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As you probably know if you've been reading my automatically posted Tweets, the past week has been an interesting one in work-terms. Friday morning at 10-ish the whole floor was pulled into the break room and told that the company would be shedding ~35 jobs in the support, sales, IT and customer service departments worldwide. We were told to go sit down and wait.
About 30 minutes later our team was pulled aside by our boss and told that we weren't being "shed", and we talked about it for a while. Turns out that we had lost:
- Half the customer service team (3 people)
- One of the field engineers
- The customer service manager
- Half the sales force (4 or 5, we're still not sure)
- The manager of our "Fusion" program, which is in place to reward high-spending customers.
- One of the IT dept (only 3 of them anyhow!)
So it's been weird. None of us can make sense of the people who have gone, considering the direction the company has been taking lately in terms of sales (more direct sales as opposed to selling through distribution) and the effort & money that has gone into the fusion program only to seemingly abandon it now.
The doomed have been in and out the office a few times and it's hugely uncomfortable. I try not to feel guilty about it (being sat here when they're sat at home) but it's difficult at times. We're all discussing what the bosses are doing, what the ultimate aim is, and hopefully when the "consultation period" is up and the people are no longer employees we'll get some answers.
However, in more positive news I have an interview. It's for a Desktop Support Analyst position at Carphone Warehouse Networks (formerly Opal Networks) in Irlam. It's the wrong physical location to be perfect, but I don't have any trust in this company any more. Once they've done one round of redundancies, I am going to wager that the chances of another wave being round the corner are quite high. So, job applications are going to be sent out seriously now, rather than just here and there when I see something that grabs my attention.
About 30 minutes later our team was pulled aside by our boss and told that we weren't being "shed", and we talked about it for a while. Turns out that we had lost:
- Half the customer service team (3 people)
- One of the field engineers
- The customer service manager
- Half the sales force (4 or 5, we're still not sure)
- The manager of our "Fusion" program, which is in place to reward high-spending customers.
- One of the IT dept (only 3 of them anyhow!)
So it's been weird. None of us can make sense of the people who have gone, considering the direction the company has been taking lately in terms of sales (more direct sales as opposed to selling through distribution) and the effort & money that has gone into the fusion program only to seemingly abandon it now.
The doomed have been in and out the office a few times and it's hugely uncomfortable. I try not to feel guilty about it (being sat here when they're sat at home) but it's difficult at times. We're all discussing what the bosses are doing, what the ultimate aim is, and hopefully when the "consultation period" is up and the people are no longer employees we'll get some answers.
However, in more positive news I have an interview. It's for a Desktop Support Analyst position at Carphone Warehouse Networks (formerly Opal Networks) in Irlam. It's the wrong physical location to be perfect, but I don't have any trust in this company any more. Once they've done one round of redundancies, I am going to wager that the chances of another wave being round the corner are quite high. So, job applications are going to be sent out seriously now, rather than just here and there when I see something that grabs my attention.
drained
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p.s. you'll need a passport to get out of Irlam.
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I'm confident that I can get something too, but I've been particularly picky recently, turning down/not applying for some things I've been offered when things haven't been quite right (location, salary, job description). I'm certain that if it comes to it, the scatterbomb application technique works fairly well :)
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It's not too stressful really, you just get on with it... The main reason for writing about it is that I want to make sure it's all documented - for me - and this is quite a handy place for it!
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a lot of companies are ditching people because they think 2009 is going to be really shit sales wise and they are taking drastic action now before it happens. if thats the case for your lot, then i guess you can't blame them that much.
i am feeling quite safe at the moment. but it could take just one bad quarterly result and larry could get his knickers in a twist and cut several thousand people all at once. there is no doubt that quite a few could go worldwide without impacting anything. i just like to think i'm not one of them but you just don't know until it happens... here's hoping it all works out for you.
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Option 1 - I sit around and wait to see what happens, whether I have a job in 6 months time or not. Right now I don't feel too secure. Advantages - I have 2yrs service so qualify for redundancy pay.
Option 2 - I find another job with a company who are less likely to feel the effects of a recession, or alternatively find another job at all. Disadvantage - if things go wrong, I'm in the shit.