THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: T-Short on October 14, 2009, 06:08:57 AM
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So, on friday the 2:nd, I got called into a meeting by my IT manager. The agency boss is in there as well. They tell me that they think I am surfing the web too much, as they have told me on two prior occasions (the last one being about a year ago), and the boss gives me some bullshit story about how there have been complaints that my support response time is longer because of it.
They give me two weeks to consider my "alternatives": get fired on "personal grounds" and get two months pay, or resign and get three months. They tell me that according to their draconian SOX policies (the company is part of a larger US-owned conglomerate) I won't be allowed to work during this time, so they take my keycard and computer instantly, and tell me it's probably better if I don't show up at work the following monday. The agency veep also explains that I can choose to contest this decision legally during these two weeks, but explains that he will be on vacation on the first of these two weeks.
After the meeting ends at around 2.30, I hand over my work laptop, and then proceed to help our receptionist open a bunch of champagne bottles since it's the last day at work for one of our copywriters. At 3 everyone in the office gather in our kitchen area and drink bubbly, and she is presented with flowers and a gift and a little speech from our veep. After this little gettogether everyone starts heading home.
So, the following monday I contact my union (which they obviously didn't count on me being a member of) and get a meeting with one of their legal representatives. He explains some of the acceptable causes for getting fired on "personal grounds": assault, threat of violence, theft, embezzlement, illoyal competition being some examples. He also explains all the errors my employers have conducted and gets more and more angry with them as I explain the situation.
To cut it short, this monday I signed the new deal that the union got me, I get a relabeled "cutback" style discharge and I get full pay until january 31:st. Still I feel really stressed out since we just bought a new apartment and are just about to take a huge bank loan.
But yeah, unions (http://www.capitaltrachea.se/misc/sweden.gif) :rock (http://www.capitaltrachea.se/misc/sweden.gif)
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Also, all the other people at work were left in the dark during this week it took to sign the new deal, so nobody got to know why I simply didn't show up on monday. There were some rumors going around that I just quit, but I talked to a few people and set this straight. I had very good contact with pretty much everyone except my IT manager, so it sucked leaving 50+ colleagues behind without getting to explain why I just left.
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Bluh, that sucks. At least you have three full paid months to find something new.
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Bluh, that sucks. At least you have three full paid months to find something new.
Yeah, that's nice work if you can get it.
(And you can get it if you try?)
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Bluh, that sucks. At least you have three full paid months to find something new.
Yeah, that's nice work if you can get it.
(And you can get it if you try?)
I was able to switch jobs in this economy, interviewed with only 2 companies.
So I think he should be able to find a job, with some effort?
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Did Kosma find a job in the end?
Kosma, pracujesz czy nie?
He did. He said something about a job at a warehouse--or a whorehouse.
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Chin up man. I have no doubt that you will land in a better situation. They may have done you a favor.
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Real talk, I would love to get laid off and paid through Jan 31. The local job market still sucks, but I believe I could get a job not too far away. Beyond that, I hate my job and need some downtime. :(
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Sorry to hear about that, Hyoushi. At least you're getting some buffer with the three months.
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Hopefully you'll be able to get situated quickly. Three months is great, but it goes by really fast. Good luck!
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That sucks Hyoushi. How is the job market in Sweden? Enjoy your time off anyway! :P I thought SOX compliance was only in the oilfield?
I went through something similar a few months back, less the sweet union bargaining. :usacry
I worked for one of the most terribly mismanaged companies in perhaps the world. Everything was run out of Houston (small oilfield service company making acquisitions with delusions of grandeur), and no one in the main office had any idea what any of the acquired companies were doing or how they were run. So they would buy smallish (profitable) companies and splice them together very badly. This was fine when the oilfield was rocking, but all went to shit when it crashed.
After the crash, competition for business just went nuts and the infighting started. Most of the old head guys either quit outright or were content to draw huge pay for almost zero work (not that I can blame them). This all resulted in the people who had been ineffectual middle managers taking the reins, and most of them were totally out of their element. On top of absolutely no direction, everyone was in survival mode because of all the mergers. It became very political and comically Machiavellian. Since I was fairly new, I was able to avoid most of this and just kind of duck my head. People kept jumping ship, and I kept on moving up. It just kept limping along until around April.
Back in April, we had to let over half of the staff go. I was safe but, since we weren't hiring, had to take on responsibilities of like three people for no pay increase. We were pretty slow, but it was still a lot of work. Pay was decent, so I managed. I also figured that in a little over two years I had technically advanced further than people who were with some of these companies for decades, which would look good on a resume. :lol
In early August, I was in the middle of closing on our house. I came into work one morning, and my boss was in my office waiting for me. They said the level of business didn't justify having me on full-time. Pretty bullshit, since they kept a secretary who just answered phones that rang a few times a day, but me being the youngest guy on the payroll came back to bite me. Everyone else had pretty much been with the company for over ten years, or were in good with the bigger guys that were still left. I left on pretty good terms, and they kept me on the payroll for a month so they wouldn't tank my house sale. I got a touch of severance after that, and am able to draw unemployment.
On the plus side, my note is relatively inexpensive (not much more than we would pay to rent around here), and unemployment totally covers it. My wife's pay can handle all of the bills, and we can live pretty well while sparingly using some of our savings. It shouldn't get too tight until next year, so I'm good on that front, but it's only now starting to sink in that I need to start seriously looking for something soon in a really bad local market. I am pretty sure I want out of the oilfield, but don't really want to make much less than I was before. I have a small window to find something that I'd like to do, that is actually feasible, and the thought kind of terrifies me. Better at 29 than at 40 or 50 though!
In the meantime, I make more than minimum wage dicking around the house, which is pretty awesome. I guess. :-\
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Real talk, I would love to get laid and paid through Jan 31. The local job market still sucks, but I believe I could get a job not too far away. Beyond that, I hate my job and need some downtime. :(
Fixed for sexy. :tauntaun
Hyoushi, I hope you find new work soon! :)
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Hyoushi, I don't mean to be rude, but how is this restructured union deal any different from the original deal they offered you - the one where you voluntarily resign and get three months pay?
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Hyoushi, I don't mean to be rude, but how is this restructured union deal any different from the original deal they offered you - the one where you voluntarily resign and get three months pay?
He gets an extra few weeks of pay. :smug
Also, the semantics of it. "Forced to resign" versus "economic cutback."
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Hyoushi, I don't mean to be rude, but how is this restructured union deal any different from the original deal they offered you - the one where you voluntarily resign and get three months pay?
Now he's being let go under the pretence of reorganisation.
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I don't really see the upside - I would prefer to have a voluntary resignation of my resume than a layoff. The layoff insinuates that you were expendable, barring the total collapse of a company.
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Hyoushi, I don't mean to be rude, but how is this restructured union deal any different from the original deal they offered you - the one where you voluntarily resign and get three months pay?
Ya, forgot to mention this. With their original deal, either option would have prevented me from getting eventual unemployment insurance payout after the two or three months were up. With the new deal, if I don't manage to score a new job after jan 31:st, I still have my unemployment insurance money to fall back on. A crucial thing since me and the GF just bought a new apartment and are on the verge of taking a sizable bank loan.
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Yeah, that's a lot different. Good deal, Hyoushi. I hope it all works out for you.
Cohen, I recognize that layoffs are a regular occurrence, but again, barring the total collapse of a company, it means you were expendable. There are tons of great employees that are laid off nowadays - and I'm not disputing that.
But the only downside to voluntarily resigning from a job is a future employer possibly questioning why you left your last employer in a rough economic climate, which as long as you left on good terms, could be played from any number of angles.
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Ummmm...What? A layoff in this economy is pretty easy to accept, Willco.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it doesn't look as bad on resumes as it did a few years ago. It's lapse in employment that one has to worry about.
Hyoushi, I don't mean to be rude, but how is this restructured union deal any different from the original deal they offered you - the one where you voluntarily resign and get three months pay?
Ya, forgot to mention this. With their original deal, either option would have prevented me from getting eventual unemployment insurance payout after the two or three months were up. With the new deal, if I don't manage to score a new job after jan 31:st, I still have my unemployment insurance money to fall back on. A crucial thing since me and the GF just bought a new apartment and are on the verge of taking a sizable bank loan.
unemployment money is awesome. I don't know what we would have done had I been fired, or if they contested the unemployment claim.
[youtube=560,345]o_bGZ4ohjDE[/youtube]
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You work in IT and got caught for surfing the web???
Yeah, I don't get it...I thought that was what IT was all about! Don't tell me I went back to school for nothing! :P
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Hahaha. Killer song choice for the thread.
Anyway, congrats! Take a few weeks off and then dive back in.