Employer just made more layoffs

by Elsewhere 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  dinah

  Another thing companies are doing: cutting the work week by a day or two. Employees are technically employed, but their income is cut. That is happening alot around here.

  Another local company is laying off 90 employees next month. My sister-in-law worked for Chrysler for almost 20 years. Their plant was sold 5 years ago. She just heard last month, the entire plant will be closed by the spring. Honda has cut production here in Bama, which in turn has caused their suppliers to lay-off workers.

  I just can't see an end to any of this.
• 

  Elsewhere

  > he claims unemployment is really over 20%-

  Yup. The "unemployment" rate that they give out is the percentage of the population currently receiving unemployment benefits. Problem with that number is the fact that the unemployment benefits run out after a few weeks. Once that runs out you are no longer considered to be "unemployed" even though you still have no job and no income.

  The basic rule of thumb is to take the "unemployment" percentage and double it. If they say unemployment is 15%, in reality it is closer to 30%.

  Crooked... crooked... crooked....
• 

  moshe

  Elsewhere, I just read a posted comment in the Internet , where a lady was laid off from her IT job- her boss and 65% of the dept where on H-1 visas- but she was the one who got the axe- then a month later Manpower offered her a contract position at 1/2 her old pay, that turned out to be, yes, her old job! It seems the H-1 visa boys had run into trouble- she said screw'em. 65,000 H-1 visa holders are in the US- jobs that employers say can't be filled with Americans. In reality, they prefer, for example, Indians working for 1/2 to 1/3 the salary of US citizens.
• 

  Heaven

  We live in constant fear of this where I work as it seems to be a regular activity now. At the end of April this year, they unloaded 5 people in my department (for no good reason except they had a number on a chart that needed to be met). None of the people who were let go deserved this. The boss even sent a note to the rest of us saying so. He was not happy about being asked to do this. At this same time another person retired so we have been scrambling. We've all had to assume additional workload. At the end of October, we know a bunch from the company will go due to some governmental changes being made here in Canada regarding 'supplemental employees'. There are also rumours another purge will occur at the end of November.

  What I do (IT) can one day be done by someone in another geography so it's only a matter of time. We know they are ramping up the skills elsewhere. Luckily, it takes years to learn what I do so I am hoping my job will last for the next 5 years so I can make it to 30 years service and 'retire'. Then I'll get a job (maybe re-train) or start my own biz where it doesn't really matter how much I earn. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

  Living day to day like this does not make for an overly pleasant life. It is very difficult to make plans.
• 

  Elsewhere

  Things seem to be calming down. Lots of very good people were lost.

  By what I'm hearing, my department should be good for the foreseeable future. Ironically leadership is talking about my department growing... though most of that growth will be overseas.

  Sounds like they have a new "resource" model going on: 50% of people onshore, 50% offshore
• 

  Big Tex

  Having just dealt with some woman from India whose English was very poor and the phone connection was even worse, pushing jobs overseas is not just poor customer service it is nearly criminal in dealing with the consumer.

  I was trying to find a way to convert an MPEG file so that it would be acceptable to Powerpoint 2007, and even after telling her 5 times I was talking about a VIDEO file, she kept thinking it was audio related. Stupid, incompetent *#@#!!!!!

  Google is a better aide than any IT "support".

  An absolute waste of 30 minutes. I ended solving the damn problem by myself.

  Add to this the fact that executives, especially board members, who look to squeeze every dime out of the corporation for themselves and to hell with everyone else. Let's cut a penny at the bottom rather than thousands at the top. And quality of work, pride of a job well done is irrelevent.

  Seriously pisses me off. This is the dirty side of capitalism run amok.
• 

  Elsewhere

  Yup... I have similar problems working with people overseas.

  Day 1: Send off assignment with instructions

  Day 2: Arrive at work to find email with questions. Send off email with answers.

  Day 3: Get assignment back. It's wrong. Send off clarified assignment instructions.

  Day 4: Arrive at work to find email with questions. Send of email with answers.

  Day 5: Get assignment back complete.

  Five days to do what would normally take one or two days.
• 

  Gregor

  It's pure greed and deregulation along with NAFTA, GATT, etc. We need to do something to regulate those who would send jobs overseas. Do you right wingers want us to compete by paying third world wages?????????????

  Great point Beks. So, should we assume that you only buy American (esp. Union made) consumer goods like clothes, appliances, etc? Good for you! I can't afford it myself, even if I could find domestic equivalents.
• 

  brinjen

  A cousin of mine used to do "correction work" for a US based software company. They outsourced most of their software development work to India... my cousin's job was to check their work and make any necessary corrections. Most of the time, the Indian's quality of work was questionable at best... he says a lot of the time he was pretty much having to re-write the code for them. Company didn't care... the labour is cheap and they had people like him to make sure the job was done properly... much cheaper than paying a whole team of software developers who were actually competant about their job.
• 

  The Almighty Homer

  This situation is happening quite a bit now where large business who may be based in the US or up here in Canada are moving a good part of their business

  to counties where the labor is much cheaper. Of course it makes it even easer to have their phone services moved over to counties like India or elsewhere.

  Manufacturing jobs are going over seas to places like the orient or Mexico to gain take advantage of the low labor costs. It even has proven in doing that they

  can sell their goods back into North America and make a better mark up. Personally I think thats a very unpatronizing and damaging effect to are own counties

  and will eventually lead to further diminish the middle class of are own countries.

  But of course the top executives and middle management people will still get their yearly bonuses to be sure.