montreal mike

Help, I just got fired

No, not me, I am past all that

But every minute of every day someone somewhere has gotten the chop. Who knows, this could be your lucky day. It could be you!

You have been with your firm many years, have gotten decent salary increases, and in the good years you even got a nice bonus. Your performance appraisals are exemplary and you have been told your long term career prospects are promising. In fact you are an asset to the company. Or so you are lead to believe.

Well, to get to the point, one fine Friday afternoon your office phone rings. You hesitate to answer as you are getting ready to clock off, but you do. Some delightful young woman in the HR department requests your presence. You say OK but ‘can’t it wait until Monday morning’? ‘Afraid not’ is the reply. This sound ominous so you get off your butt and next thing you know you are in HR

She does not waste any time. No small talk. You are presented a letter which essentially says your services are no longer needed and you are terminated forthwith. The reason given is downsizing, corporate reorganization, mumbo jumbo just like that. This 'personalized' letter is nothing more than the effort of their legal counsel and has no doubt been replicated over and over again.

You are then told to go pack your stuff and when you return to your dept. you are greeted by two burly security people, equipped with boxes, they help you pack you stuff, you then return your keys or access pass, you are escorted to the street, you hail a cab, and off you are gone. Mercifully no one was around so at least you were spared the ordeal of explaining it all to your employees and co-workers.

In the cab you have a plenty of time to think of how you are going to break the news to the family

Monday morning comes soon enough. You are offered a severance deal, no negotiations, that is it, sign here, and your cheque will follow soon . All very cold blooded, very clinical. You are expected to say yes.

DO NOT FALL IT

You go through the yellow pages. You get yourself an appointment with a top notch labour lawyer. He or she will ask for the relevant documentation and a synopsis. So spend a few hours getting it ready. Make your visit as short and as efficiently as possible. Don’t be cheap. Spend a few hundred dollars. The lawyer will send out a polite and terse letter to the HR dept. HR do not like the prospect of protracted litigation. They do not want YOU to become THEIR
problem.

Guaranteed they will get back to you with a better offer. Do not accept it. Make them wait. Return and haggle some more. You will finally come to terms. Go phone the lawyer to get the green light.

Once you settle do this:

1. If finances permit have the gross amount paid into an RRSP so taxes do not get taken off at that point

2. Go see the employment insurance people. Since you not at fault you will collect pronto

3. Get a glowing reference letter in writing. Write it yourself for the HR dept and tell them what you wrote you expect to see in writing from them. Make sure it says you were laid off through no fault of your own

4. You might be offered job counseling and help with your resume. Take it.

5. Do not see yourself as the victim. It was your job that vanished. you are still alive.

6. Do not badmouth your previous employer in subsequent interviews as the new company does not want to hear about it

7 There will be a confidentiality agreement you must sign once you settle so do not blab about it; after all you got a decent severance so be content and get on with your life.

8. Do not feel sorry for yourself. Life is unfair so get used to it.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST PRINT THIS OUT AND KEEP IN A SAFE PLACE AS IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY SOMEDAY

MillieF

I do so hope that this will be an irrelevant print out eventually used for scap, but thank you so much...it's not nice, but it's regretably life.

montreal mike

Getting the chop can sometimes pay off. I once knew a chap who was nervous about being fired, so he went and found another job. He was about to hand in his resignation but this was his lucky day as the HR people called him, gave him the sad news, and he got a good settlement. I remember him as he came back to our area and he told us he was asked to leave. Only a few months later, once he got his money, did he tell us what actually happened. Had he handed in his notice he would not have been that lucky.

Auld Yin

I question point no.2. I believe if you get a severance package those funds must be used up before collecting EI. eg, 24 months severance means waiting two years before applying for EI.

montreal mike

you are correct.

i should have thought of it

ann m

I work in HR and though not directly involved in laying someone off, I can tell you it is not a cold-blooded heartless process. Stomachs are churning, people hate having to do this and I've seen managers upset and grown men cry.

We offer a counselling service at the time of an abolishment or termination (I hate that word but it is used freely for any person who leaves), and the whole resume/financial planning service comes as standard. It costs a fortune. We are sensitive to all parties at all times, and if an abolishment is forthcoming, quite like the example above, the employee is invited to HR towards the end of the day, and in the meantime, a manager is quietly letting the rest of the department know.

It's crushing. Several of our department have themselves been let go. One by our own company, but she came back four years later and has since been with us for a further 18 years. I honestly believe that the manner and style that this is done, completely sets the tone for the whole organization.

Our severance packages are laid out in the original offer of employment, so there is likely no negotiation.

Take the help you are offered - go home and lick your wounds - and try not to take it toooooo personally, though I think that is impossible to do.

On the up side, this could be a fantastic opportunity.

Shard

What a term! How long has that been in use? If there is place for euphemisms surely this is it. Termination is factual, as is redundancy (though of course, British) laid-off is casual, but ABOLISHMENT! Presumably it's simply the role that has been abolished, and not the individual. But you can never be too sure.

iaink

Excellent post. Been there, done that unfortunately.

Only thing I would add is if you are confident that you can find another job, or already have a trusted careers advisor/ resume reader, you can turn their offer of external employment counseling into a further $ lump sum.

ann m

Yes, the position has been abolished and is no longer needed.

Shard

...until of course, the position is eventually created again. It's all a bit of corporate hoodwinking.

montreal mike

I am always suspicious when i hear a position is being abolished then what was the person who had the position doing to begin with?

unless the job is sent offshore or contracted out domestically

even in a reorganization the work moves elsewhere but the function remains

ann m

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We might abolish an instructor position because a course has been changed or no students, or other positions because the work has changed and/ or been distributed to other people or departments. Jobs and technologies change over time too. We abolished a mail room position last year, for example, as that work literally did not exist anymore. The volume fell by over a third in 5 years.

Very occasionally (maybe) they just want to get rid of a problem employee. The unions ensure that position is not advertised or recreated within the next 6 months.

montreal mike

Agreed. There are, no doubt, valid and genuine reasons for abolishing a position but in my time I have seen companies use this all too convenient tactic and, after a decent 'period of mourning', low and behold, the position 'comes back to life' but under a brand new name, and with an altered job description and in a different slot in the convoluted corporate hierarchy.

montreal mike

One of the reasons, among many, why older workers -- those in the mid-fifty age bracket -- suddenly get the chop, is the poorly funded company pension plan.

I have been told by an actuary that companies do not always put away reserves to provide for future payouts for all workers. In some respects this logical because who the hell sticks around for 40 years?. However for those loyal older workers who have been around for 20 plus years, and who are not inclined to change jobs, or simply can not, they might naively look forward to a comfortable retirement age 65.

But this means an added corporate financial burden down the road. So why not simply eliminate them from the payroll and be done with it?

And many such pension plans are poorly funded to begin with.

Secondly, in a non-union environment, why hang on to a high priced older person when a young cheaper tiger can fill the bill? lt is a fallacy to assume companies will always value older experienced loyal workers. Not so. What prevails above all is the bottom line via trimmed down corporate budgets. These matters get resolved at the annual board of directors get-togethers where budgets are voted upon, without undue concern for the human impact.

Isn't capitalism great?

montreal mike

Good idea if it works.

But some companies will offer outside counseling, take it or leave it.

The reason is purely legal. So in the event things turn out nasty in future the company can claim it bent over backwards to help a dismissed employee through a painful and difficult transition period.

But for someone who just got the chop and who has little use for these outfits and who is articulate enough to put together a half-decent resume, it is worth a try.