The Official "I didnt lose my job today" thread.

[GlennCMC70]

Company announced layoffs about 1.5 months ago. 15% across the board, every department. my department in just the DFW area was getting a reduction of 5. they asked for voluntary separation folks first then involuntary followed. we had 3 guys step up and take it (same severance either way). last two guys were picked yesterday. I didn't get let go and I got a new truck. I'm safe for another year.
for those of you used to seeing me in a white Ford F-150, I'm now in a silver Dodge.

bad news - no raises for 2008, no bonus for 2008 and no overtime. i'm loosing about 10K or more this year.

[AllZWay]

Good news....sort of.

[Todd Covini]

Hang in there Glenn!!!
Your networks are valuable.
Sprint will get bought, there'll be more cuts...and if you can survive them...dollars to donuts, there'll be raises for the strong who survived and you'll have critical skills knowing the "heritage systems".

Work hard you and you'll be fine.

-=- Todd

PS- It's "lose" not "loose". Loose is a condition....to lose is the actionable verb. :wink:

[Adam Ginsberg]

Glad to hear you didn't get a pink slip.


bad news - no raises for 2008, no bonus for 2008 and no overtime. i'm loosing about 10K or more this year.

In reality, you aren't actually losing $10k a year w/o overtime. I learned many years ago as an IBEW electrician OT is a gimmee....not ever guaranteed. Saw too many journeyman live beyond their means while doing jobs with lots of OT....and as soon as the OT was gone, they were scrambling to find a way to make it up.

For 3 years straight w/Siemens, there were no raises. Haven't seen a bonus since 1995, and OT is not possible as a salaried employee.

[marshall_mosty]

I too lost my overtime a few weeks ago at my current job. It was a completely out of the blue that took all 20 Project Engineers at my job by complete suprise. We basically took a 20-25% pay cut since the overtime pay was gone, but at least I'm still employed and now have found a reason to get away from the office and home to my family sooner during the day.

Hang in there Glenn... you'll find a means to an end.

[mitchntx]

Many Sr. managers seem to ignore ...

workers will find a way to regain lost compensation

... and that's all I have to say about that.

:twisted:

[jeffburch]

I've been without OT since the new GM took over 8 yrs or so ago.
That's the reason I'm always saying "I'm on fixed income".
Her accountants start at the bottom of the page and go up as opposed to the normal way. :roll:
No Christmas partys/bonuses. Not even a Festivus tree in the lobby.
Holiday luncheon in the lobby.
The place is printing their own money.
Unions are there for a reason.
Gave the world the 5 day work week. 50 week work year. 40 hour work week.
Looked at your 401K lately? Mines down 14% for the 1st quarter '08.

Glad you still have a job GL.
Live like there's no tomorrow.
Pedal to the metal.

jb

[GlennCMC70]

say what you want about the OT Adam, but when the same amount of work is required to get done by 5 less people, OT should increase, not go away. i also have to suport 2 NASCRAP races a year - thats 4-6 weeks away from my normal duties where no one is doing what i need to get done for me, slack i have to pick up somehow.
so yes, when i'm doing more work and i get no overtime (which has always been available) or bonus (that i've gotten since i've started w/ the company 8 years ago) and i dont get the increase in pay (that i have gotten every year for 8 years for being a top 1% performer) then i feel as though i took a big pay cut.

as for you being salaried...... i learned that leason while in the military. gave the best 10 years of my life and left making 36K a year as an E6(months from E7). i've doubled that at least every year since and almost tripled it a few times.

i consider you being salaried a mistake you made. no f'ing way i'll consider that for anything less than well over triple what i make now based on a 40 hour week. add travel to it like you do, and add another x to the formula.

so say what you want about how lucky i should feel and how happy i should be about what i got, but if things keep going this way, i'll be actively looking for another job this time next year. a company who lays off each year those who have no impact on the reasons for the layoffs is doomed from the start.

as unhappy as you sound about your lack of compensation since 1995, you should be looking for a job too.

[Adam Ginsberg]

say what you want about the OT Adam, but when the same amount of work is required to get done by 5 less people, OT should increase, not go away. i also have to suport 2 NASCRAP races a year - thats 4-6 weeks away from my normal duties where no one is doing what i need to get done for me, slack i have to pick up somehow.
so yes, when i'm doing more work and i get no overtime (which has always been available) or bonus (that i've gotten since i've started w/ the company 8 years ago) and i dont get the increase in pay (that i have gotten every year for 8 years for being a top 1% performer) then i feel as though i took a big pay cut.

Simple reality - if they cut OT, you don't work it. Any work that has to be done gets accomplished during regular hours. If it doesn't get done today, it'll get done tomorrow. When they bust yer balls about not getting work done, refer management back to the "no OT" memo.

Regardless, OT is a "gimmee", never guaranteed. You've been fortunate to get it this long, but never consider it your "regular" salary...it isn't.


i consider you being salaried a mistake you made. no f'ing way i'll consider that for anything less than well over triple what i make now based on a 40 hour week. add travel to it like you do, and add another x to the formula.

You may consider being salaried a mistake, but it all depends on the situation. When I was an IBEW electrician, it was 100% hourly - and it made sense. In my current position, being salaried makes sense. Sometimes it's a 40hrs week, sometimes it's 80hrs, sometimes it's 100hrs , sometimes I'm on the road for a week, sometimes 2 weeks....even did a month long stint in IRE.

However, I'm afforded significant flexibility in many areas (hours, travel, support, etc), the group I work with is excellent, my manager is very understanding, so.....it all evens out in the end. My decision to move into a salaried position was, in no way, a mistake.

Hell, Mitch and Jeff think I have the best part time job ever. ;)


so say what you want about how lucky i should feel and how happy i should be about what i got, but if things keep going this way, i'll be actively looking for another job this time next year.

If you're unhappy, and don't believe you are getting a fair shake, hell yes - look for another employer. Understand, however, that the grass is always greener....and ALL companies have thier issues.


as unhappy as you sound about your lack of compensation since 1995, you should be looking for a job too.

You must have misunderstood my comments - I'm not unhappy about my salary at all. The information I presented was simply to illustrate how corp America works. I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm not saying it's fair - it's just how things work. There isn't a single employee in a company that isn't expendable - no matter what you think.

Corp America looks out for #1 - them. As an employee, you have a more difficult rope to walk - you have to look out for the company, as well as look out for yourself. At the end of the day, you have to do what's best for YOUR #1 - that's you and your family.

[Adam Ginsberg]

Grrr....I hate that the edit button doesn't work in this section of the forum....

Regarding looking for a job....there's an old saying...."I was looking for a job before I found this one." ;)

I've always kept my eyes and ears open to new opportunities. Always willing to talk to a prospective employer - it may not be the right time then, but it could be in a few years.

Each time there's been an offer from another company, I've gone back to my manager(s), and told them the situation. Each time, they put together a counter offer, and I've stayed. Never played any games, didn't hide who I was talking to, kept it all out in the open. You can't hide anything in our industry.....everyone knows everyone else, regardless of the company. It's behooved me to stay open and honest with our management team, and it's proven to be the right thing to do.

[ShadowBolt]

I look at these things a little different from most of you. As a owner of a company that works a lot of OT I tell my guys to please not live off the OT money. We work 40 hours only about six to ten weeks a year. We have been lucky enough to allow most of our guys to work all the OT they want most of the year. We just now finally slowed down enough to have to roll everyone back to 40 hours. What kills me are the few that think they can drag their ass while we are working 40 hours to force us behind into a OT situation. They don't know that we know who they are and they are the LAST to get to go back to working OT. From an owners point of view sometimes the hourly guys do better other times the salary guys are better off. Also depends on the guy. My top paid sheet metal mechanics would never give up the hourly wage for a salary. Most of the office guys don't want to work hourly so it works out good for both. We believe if we treat our employees good they will make us lots of money so we treat them as well as we can. The last five years they have received two weeks pay as a Christmas bonus and then again at the end of the fiscal year. We would rather pay our help than uncle Sam! Now if we can keep all our customers from going to China maybe we will survive!


JJ

[AI#97]

say what you want about the OT Adam, but when the same amount of work is required to get done by 5 less people, OT should increase, not go away. i also have to suport 2 NASCRAP races a year - thats 4-6 weeks away from my normal duties where no one is doing what i need to get done for me, slack i have to pick up somehow.
so yes, when i'm doing more work and i get no overtime (which has always been available) or bonus (that i've gotten since i've started w/ the company 8 years ago) and i dont get the increase in pay (that i have gotten every year for 8 years for being a top 1% performer) then i feel as though i took a big pay cut.

as for you being salaried...... i learned that leason while in the military. gave the best 10 years of my life and left making 36K a year as an E6(months from E7). i've doubled that at least every year since and almost tripled it a few times.

i consider you being salaried a mistake you made. no f'ing way i'll consider that for anything less than well over triple what i make now based on a 40 hour week. add travel to it like you do, and add another x to the formula.

so say what you want about how lucky i should feel and how happy i should be about what i got, but if things keep going this way, i'll be actively looking for another job this time next year. a company who lays off each year those who have no impact on the reasons for the layoffs is doomed from the start.

as unhappy as you sound about your lack of compensation since 1995, you should be looking for a job too.

Glenn, I don't want to discourage you but having been in upper management that makes these decisions, I can probably tell you that the next memo you get is that you will be made hourly with a slight increase in pay and you will be expected to work more hours than you were when you had OT. It's the trend lazy managers are going toward to get to their expected bottom lines. "More for less" and "something for nothing" are ideals that useless upper management types love.

I would like to ask a question...did the cut backs correspond with them promoting the NASCAR series? Sounds like that effort is costing them a fortune!!!

[mitchntx]

I would imagine that Sprint's O/M budget is basically 50% equipment/people and 50% marketing. The millions spent on NASCAR is a drop in the bucket.

[ShadowBolt]

I would imagine that Sprint's O/M budget is basically 50% equipment/people and 50% marketing. The millions spent on NASCAR is a drop in the bucket.


Our NASCAR budget is kinda small.

As in nothing.....nada.


JJ

[GlennCMC70]

remember NASCAR was the NEXTEL series. i originally worked for Nextel (awesome company Nextel was to work for). Sprint bought NEXTEL and thus got the NASCAR jig as well. they switched it over to Sprint last year. its the same gig. i was told the whole NASCAR bottom line was only 10% of the yearly marketing budget. for what they are getting in return, its the best deal going and the smartest money they are spending in advertising.

whats killing Sprint is the lack of marketing for the Nextel brand. loosing lots of customers (lack of advertising or just sales pushing everyone to Sprint) will do that. that makes the investment in Nextel not so good w/ regards to the return on the money. add to that Sprints customer service was the worst rated one in the industry, add to that number portability (which had a year delay before it showed up on the bottom line) and its just too much to absorb in a weak economy.
now that two companys merged and you have a large amount of overlap in job responsibilities (managment and up largely) and you get layoffs.

the good thing is both the Nextel and Sprint networks are performing at an all time high. customer service is at the end of a major overhaul w/ very good reviews.

the NASCAR thing is like $75M per year and suposed to go to $95M per year after first contract is up (5 more years i think).

you guys should see these Cell Sites On Wheels - F'ing works of art. there are 5 for each race and 2 sets of 5 - each hitting every other event. if you can get to the infield road (the one that connects the two tunnels) i'll give you a quick walk thru. its staggering the amount of equipment thats required to provide service w/ no blocking just for the stands and infield of the race.
in short, we have 6 Nextel sites and about 3 Sprint sites just on the infield. then there are 9 more Nextel / 6 more sprint sites in the parking lots and camp grounds. we also provide EVDO (high speed wireless internet / data) for vendor row.
then there is the Fan View thing too. we also assist in its set-up. Jeff B can add to that, but the jist is we get a live feed from Fox to make it work.

cool stuff.

[Wirtz]

Random info for the day:

Heard on Speed that the Toyota budget for F1 is 600M this year. That's alot of Toyos....

Jeff