Has Anyone Gotten the Axe This Year?

[Maui]

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

 

[KENAT]

Maui, in the UK 'redundancy' essentially means laid off. It's distinct from being 'sacked' (fired) for disciplinary reasons.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[IRstuff]

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

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[stanweld]

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.

 

[macmet]

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.

 

[jmw]

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

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[GregLocock]

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

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Unotec]

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>>

 

[casseopeia]

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!"

 

[dvd]

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.

 

[Maui]

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

 

[MikeHalloran]

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

 

[jmw]

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

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Maui]

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

 

[StressGuy]

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.

 

[stanweld]

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