HBOS - anyone else affected?

[scarymamma]

Hi, my OH started working in senior management for HBOS 1 year ago. As we live in Yorkshire he took the job to be closer to home as he could be based out of Halifax. Previously he'd been working away from home Mon - Fri and it really didn't work for us. I can't believe what's happening now - according to OH all this has been driven by hedge funders and wouldn't have happened if the share price hadn't been driven down. There's going to be so many families affected by this - there will be so many redundancies. OH thinks HBOS staff will kept on initially to help with the integration of the 2 companies and then it's 'thanks but no thanks'. This will be the 3rd redundancy for us in 7 years all as a result of so called mergers (ie takeovers. There must be so many more mumsnetters out there either employed by HBOS or with an OH working for them and feeling like the bottom's just dropped out of their world. Perhaps we need to set up a support group!

[MadameCastafiore]

Hi Scarymama - DH works for part of HBOS as a fund manager and he agrees totally about the hedge fund issue - luckily he has just been told that the part he works for has had approaches many times this year by people wanting to buy it so it looks as though his job is safe - LTSB keep that part on their (DHs lot's terms) or theyare sold off to someone else.

DH has been there since leaving uni though and has lots of shares so ouor net worth this past year has diminished a huge amount.

It may be ok - remember that they cannot just get rid of staff from the company they have bought out - people will have to reapply for their jobs and will be kept on a business case basis entirely. I just got made redundant from another bank that was taken over (voluntary) and lots of the bank that bought us's staff went too if our staff were better.

Good luck.

[georgiemum]

I can't see redundancies happening too soon. I have been through similar a number of times and it does take a while for the dust to settle with mergers/takeovers. Any unions involved? I didn't even hear any whispers about this one coming.

[scarymamma]

DH reckons he'll have work for 12 - 24 months - he reckons it'll take that long to sort out the integration. Once that's sorted then the redundancies will start. We've been here before - he's been working in the financial sector for 10 years now and each time he's changed jobs it's been because of takeovers and then redundancy. The irony is that he's always been heavily involved in the integration as he's a superb change manager (or so he tells me!) - he worked in that field for Anderson before moving to allegedly more stable banks (ha, scoff, ha) So he works his bollocks off and then they replace all the 'big cheeses' with their own 'people'. I know what you're saying about applying for your own job - but nine times out of ten, at that level, it's who you know... He's seen really good staff made redundant when a previous 'scottish' bank took over 2 different insurance companies and replaced them by total muppets who were shipped in from headquarters. Sorry, feeling mega jaded and not too mpositive. Supposed to be lesson planning but so fed up can't think straight.

[smittenkitten]

i don't work for HBOS, but used to and have a lot of friends there. I am hopping mad about the emphasis on protecting Scottish jobs - there are loads of employers in Scotland and HBOS is a huge part of hte yorkshire economy. The town will die with significant redundancies. I am so sad that this has happened and feel awful for everyone living with uncertainty now.