Got me a new job

[Sphexi]

Back in March I posted about my current company closing down their operations in Canada. On July 29th they'll shut the doors and everybody left will be laid off, right now we have about 275 employees still, down from about 400 when the announcement was made.

Obviously some people jumped immediately, some started looking immediately, some will stay to the end. I fell into the 2nd group, started looking casually for a new job. Got an offer on Monday at a local company that does Internet transaction processing, they deal with mostly Canadian companies or companies looking to do business in Canada. They work with Shaw, Rogers, BCLC, some larger companies. Only 16 people, and it's pretty laid back, I'll mostly be doing technical troubleshooting and financial work.

About a 1/3 bump in pay over what I make now, so I'm happy with that, and there's room to grow within the company. I'm kind of sad though, I just got promoted here and I was actually starting to enjoy my job.

Oh well, off to better things, and I feel sorry for all of the poor customers once we shut down

 

[jlee]

Congratulations!

 

[Capt Caveman]

Congrats!

 

[Koing]

nice! I started a new job two weeks ago. I am going to learn a lot

 

[SAWYER]

Feel sorry for the customers? Pfft..the people losing their jobs have it a wii bit worse,

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Sawyer
Feel sorry for the customers? Pfft..the people losing their jobs have it a wii bit worse,

Not necessarily. The've given us 4+ months notice, had a job fair, are helping out with unemployment benefits, there are those who will still complain but realistically most will move on with no issues.

Our customers though, I feel bad for. We are one of several call centers that works with certain types of customers on the east coast, from Pennsylvania down through Florida, and west through eastern Texas. I think at last count there's 6 centers total, of which we are the only one worth anything. Of all the calls I used to get, 75% were fixing things reps from the other centers screwed up, or just didn't fix. Customers might have to call in 5 or 6 times on the same issue before getting someone who knows what they're doing.

Obviously it's a situation where you get what you pay for, those centers pay $8/hr and their turnover rate is horrible, people stay on average 4 months then leave, they retain one out of every 60 people for more than a year. We pay way more, have full benefits and stock options, and we retain something like 20-30 out of every 60 for more than a year. But because we cost more they're shutting us down, which makes it very clear where their priorities lie.

So yeah, I feel more sorry for the customers than I do for us, we have the 3rd lowest unemployment rate in Canada, we'll survive.

 

[jpeyton]

Did you dream about it the night before? Was Jesus giving you a heads up?

 

[Epic Fail]

1/3 jump is huge, is that from your old pay or the promoted salary?

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Did you dream about it the night before? Was Jesus giving you a heads up?

Unfortunately not, although from time to time he does give me Lotto numbers. Funny enough they never pan out.

Originally posted by: Epic Fail
1/3 jump is huge, is that from your old pay or the promoted salary?

Sorry for not clarifying. The 1/3 is from my old pay, which realistically was low for what I was doing. My "promotion" was more in name and responsibility than anything else, as we're not allowed to actually hire new people or promote anybody while the business is being shut down. So they gave me a team of 18 people, more responsibility, but no more cash.

Still, I was able to add it to my resume, and within a week I started getting a lot more calls back than I was prior, so it obviously helped.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Congrats Sphexi! :beer:

 

[AmigaMan]

awesome, congrats! My company just went through the same exact thing. We "bought" another company but it turns out they were going to be in charge. Everyone but the CEO is getting laid off here and the HQ is moving to the west coast. This was back in February and pretty much everyone started looking for a job. I too casually looked around and just got a great job locally which I will start next week. $20K pay raise ain't bad either.

 

[Sphexi]

Ugh...I forgot how hard it is getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I remember why I avoid getting new jobs, they're just a huge pain.

 

[Megatomic]

Way to go Sphexi. You took a potentially bad situation and made it positive all the way around!

 

[Patt]

Good luck dude. I can't wait to start my new job in two weeks ... one more week to go at the current place!

 

[rise]

congrats!

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Ugh...I forgot how hard it is getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I remember why I avoid getting new jobs, they're just a huge pain.

LOL
I start work at 6:30 which means I get up at 5:00.
In the winter, I normally start at 6:00.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Ugh...I forgot how hard it is getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I remember why I avoid getting new jobs, they're just a huge pain.

LOL
I start work at 6:30 which means I get up at 5:00.
In the winter, I normally start at 6:00.

My job starts at 7am, I get up at 5:05 for the morning rituals and a 40 minute commute. Dang.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Ugh...I forgot how hard it is getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I remember why I avoid getting new jobs, they're just a huge pain.

LOL
I start work at 6:30 which means I get up at 5:00.
In the winter, I normally start at 6:00.

My job starts at 7am, I get up at 5:05 for the morning rituals and a 40 minute commute. Dang.

...Waits for BoomerD...

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Ugh...I forgot how hard it is getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Now I remember why I avoid getting new jobs, they're just a huge pain.

LOL
I start work at 6:30 which means I get up at 5:00.
In the winter, I normally start at 6:00.

My job starts at 7am, I get up at 5:05 for the morning rituals and a 40 minute commute. Dang.

...Waits for BoomerD...

Well, it used to be worse. When I lived in Va Beach and worked at Jefferson Lab, my commute took me an hour and a half most days even though I was only 35 miles from the lab. It was the damned military traffic going over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, there were always accidents...

 

[D1gger]

Congratulations,

I'm sure you will enjoy working with Craig and the rest of the people at your new job. They are an aggressive and progressive bunch and I hear they treat their employees well.

:thumbsup:

 

[alfa147x]