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would you rather get laid off, or leave before it happens?

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hans007 said:
so

i work in web development and the company i work for just recently merged with another one. so as part of the merger agreement, our chairman of the board became the new one, and their CEO is the new ceo. the new CEO picked his own people, and apparently offered some terrible positions to our execs so no one wants to stay.

anyway this monday the new CTO and CMO (chief strategy / marketing officer) came to visit us. the CTO was a pretty decent dude, but the Cmo is some sort of asshat, so he told us all our office would be closed (we are in los angeles, company is based in texas, and other dev offices are in texas / boston) and they are now doing damage control to try to keep everyone from leaving right away.

anyway, this company merged to try to cut costs. the company we merged with used something like 70% indian offshore consultants, while we have a mostly los angeles based workforce. our systems are far more updated than theirs, while theirs apparently are using SDKs and APIs that are 5 years old. but given the new management structure, they seem to keep saying they want to keep their systems and not use ours, or only port small bits or making some statements saying we need talent to grow etc (so our company's digital revenue grew 35% a year for the last 2 years, their similar group... 0%, yet somehow we are probably gonna get screwed).

anyhow, the merger closes in 50 or so days, and we get minimum 60 days notice if we are to be laid off (probably wont gbe right away so lets say 140 days). anyway they say they would want to repurpose us and made some idiotic statement that they wanted to aggressively cut costs while growing new development (impossible), but all the management we've worked with seems like they will leave and it might get ugly.


so effectively i have about 140 days. now I COULD get some sort of job that pays around what i make fairly quickly probably 4-5 weeks, but it probable won't be the ideal job. on the other hand i could just stick around for 5 months, collect my pay and be somewhat productive (like work on random side projects) and then if i do get laid off, collect a small severance package and just be unemployed...

anyone been in this type of situation and have any advice? i know a few friends who took the first semi decent job they could get, instead of a lay off and some regret it. i'm kind of leaning towards just doing a bunch of interviews while im still employed and just take a job if it seems really good and not just acceptable, and take my chances being actually unemployed (not sure if it affects my hireability all that much )
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Do exactly what you think you should do. Take this time to find a job at a place you really want to work at.
 
Because I was the junior guy on my team at Hynix, I was let go first. 2 months before the place went out of business. I had a job long before anyone else even started searching.
 
Fritzo said:
Um...I'd rather wait until it happens? If you leave, you don't get the benefits!
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If he finds a job before they get rid of him, depending on the new company he will have benefits with the new company. My company benefits started after day one.
 
hans007 said:
anyone been in this type of situation and have any advice? i know a few friends who took the first semi decent job they could get, instead of a lay off and some regret it. i'm kind of leaning towards just doing a bunch of interviews while im still employed and just take a job if it seems really good and not just acceptable, and take my chances being actually unemployed (not sure if it affects my hireability all that much )
Click to expand...

A few decades ago, I spent a few years in the computer industry (at a site that did System Design, Testing, Engineering Support, and Manufacturing). In five years, I went through three or four layoffs.

It wasn't hard to predict when they were coming. We were a publicly traded company. Anytime we lost money two quarters in a row. There would be a layoff.

Besides the ladies in HR always talked. So we always knew how many people and what day. (Though, they never talked specific names. So nobody knew who until that day.)

You have a grace period now. It would be prudent for you to update your resume and polish your portfolio. If you are not already, you might consider getting more active with local professional groups.

For the next 140 days or so, your mission is to check your market value. Don't broadcast resumes but if there is a better position at a well respected company it would be prudent to check it out. (Rifle approach not shotgun...)

The SOP at my company, was that on the day of the layoffs, your supervisor was supposed to tell you as early as possible in the am and anyone layed off was supposed to be gone by noon.

Then, that afternoon, people that had gotten a better job offer would go to HR and give their two weeks notice. (No one wanted to leave before the layoff because everyone wanted to see if they would be layed off or not...)

So then, the ladies in HR would spend the rest of the afternoon calling a few of the people that had been layed off in the morning and asking them if they wanted their job back.

Anyway, no reason to panic. No reason to accept a job you might not like. Good reason to make a plan to check your market value and see if your contribution would be valued higher by a different company.

And oh, say hi to the Bobs for me.

Best of luck,
Uno
 
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CPA said:
Severance?

Retention bonus?
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our severance is a month, we have no retention. i'm probably one of our better people, i did get promoted 2 weeks ago.

then again the merged company has an office in boston that does the same role i do (i write webservices / javascript stuff for mobile web sites)

my last job was a buyout too, but they actaully wanted us to keep around and were offering retentions and raises etc. so i stuck aroun da while. this one is just terrible. i guess this is what happens when you work at "not actaully a tech company" and they dont value technical contributors.

oh well time to start job applying !
 
SpatiallyAware said:
With your reading comprehension being laid off is the least of your worries.
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Being laid off wasn't even a worry when it happened as I was in a similar situation as the OP. So with your failed assumptions here and as with your previous post, your reasoning skills are pretty much garbage.
 
It's all about the severance situation and whether it is worth staying to you.

I got laid off from my last three jobs. The 1st two I got a decent chunk of severance (I knew it was coming) and was on unemployment for a few months. Money-wise I made more not working than when I was employed. I was able to find jobs quick enough though, so I didn't end up milking too much.

My last job had no plans for giving me severance, but they let me know about my layoff about 4 months in advance (school district, so I actually saw myself cut on a powerpoint at a budget presentation). I was able to find a new job within 2 weeks, so within 4 weeks of finding out I was sitting at my new job. I got my unused paid vacation back too, so that worked out.
 
I've been laid off once, but they told me ahead of time so I had a job lined up for the day after the layoff. I asked the new place to delay my start date a few weeks so I could collect my severance, which was mucho dollars.
 
hmm apparently we get more severance for time served so i get 2 month. then again apparently i'd be stuck doing "integration" work for a year , while some people like our product managers could get laid off right away.

they told us today we'd probably just work on integration for a year... which means a year to look for a job i guess.
 
hans007 said:
hmm apparently we get more severance for time served so i get 2 month. then again apparently i'd be stuck doing "integration" work for a year , while some people like our product managers could get laid off right away.

they told us today we'd probably just work on integration for a year... which means a year to look for a job i guess.
Click to expand...

I did some work on an integration team when Inacom and Vanstar "merged" back in 1999 and got to travel out to California. We had a lot of fun (and drank tons too) but unfortunately, most of my friends on the integration team were let go when it was all done. It was pretty low of the company to do but fortunately, they all landed in a better place. I survived that one and the Compaq acquisition but when the HP merger was announced, I was out within a couple of months.
 
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