My Company is crashing and burning before my eyes, UPDATE 1/21:

[alkemyst]

How do you know what your boss got on his review and whether a pay increase or not?

 

[FDF12389]

Some sage advice -- never, ever depend on this view. For one, most executives have massive egos and they'll fire you just to make a point and then turn around and pay a small army of consultants big bucks to do whatever it is you do. Secondly, even if it did work and they begged you to stay on, they're only doing it to bring someone else in to learn the ropes and then they will unceremoniously kick your butt to the curb.

I've seen it done numerous times. Start looking now.

Very true, I've seen this first hand, my last director was irreplaceable, the new CIO didn't give one damn. He fired my director and brought in 6 more contractors, a new director, and a manager to help the director. All to replace one position, he made it very clear that everyone is replaceable.

 

[ultimatebob]

It amazes me that you STILL don't understand the concept of supply and demand. The employer can do whatever the fuck they want in this economy.

That depends on the job, though. Some positions (like some specific IT admin jobs and nursing jobs) are still in high demand even in the crappy economy.

For example, any really good DBA or VMWare administrator would have no trouble getting a better paying job right now if they wanted one and were willing to move.

 

[Eli]

How do you know what your boss got on his review and whether a pay increase or not?

Because I'm friends with someone who was very good friends with him. She told me everything when I came in yesterday morning, well before they annouced his departure.

I sent her a personal email at the same time I sent the letter to my boss, just giving her a heads up. So when she came in, she was like "We need to talk.. now."

My mind was blown, definitely wasn't expecting that turn of events. My overall thoughts regarding this company were certainly vindicated, though.

 

[Eli]

So you're the mail clerk? lol

LOL.. I suppose eh. They pay me like I am.

I run the Shipping and Receiving department and overhead the RMA process. It's certainly not a glorious job, but there are a lot of customer specifics that command hefty charge-backs if their procedures are not followed. It could piss our customers off and cost the company a lot of money if things aren't done right.

S&R is a huge aspect of this company. Our offices here in the states are mostly just R&D, design, etc. We have an office in Hong Kong with ~120 employees, and factories that we do business with all over the world.

 

[Phokus]

That depends on the job, though. Some positions (like some specific IT admin jobs and nursing jobs) are still in high demand even in the crappy economy.

For example, any really good DBA or VMWare administrator would have no trouble getting a better paying job right now if they wanted one and were willing to move.

On average, the employers have all the leverage. Not sure about IT, but in your nursing example, they're starting to hire Filipino nurses instead of American ones to fill vacancies to save money.

 

[gophins72]

So you're the mail clerk? lol

LOL.. I suppose eh. They pay me like I am.

I run the Shipping and Receiving department and overhead the RMA process. It's certainly not a glorious job, but there are a lot of customer specifics that command hefty charge-backs if their procedures are not followed. It could piss our customers off and cost the company a lot of money if things aren't done right.

here's an idea to get right to the top from your position, i've seen it happen:

 

[ViviTheMage]

Sounds like they just want to refresh employees ... generally if you think you're the only one who knows what is going on, you are wrong, especially low on the totem poll.

Or you could be in the right place at the right time for a nice advancement.

 

[alkemyst]

Because I'm friends with someone who was very good friends with him. She told me everything when I came in yesterday morning, well before they annouced his departure.

I sent her a personal email at the same time I sent the letter to my boss, just giving her a heads up. So when she came in, she was like "We need to talk.. now."

My mind was blown, definitely wasn't expecting that turn of events. My overall thoughts regarding this company were certainly vindicated, though.

I wouldn't say someone blabbing personal things about someone else was a very good friend.

You should invite everyone out back to smoke a bowl with you and tell them how you'd change things.

profit!

 

[Eli]

I wouldn't say someone blabbing personal things about someone else was a very good friend.

You should invite everyone out back to smoke a bowl with you and tell them how you'd change things.

profit!

😀

I'm sure most would be down. Half the people here smoke anyway. Would probably do upper management some good to take a few puffs. Bunch of extremely conservative hardcore republicans.

 

[Eli]

Update: Well, I met with the VP this afternoon. They caved to my demands. $2500 bonus and a 10% pay increase. Woohoo! I suppose that's worth another chance. I still think they just didn't want me to walk, but that's okay. I'll stick around for at least a while longer.

 

[Ns1]

'grats on the update!

 

[iGas]

Update: Well, I met with the VP this afternoon. They caved to my demands. $2500 bonus and a 10% pay increase. Woohoo! I suppose that's worth another chance. I still think they just didn't want me to walk, but that's okay. I'll stick around for at least a while longer.

In a situation like this I would update my resume and send it out immediately. And, I would take the first job offer that that have better working environment than the current one.

 

[disappoint]

whoever thought it was a good idea to lie on people's reviews in order to justify not giving them a raise is a complete douchebag, and i'm pretty sure i know exactly who thought that brilliant plan up.

lumberg!

 

[sandorski]

Next week this happens.

 

[IcePickFreak]

Reminds me quite a bit of the last place I worked for. I'm gonna write a little book here, but I'll let ya know how it went for me at place that sounds really similar to yours. At the point this first started, I had been there about 3 years. Of the 25 or so people working in the office, only five of them had been there longer than me... yeah. The GM wasn't one of them either, he started there a year after me as a "manufacturing engineer." They came to me to offer me a new position. I took it and got a weak raise, but I was willing to work for it as they gave me the "we'll give a review in 6 months."

Well, six months later was the end of the year, my boss reviewed me (got along great with him and he was very happy with my performance) but upper management ignored it because they were too busy cutting our wages at the beginning of the new year. So with that I was barely making more than I was in my old position with waaaaay less responsibility than the new one. On top of that, they switched up the management totem-pole and we (me and my boss, who was a working manager and did the same stuff I did but for different types of units) ended up under my old boss who was totally inept. He was the head of engineering and literally asked in a meeting one day what 3/8 was in a decimal.

Another six months go by and upper management called for reviews across the board, but this time it would be this other guy (essentially my bosses boss) that would give them. The way they wanted these reviews done was that we would each fill out one for ourselves, and then the manager in charge would fill one out for us, then we'd get together and compare etc. Well, we filled em out, turned em in... and never heard another word.

Then the GM asked me one day "off the record" as he said, if I'd be interested in going to Europe for a couple of weeks. I said sure, but obviously we'll have to talk more in detail about it. It was literally a 30 second conversation. 2 weeks later they had some people in from our parent company in Europe, and I got guys I have no idea who they are coming over by me saying "I hear you're coming over to Europe by us!" ...So much for off the record or discussing the details. I still didn't know where in Europe they want to send me lol. So I talk to the GM at the end of the day about it and his first question was "Do you have a passport?" They wanted me to ship out in 3 weeks to go live in the Netherlands for 1-2 years! Wtf. The whole situation stunk as I would be going over by a guy the head sales guy (who really ran the company, the GM was promoted to GM and was never one before so he was clueless) didn't get along with. As in he literally wouldn't let us contact this guy in Europe for months, right after they told us we were going to be working with them a lot. So obviously I voiced my concern right away that day and said there's no way I can pick up and move to Europe for a year or two with 3 weeks notice, and now knowing the details I'm not keen on the idea anyway because of the conflict between the two guys.

So the idea was kind of stalled for a month or two and again they tell me nothing more except they want to move forward with it. So two days before Christmas, the GM makes a trip into work when he was out sick the two days previous and he lived a good 40+ miles away, specifically to talk to me. I sit down with him and the HR/Director of Operations (no kidding, she held both titles) and the GM demands I move to Europe. In return, they'd rent me an apartment, get me a bicycle (no kidding) and give me $20/day for food. No raise, that at this point is 18 months late, and the HR lady even admits in this very meeting that I'm 33% underpaid at the minimum - ie starting pay for my position. Funny enough, two days prior to this meeting I got a contract for an over $800k job.. our crack sales team had brought in less than $400k for the month at that point. Heck, one of them got a commission check for almost my yearly salary for the contract job I brought in house and they had no idea the bid even existed. It's at this point the GM jumps on me for being greedy (LMAO) and tells me I either move to Europe for 1 year minimum, in 3 weeks time once again, or I no longer work there. Yeah... so I lost my job 2 days before Christmas. He went home shortly after the meeting, and I actually stuck around and left a whole whopping hour earlier than normal quitting time. I figured the only people who were going to get screwed if I just walked out were the couple of guys that actually do anything and were already overloaded with work.

I didn't plan on filing for unemployment initially, but after 2 months I had no choice. Well, turns out the company said I quit. After some phone run around I spoke with an adjudicator who had no problem giving me unemployment benefits, and my ex-employer never tried to fight it. First time I've ever had to file for unemployment. It was still the better option IMO because had I gone to Europe I would of still had all my bills back here, been living where cost of living is way higher, and making piss poor money that's worth even less in Europe. Besides that, I didn't trust any of them at this point. My boss was even against the whole idea 110%.

Funny enough, I'm still am in contact with my ex-boss and I had top sales for a month about 6 months after I had left from quotes I had done the previous year. This all went down in 09 so a lot of places were getting quotes but not ready to start spending cash yet. And now you know why my signature is what it is. 😉

 

[KingGheedora]

You're making assumptions that the PTB care about the ability of your organization to do it's job and, that they have any intention of continuing to operate it in any form resembling the current one. In my experience, corporate never expresses it's intent until after the fact.

Yup. In my experience corporate management says one thing despite all their actions pointing to something different. Then, lo and behold, something happens contrary to their initial claims.

They have to do this to keep the sheep apeased, or else everyone would leave in droves, lose morale, slack, or sabotage.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Update: Well, I met with the VP this afternoon. They caved to my demands. $2500 bonus and a 10% pay increase. Woohoo! I suppose that's worth another chance. I still think they just didn't want me to walk, but that's okay. I'll stick around for at least a while longer.

That's great, but I'd be watching my back. It's likely that they'll make sure to lower their dependence on you by getting others involved and reel back that 10% through lower pay raises in the future. I hope I'm wrong...

 

[Eli]

That's great, but I'd be watching my back. It's likely that they'll make sure to lower their dependence on you by getting others involved and reel back that 10% through lower pay raises in the future. I hope I'm wrong...

Oh, of course. I'm still skeptical overall. We'll see. The VP is taking over my ex-boss's job for the time being, basically. If he becomes tyrannical in any way, I'll split.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yup. In my experience corporate management says one thing despite all their actions pointing to something different. Then, lo and behold, something happens contrary to their initial claims.

They have to do this to keep the sheep apeased, or else everyone would leave in droves, lose morale, slack, or sabotage.

I'm especially fond of the trend for upper management to write their own metrics. Gotta keep those quarterly bonuses coming. 🙁