Foo - signs of the pending apocalypse at the office...

The company stock is hovering around a dollar.
Coffee stations around the office are missing supplies... it's hard to put a cup of coffee together.
There are "secret meetings."
Vendors don't return your calls.
You notice fewer and fewer folks attenting "critical meetings."



Go on...

:(

I'm sorry to hear this. I've been through this several times and really really feel for you.

Couchie

The CEO of the company holds a meeting and tells you 'everyone's job is secure'.


This thread is not funny.

-They start asking people to take vacations during the company's busiest times.
- Absolutely no more overtime.
- 40 hour people are now at 24 hours.
- The janitors come ever other night instead of every night.

get the interviews going

They promote someone to VP and send them on a financial talk show the next monday morning.

When they don't issue pay checks but still want you to work.
When they close down the office and expect everyone to work from home.
When they move the company headquarters and it's customer base to Indonesia.
When you are assigned to inventory the company's spares and supplies and sell what you can on eBay.
When the Creative Director is doing tech support for the network.

Your CEO is featured on "American Greed" TV show. Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/23240635

They install a cash register at the receiving dock to pay for the deliveries, otherwise the trucks drive away.

They ask you to bring your own toilet paper

You go to order more Kleenex and told to use toilet paper instead. <-- Happened for real.

Sorry to hear all of this. Job security ain't what it used to be. :(

Look out for hired buisiness consultants. That are having focus meetings with employees about what's important to you. they're evaluating you, not your ideas and opinions ...Town Hall meetings with assurances, VP's spending all their time in closed offices, HR people uncharacteristically chatty.

When the Creative Director is doing tech support for the network.


That's been happening here for years

The president of your family owned company quits because of differing opinions within the family on the direction the company is taking.
Just happened here.

When your logon doesn't work and the IT folks can't help.

(Yes, it happened to me once.)

People stop spending so much time on bf.

When they start asking you about your TPS reports...

The CEO of the company holds a meeting and tells you 'everyone's job is secure'.


This thread is not funny.

This post is not funny. I was laid off from my previous job the day after my boss had asked just that question about our departmetn in particular.

The executive board decides to retain the services of a law firm that historically has a record of leading Fortune companies through bankruptcy and then circulates a memo internally that the media outlets are wrong and there is no plans to file.

Your key card stops working...

When Larry Ellison shows up.

You are told you have a meeting with these guys:

http://blog.thomasecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/bobs.jpg

when you get a new department supervisor who is there to 'oversee things'.
she was hired to 'oversee' the exit interviews; i.e. do the actual firings.

i actually liked her a lot. i was one of the last ones out the door. she took her severance
package, retired to mexico and was murdered in her bed by a local- beat to death with a chunk
of cinder block.

the company was bought for just one part of it's technological process, then closed down.

When Larry Ellison shows up.

If you are female and play your cards right, you could have a chance at being the next ex-Mrs. Ellison.

When your logon doesn't work and the IT folks can't help.

(Yes, it happened to me once.)

Had that happen on a regular basis when I worked as a contractor at a large military-complex type company... the account would just expire, right on time, while the manager was still filling out the paperwork to extend my contract. It would have been funny if it were not our tax dollars at work. I would just sit there for a day until IT finally got around to fulfilling the re-instatement request.

You are told you have a meeting with these guys:

http://blog.thomasecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/bobs.jpgThese guys start the meeting by saying "Hello we are from Bain Capital"

The company picnic has been replaced by a pot luck.

If you are female and play your cards right, you could have a chance at being the next ex-Mrs. Ellison.

Sure, but the rest of your group gets subsumed into the gaping insatiable maw of the Oracle behemoth.

Job security ain't what it used to be. :(

What's job security? Never heard of it.

When I'm about to go through a door marked 'employees only' and the boss says 'Not so fast Lloyd...'

The company picnic has been replaced by a pot luck.

ouch

- When the trash cans don't have liners anymore
- When office trash cans are gone, and there's one large garbage can in the middle of the office
- When they remove half the light bulbs in the building
- When you can't work evenings or weekends because the building is turned off
- When you could put together an all-star team with the people let go in the last round

When the wear house is full of boxes that say made in Taiwan and it is the same product that you make.
And you have to go to the other factory to remove the machinery that the workers are still working on.
They were not informed that the plant was closing and the work crew was there to remove the machines was not informed.

We were not welcomed with open arms.

When the wear house is full of boxes that say made in Taiwan and it is the same product that you make.
And you have to go to the other factory to remove the machinery that the workers are still working on.
They were not informed that the plant was closing and the work crew was there to remove the machines was not informed.

We were not welcomed with open arms.

I can just imagine. I actually I accepted my lay-off with much dignity, and to some people's utter amazement (and probable assumption that I was indeed a doormat of sorts), I even cheerfully helped train the contractor that was to take my job. My supervisor was courteous but unapologetic and unconcerned about letting me go, as she had unsubtly hinted in the past that she thought I was vastly overpaid. I'd had over 20 years' experience at that point. Not more than three months later, she got the axe along with a few others. I was told by a spared employee that she was "mad as a hornet" when she got the news :-)

- When the free coffee and tea goes away.
- When you get asked to use up your accrued vacation days.
- When upper management outnumbers the worker bees.

When the legislation that your work is based on is "streamlined" and the phone stops ringing

I can just imagine. I actually I accepted my lay-off with much dignity, and to some people's utter amazement (and probable assumption that I was indeed a doormat of sorts), I even cheerfully helped train the contractor that was to take my job. My supervisor was courteous but unapologetic and unconcerned about letting me go, as she had unsubtly hinted in the past that she thought I was vastly overpaid. I'd had over 20 years' experience at that point. Not more than three months later, she got the axe along with a few others. I was told by a spared employee that she was "mad as a hornet" when she got the news :-)

We were told that we were there to move some machines. And we walk in with 8 guys 2 forklifts and 3 semis to move machines. The supervisors did not even know that we were coming and than we were told that the plant is closing at the same time the employees were told. A lot of them were a little mad at us and I would be to. I told my boss that I was not happy that we were put in that position.

Now I see box after box that say made in Taiwan and it is the same product that we make. On Friday 20 employees got lay-offs.
I'm next??? I don't know.

They ask you to bring your own toilet paperwe actually run out on a regular basis, not kidding

We were told that we were there to move some machines. And we walk in with 8 guys 2 forklifts and 3 semis to move machines. The supervisors did not even know that we were coming and than we were told that the plant is closing at the same time the employees were told. A lot of them were a little mad at us and I would be to. I told my boss that I was not happy that we were put in that position.

Now I see box after box that say made in Taiwan and it is the same product that we make. On Friday 20 employees got lay-offs.
I'm next??? I don't know.
Lack of communication... sort of explains why things are going down the tube. And moving manufacturing offshore won't stop the fall into the abyss -- poor business management only delays the inevitable.

What's job security? Never heard of it.

You are probably right...just a myth.

-You ask you boss if layoffs are coming, and he says "I haven't heard a thing".

-The newspaper vending machines, located outside, are removed.

-They give out the paychecks to the production floor personnel, then quietly tell people
"Don't cash it today, OK?"

-Long term employees (If there are any) are gently prodded to retire early. (Think of the Cisco Buyouts last year)

-Not only are the meetings secret, but off-site.

On that last one, don't laugh. I have worked in places where it's been done.

Sorry to hear all of this. Job security ain't what it used to be. :(

A few years ago our CEO was asked the hard question about our corporate employee evaluation system. His response was the best career advice I've ever heard: Job security isn't your job, it's you. Keep your skills marketable. Take advantage of all the relevant corporate training, take advantage of tuition reimbursement, take new positions within the company that expose you to all areas of business, develop your network.

When vacuuming the carpets gets added to your job responsibilities because they ended the maintenance company's contract.

A few years ago our CEO was asked the hard question about our corporate employee evaluation system. His response was the best career advice I've ever heard: Job security isn't your job, it's you. Keep your skills marketable. Take advantage of all the relevant corporate training, take advantage of tuition reimbursement, take new positions within the company that expose you to all areas of business, develop your network.

Wise words!

The company picnic has been replaced by a pot luck.
Actually happened to me only it was holiday dinners - both Thanksgiving AND Christmas.

* When your asked to do some "cross training" with a person from another site - only it's YOU training HIM and not the other way around.
* The company is too cheap to replace the batteries in the servers UPS (batter backup device) and when power goes down the servers stay up for 2 whole minutes - hopefully someone's actually there and can down them before the shut off.

Sometimes there are no signs. In one company, the first sign was when the president called everyone in the company into his office and laid everyone off.

A few years ago our CEO was asked the hard question about our corporate employee evaluation system. His response was the best career advice I've ever heard: Job security isn't your job, it's you. Keep your skills marketable. Take advantage of all the relevant corporate training, take advantage of tuition reimbursement, take new positions within the company that expose you to all areas of business, develop your network.

I must respectfully disagree. Those are not wise words. They are the words of an HR attorney, all nicely arranged and packaged for the CEO, should he be asked a hard question. That is known as a "Canned response".

Job security still exists. Don't believe it? Just come to Boston my friends, and get yourself a job at Massport, where some parking lot attendents make over 90K per year. Link to it. (http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1399377) Of course, you need to be a member of the Teamsters.....