Work woes...

[pfloyd]

Okay, if you don't already know where I work, then I won't tell you outright. Let's just say that there is a low prime number in the company name.


It would appear that the company is being hit by the economic crunch. Plus we didn't make financial goals for two months straight. December's looking better, as we're close, but... they're incorporating a few cost-saving measures...

1. Suspension of Employer-Matching on 401k accounts. Not a biggie, I think. At least, when compared to items 2 and 3.
2. Merit increases (read: raises) are on hold for 2009 until further notice. Oh this hurts us. Big time. I haven't had a raise due to company financial reasons since my first review.
3. PTO carryover is eliminated for 2008 and 2009. Now, this doesn't affect me too much, as I would have been carrying over one, maybe two hours. This hurts those who have anywhere from a few days to a week or two that were going to be carried over. Now comes the mad dash to take PTO before year's end. And what a time to announce it -- two weeks before year's end. Everyone's scrambling. If the scheduling page doesn't allow people to take the PTO because of those of us who scheduled vacation months ago are already out, then I foresee a lot of cases of "blue flu" where loads of people call in "sick." Guess they want to run on a skeleton crew.

The last two items are probably enough to make people want to walk out the door, or at least consider and explore other options.
I'm going ot tough it out, since they're going to give us Cisco cert training early next year.

Comments

[stillking.livejournal.com]

that does kinda suck. try to consider what's going on behind the scenes:

-- company needs to keep N (2?) paycheck cycles' worth in cash reserves
-- company must also keep all vacation, sick days, holidays in $$$ as well
-- this starts to eat into company's ability to pay off other obligations
-- this shows up on their balance sheet [if they're publicly-held]
-- so company whittles away at expense, trying to minimize cash on hand
-- contractors are first cut, then vacation, tuition, other cash benefits
-- then all positive salary-adjustments are cut, to minimize cash on hand
-- sometimes staff are 'encouraged' to take (burn up) vacation in nov-dec
-- last resort: company shifts paychecks to weekly paydays, minimizes cash

I don't think this should really change your plans, but try to realize that they're in a slow death spiral + trying various desperate short-term measures to slow (but not stop) the hemorrhaging, and the situation may very well prove unwinnable. your expectations should shift accordingly.

post-script: i wouldn't necessarily count on that 2009 cisco training.
(for cash-on-hand reasons specified above)

-- sven

[pfloyd.livejournal.com]

Cisco training has already been budgeted, and some are already taking the exams. That's a definite.

The big headache over here was the fact that they announced the PTO burnoff TWO WEEKS before end of year, so everyone is scrambling, and leaving departments extremely short-handed. Doesn't help when we have 3-4 outages per day and people screaming at you...