Can somebody please explain to me why would they be so heartless to do something like this just ahead of holidays??? How cruel do you have to be to ruin people's Thanksgiving and Christmas??? Not just for the employees, but their families too??? I still keep hoping it will not happen, but I know that's just wishful thinking...
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Think of it as a paid holiday vacation and have a glass of wine - you too will survive. If you don't like it and you survive this one, stick around until next November - it'll happen again and has as long as I remember.
It gets them through the holidays and we're not paying people for 45 days in January and February when it's dead.
To get people off the payroll for the new year
Just happens to be the end of the fiscal year and quarter. The other BIG one is February. It ain't personal peoples. They are just working the numbers.
Just tagging it for future use as they always do it during holidays...
#holidays #holidayslayoffs #holidaylayoff #holidaylayoffs
Why do this just before holidays?
Can somebody please explain to me why would they be so heartless to do something like this just ahead of holidays??? How cruel do you have to be to ruin people's Thanksgiving and Christmas??? Not just for the employees, but their families too??? I still keep hoping it will not happen, but I know that's just wishful thinking...
It used to be referred to "The home for the holidays" package. - "Sorry bub, its just bidness" - le mgmt
It's how they always do it, no surprise
Maybe it's a conspiracy against those who celebrate Christmas? Seriously, so when would you suggest would be a better time for a layoff? September so that 45 days later falls in the time you'd otherwise be buying gifts? How about before Easter or summer vacation or when tuition is due? How about right after Christmas? Does that make it better?
From an employee perspective, this is the best time of the year to get laid off. Its just coincidental that it happens to occur over the holiday season, making the company appear more insensitive than it otherwise would appear. Its a matter of setting a department to the right size according to what the budget targets are for the following year. So, your department has $X dollars to spend next year due to budget reductions, then the RIF occurs the last possible moment of this year to keep employees on payroll as long as they can. However if the department waits until next year to RIF, then more employees need to be off payroll than originally planned to meet the annual target. Its a balancing act to keep employees on payroll as long as they can this year, so they don't have to rif more than they absolutely need to rif next year. It all happens at the end of the year.
Layoffs are really difficult to execute well. It's a bad situation and if done for the wrong reasons or done in a way that doesn't recognize people's humanity, it just makes a bad situation even worse (read: this is the way Verizon does it because executive leadership is incompetent).
The company is only concerned with covering its own behind and the executives who make these decisions are only concerned with keeping and making more of their millions. That's it. When people say "it's just business" that preserves the status quo and gives people like that cover, when in reality, a string of bad leadership and poor decision making leads to stuff like this.
"It's just a job" ignores a couple of things. 1) It removes the human element from the workforce. Companies are comprised of people. Yeah, sometimes tough times or even bad decisions make situations like this inevitable. That doesn't mean they have to be d---s about it. 2) "Just a job" to one person is food on the table and a roof over the head of another. A full time worker spends nearly 25% of their time a week working during the prime years of their life, when they're healthiest and most able to make the most of their life. Trading 25% of your time is a big proposition.
As far as timing, I think there are plenty of other pieces of evidence all over this forum that this happens many times during the year. Why THIS one (and supposedly a big one, we have yet to see the actual final results) had to happen NOW is probably just a matter of wanting to clear up operating expense before the end of the year, while still have a large, full workforce to deal with the busy season. In other words, "just business".
The only thing to really be grateful for is if the rumors of "last day" being 12/30. At least there are 4 paychecks between now and the technical "end" of the holiday season and theoretical last day. If you are able to live within your means, and don't put holiday gifts on short term credit, and only buy what you can afford, you won't be using that severance money to pay off bills with interest.
Sadly, there's no good time for a layoff. If it's not before a holiday, it's just before your already planned vacation, or just before someone's kid is heading to college. I don't think there's some particular plan to make it worse for people, it's just corporate planning selecting what's useful for them.
Its a business. This is just a job, don't make it more than it is. If this job defines who you are, you have bigger problems.
Yes, layoffs are rough. I don't mean to minimize the impact, but seriously this company owes you nothing more than a paycheck for services rendered, and we should be thankful there is severance if and when your time is up, there are companies that don't offer anything at reduction in force time.
Dont stress over it. Shankar is likely only vaguely familiar with the concepts of Thanksgiving. Christmas, or Veteran's Day.