saying I FAILED that quarter !!

My question to them was, how can I fail a quarter performance measurement, when I'm not physically here to perform.
...so of course, I have a consultation meeting with them in a few days to discuss this.

At this point, I'm wondering if there's any point. On one hand I was relieved that I would be keeping my job (albeit knowing it would only be for a limited time) but I was also envious of those who were going. Now, some of those are staying (much to their disappointment) and some of us are now going.

LOL - is all I can say.

£7.5K... that'll get me an EOS 1D MKIII... (but I won't. lol)

[evilsatan]

Glad to hear you made the cut mate but realistically in a company of that size they should be able to see your standard of work and decide on that rather than just use stats that, as you have proven, can be skewed quite easily and honestly.

[muttleymacclad]

Sound more incompetent than my work and that's saying something. I hope it works out ok in the end.

Good luck,

MML

[dpSparhawk]

Hehe, well we'll see what happens and after it's all done if I'm not here anymore (of course posting this from work ) then I'll let ya know who I work for... (whether I can stand the shame or not )