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OH works for the government and I work for a charity, so to a certain extent we're cushioned from the effects of the credit crunch, but our son is having a dreadful time, and work for him and his colleagues is becoming a misery. Is this happening to anyone else?
He works for a company which has always had fairly fluid staffing, people would leave for pastures new, if managers left they would be replaced by promoting someone from the lower ranks. If the company found itself overstaffed these people simply would not be replaced, but more likely it would mean they'd be understaffed so they'd advertise new jobs. Now, suddenly, they're overstaffed, no-one is leaving, the company apparently want to reduce staffing levels without paying redundancy packages and they are doing everything to find reasons to sack people or force them to resign. Instances include publicly disciplining someone who was 3 SECONDS late back from lunch, sacking someone who had a suspected heart attack at work (and they themselves had called the ambulance, so knew he was in hospital) and, somewhat more trivially, ensuring that the food in the staff canteen is inedible - there is nowhere else in the area for them to eat so most are now having packed lunches quickly at their desks then getting back to work, not much of a break for them. No temporary staff are being taken on, so maternity leaves are being covered by those already there, which means that many a day they finish far later than they should (much more than 3 seconds is being given to the company every day by just about every employee) and they are stuck because there's nothing else available out there.
I feel so sorry for our son, he finished uni 2 years ago with a good degree and took this job (which is admittedly well paid) in the hopes of paying off his loans and debts quickly before moving on to do something which interests him, but which will sadly not pay much for the first few years. Now he's trapped in a dreadful atmosphere and growing increasingly depressed. I just wondered how widespread this sort of thing was.
He works for a company which has always had fairly fluid staffing, people would leave for pastures new, if managers left they would be replaced by promoting someone from the lower ranks. If the company found itself overstaffed these people simply would not be replaced, but more likely it would mean they'd be understaffed so they'd advertise new jobs. Now, suddenly, they're overstaffed, no-one is leaving, the company apparently want to reduce staffing levels without paying redundancy packages and they are doing everything to find reasons to sack people or force them to resign. Instances include publicly disciplining someone who was 3 SECONDS late back from lunch, sacking someone who had a suspected heart attack at work (and they themselves had called the ambulance, so knew he was in hospital) and, somewhat more trivially, ensuring that the food in the staff canteen is inedible - there is nowhere else in the area for them to eat so most are now having packed lunches quickly at their desks then getting back to work, not much of a break for them. No temporary staff are being taken on, so maternity leaves are being covered by those already there, which means that many a day they finish far later than they should (much more than 3 seconds is being given to the company every day by just about every employee) and they are stuck because there's nothing else available out there.
I feel so sorry for our son, he finished uni 2 years ago with a good degree and took this job (which is admittedly well paid) in the hopes of paying off his loans and debts quickly before moving on to do something which interests him, but which will sadly not pay much for the first few years. Now he's trapped in a dreadful atmosphere and growing increasingly depressed. I just wondered how widespread this sort of thing was.
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