×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

(OP)
I was laid off in May due to economic conditions, and I'm still looking for my next job. I'm curious to know how many others out there are in the same predicament. What industry are you in and what month were you laid off? For those of you who have managed to hang on to your jobs, how uncertain is the future for you and what was the message management delivered when your co-workers were shown the door?

Maui

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Not this year... but the year ain't over yet.

Prospects are actually not bad, here on the US Gulf coast, where anyone having skills useful in metal boat building should be able to find work.

Only downside:  My house, my wife and the dog are in South Florida, where the wife has a career, but there's no work for me.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

I worked for two companies that went broke in 1986 (oil price 10$/BBL).  Didn't seem like it at the time, but actually two of the best things that ever happened to me.  Humm.. I mean that in the good sense connotation.

**********************
"Pumping systems account for nearly 20% of the world's energy used by electric motors and 25% to 50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities." - DOE statistic
"Note: Make that 99.99% for pipeline companies" - http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

We have just had our biggest customer go into administration, losing all our current work and a large project we were due early December as well as owing us a sizable amount of money, we have not made anyone redundant yet but I cannot see how we cannot in the very near future. All of our competition is laying people off, I really should be doing it now but will hang on to try and save peoples jobs, not really a smart business decision.

Virtually all automotive companies in the UK are on a 3 day week and forcing extended Christmas holidays, add to that the current situation at GM and things look very bleak indeed.
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

We've just had 15% voluntary separations, the story from now on depends on Detroit and Washington.


 

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

We had a 'voluntary' reduction earlier this year and all production temps have been released.  Production is down to a 4 day work week most weeks.  Things are not looking good.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

I'm in the CPI on the TX gulf coast.  Things are pretty bleak manufacturing wise right now.  Many units are turned down to min rates and quite a few are idle (including mine).  The consumer demand for products is very low so no need for high productions.  Everyone is crossing their fingers that 1st quarter 09 shows improvement.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Powergen and heavy electrical is booming still: one interview and one 'discussion' lined up next week, not that I'm unhappy where I am by any means. There's a desperate shortage of experienced electrical engineers in the UK's utility and heavy industrial sectors which is keeping my part of the job market very healthy, and in these increasingly diffcult times it a welcome recompense for the dismal employment prospects in the same industries back when I graduated and the pitiful salaries which were offered at that time. Maybe I'll have a chance to get a better-than-average ride through the coming problems.

Best of luck to the guys whose industries are being hit hard by the economic problems, I've been in the position you are in now when I worked in manufacturing and I know it can be tough. Hopefully things will pick up before too long.
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

I am so glad to be working for a utility, and in protection at that.  There's a significant shortage of protection engineers and the number a utility needs is driven more by the scope of the installed infrastructure rather than by the load served, so no matter how much or load goes down we won't have fewer circuit to protect.  Besides that I'm one of two out of a group of 5 that isn't planning on retiring within the next 5 or 6 years.

This is so much better than being in consulting designing building electrical systems where the amount of work to do was always driven by what others had to spend.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

I am very fortunate because I work in the Powergen sector, and for the most part I have more work than I can handle because of previous austerity programs. These programs were in place at the time when the power markets were depressed (2000-2004), and resulted in no hiring to replace workers that retired. Keep in mind that before ending up working for an Independent Power producer, I was employed with an electric utility for 20 years where staffing levels were higher than normal because engineers were given incentives to retire early to bring up the next crop of replacement engineers. This management practice stopped after 1999.


Despite the current credit problems and hold on capital spending, the company I work for has diversified into wind power, and is progressing into solar power. I have been told we are sitting on cash reserves and waiting out this current blip in the grand scheme of things. Between the wind turbine due diligence (which has been my part time job for 24 months), equipment failure investigations, welding and materials consultation for our generation fleet, I have remained extremely busy, which is a good thing in today's crappy economy, because we have only two metallurgists in our entire company.
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

We provide services to the oil and electrical production industries - about 75% of our income...  Right now - things look pretty good.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Industry: metrology equipment primarily for Semi Conductor & scientific Nanotechnology (my site, rest of company in other 'high tech' areas).

We've had a number of lay-offs this year, in fact the semi market started going down a couple of years back and doesn't look like picking up any time soon so our first lay-offs were back in December 06, the biggest batch in October 07 where something like 10% of staff were let go.  We've had several other small batches, our latest round was Friday & Yesterday.

Our management has basically claimed they were trying to 'right size' the organization so we'd break even in a bad quarter and make money in a good one.  However at our latest Q3 all hands meeting the message was a bit pessimistic, in that with current developments in the market/economy a down quarter might be a lot worse than previously envisioned.

As far as I can tell the management are running us into the ground to make us attractive to another company to buy, or something like that.
 

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Voluntary separations?

Several years ago I was laid off, and the boss wanted me to accept voluntary separation. I firmly refused by saying that this is not what happened. Unemployment payments were delayed for some time, but I won out in the end.

Will somebody please elaborate on so-called voluntary separation? I had the impression that they wanted to suppress unemployment figures.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

KENAT, you can't say that! You might be silenced! wink

V

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Defense industry seems to be chugging right along.  We have been doing quite a bit of hiring over the past year.

I heard my former employer just had a round of layoffs.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Voluntary redundancy is either a boon or a curse dependent on management.

It is a form of encouraging natural wastage.

However, without controls, it can be a very damaging way for a company to reduce manpower levels.

What can happen is that the most useful people to the company are also often the most marketable, these are the people who could go at any time just for a better job elsewhere; by allowing them access to redundancy money just sweetens the pot for them.

The ones that usually do not want to volunteer are usually the ones who would have trouble getting any new job and holding it through the first few trial months.

Generally management should have a list of people who will not be allowed voluntary redundancy.
This list should include core personnel they identify as being essential to the long term company health (the ones that could up sticks at any time anyway) and real dead beats they want to see go without taking any extra money with them.

Anyone opting for voluntary redundancy and being refused should know they are in a strong bargaining position and might leverage some extra dosh at review time without all this "lucky to still have a job" "Times are hard" b*****it they usually hand out when not handing out decent rises.

On the other hand, "Voluntary Separation", as described by Plasgears sounds like bad management at work who want to chase people out and then claim they left of their own free will and hence are not entitled to redundancy.

In the UK many of managements little tricks are countered in the legislation. For example, any significant change in working conditions or job description ( a very valuable "must have") is considered a "constructive dismissal" i.e. they must pay redundancy.
Basically, if they tell you to go or ask for volunteers to go, they have to pay the redundancy.


 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Safe so far in the Power Fossil industry, but I'm in sort of a niche position that's hard to replace.  Some of our natural gas jobs have been postponed, the rest of our coal jobs are too far along to be canned.  Luckily there have been some QC issues that have popped up as of late with procedures and code compliance, and the end result should be a small influx of work for a few months.  

I only need to make it until June before transferred on site for a project full time for at least 2 1/2 years, and we just had record revenues this past year, so I'm fairly certain I'll be just fine.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Bofore the US election and the recent petroleum price drops I told anyone who would listen that Oil and Gas was the place to be for the next few years.  Now with OPEC tweaking the prices down, and the new administration targeting "Oil Companies" for special tax treatment (probably a new version of the failed Windfall Profits Tax) I would guess that our 3 year recovery from a 20 year depression was an illusion and is about to end.  Oh well, it was a really good 3 years.

David

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

(OP)
I've been spending the majority of my job search looking into manufacturing positions, and the results have not been encouraging. Based on the replies so far, it sounds like the power generation and oil and gas industries are relatively healthy and may be a more productive place to look.

jmw, I'm in the United States and am not familiar with the phrase "pay redundancy". Could you elaborate?

Maui

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

This is the first time since 2004 that I've been at the same place for two Christmases.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Defense is still cranking along, and we're probably good at least until the new Congress gets into their offices.

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Construction - current projects and backlog in the Power and Petrochemical industries are favorable through 2010. We are adding staff and should continue to do so well into 2009.   

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Maui, sorry to hear it.  What industry were you in before hand?

I'm in the alternative energy industry and we are doing fairly well at the moment.  I'm at a small company and we just landed a large job, so while I'm safe for the next year or so, I'm not sure that's an industry wide thing.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

If a job is made redundant then the company has to give the discharged employee a payment based on a variety of factors such as years of service and salary. There is a statutory minimum amount but some companies have concluded more generous terms with their employees...
Redundancy may not be used simply as an excuse to get rid of anyone. It is the job that is made redundant and hence no one else can be given that job or title for a set period of time.
Nice try but managers usually invent a new job title and a new job spec to get around any such situations.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Vol sep - jmw has it about right. They were offering 3.1 weeks pay, plus $1000, for every year of service, plus accumulated sick days (typically 5 months pay), plus accumulated long service leave (another week a year). There were also various boosts for superannuation for those over 50 and 55. They then pick and choose from those who apply, and make offers to those who don't apply but they want to get rid of for whatever reason. I'd have to say it was done as nicely as possible, I haven't heard of anyone who got paid out is unhappy.

All up it was about 18 months pay for me, taxed at a lower than normal rate, so it was a bit of a no-brainer. I asked and got knocked back, as jmw says, that may get a mention when it comes time for pay-rises! To be fair only people with 25+ years of service went from our department, 3 or 4 out of 80, I think. We actually have stacks of work at the moment, as we have aggressively pursued the Asian Pacific market, which is less affected by GFC, whereas the Americans, by and large, have not. Whether that is still the case in three years is a whole different question.
  

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Jeeez stanweld, where in the world are you?
In Alberta we have not seen much of an impact yet on the services sector, but quite a few new mega oil sands projects have been stalled. This will probably hit at the field/operators level first and start slowly rolling uphill. Unless a miracle happens and the economy recovers in the short term.

<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?


In the field of construction defects litigation, some of the competing companies here in Northern CA are doing very, very well.  Where I work there has been a 15% reduction in staff and my own work has fallen off significantly from last year's levels.  I live every day with the fear that I will be next.  I only hope that some of the places that have stayed busy will be looking to increase staff if I get let go.

Good luck Maui!

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Maui,

I was laid-off in early January and went back to work early October.  I have similar degree and registration to you.  It seems that no-one is very interested in that.  I ended up going to work for a competitor of the company I used to work for.  I think that a big part of the lack of engineering jobs is that too many of our peers are willing to work too many hours for free. Engineers have got to start taking a stand and demanding better conditions and pay. I know that there are many in this forum with a different opinion, but I think an engineers union would be a good idea.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

(OP)
Macmet, I was working on a large number of cutting edge R&D projects for a name brand manufacturer of professional and consumer saw blade products and hand tools. The company is very closely tied to the housing industry, and when the housing crisis hit the company decided that one of the first things to go would be their long term R&D programs. I have seen this happen in other companies where I worked previously, but back then I wasn't directly involved in R&D and so was unaffected.

Thanks Cass. No worries. It's just a matter of time.

dvd, I signed a non-compete agreement with this employer that said I wouldn't work for their competition for a period of twelve months after I left the company. So even though the competition may be very interested in me, they can't really consider me for employment until that twelve months expires. I did contact an employment attorney who reviewed the non-compete and concluded that it was unenforceable. But that doesn't mean that the company can't make my life difficult should I decide to work for their competition before it expires. I'm just glad that I told them no when they asked me to sign the severance agreement that they put in front of me. That agreement would have prevented me from working in the industry for an additional three years, plus it would have made me obligated to them in a number of ways. They did come to me after the fact and asked me to sign over the rights to an invention that I had developed. They wanted to patent it. I told them to go pound salt.

Maui  

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

I'd go ahead and sign over the patent rights... after the check for two year's wages cleared.  Something to tide you over during the noncompete's duration.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Maui,
You have something they want.
If you choose to leave you need a job.
If they dump you, you need a job.
Think about what you want and see if you can find some better deal.
For example, delete the non-compete clauses all together, get as near a golden handshake deal as possible. I mean, so they have to conclude a special contract with employee that gives you virtual tenure, so all it means is that when the going gets tough you'll be the last to go.
When it comes to contract negotiations there is no law that says your contract has to be the same as everyone else's.

PS...the cutting edge of saw blade R&D? I hope you were punning for all you were worth or I'm gonna have to report you in the language forum.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
 

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

(OP)
Mike, I did consider that. But I think that it's unlikely that they would be willing to negotiate such a deal. I suspect that they would instead attempt to try and circumvent me if possible. For that reason I had my attorney draft them a letter. They never did bother to contact me or even send a reply after that letter was sent.

jmw, guilty as charged. I was wondering if someone would catch that awful little joke I made.

Maui

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

Six months ago, E&C's in Houston were still struggling to find people to staff all the work.  Now, the rest of the economy is catching up with us.  I hear the other companies around town are starting rounds of layoffs and my company had one client just cancel two big jobs on us that were going to be a significant chunk of our work for 2009.  I'm not personally worried, but I know we're going to lose people with that kind of a hit.

 

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

RE: Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

unotec,
We have work throughout the USA southern half of the USA

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources