Why do big companies feel the need to do this?

[ditavonteesed]

Today dh has come home and said that there is going to be an announcement tomorrow, now it could very well be something uninteresting but I feel sick. Why don't they just make the announcement, why announce that they are going to announce something. A few years ago dh and both got made redundent 5 times between us and it has had a lasting effect on my confidence. Now how many of the employees of this firm won;t sleep tonight for worrying. It just seems a very cruel way of doing things.

Did they just say that or was it because they had to put time in people's diaries?

YANBU but as someone who has made to make mass redundancies several times you have to tell everyone at the same time and so have to put something in people's diaries so they can be around.

Were they told formally that there would be an announcement or has he just found out on the grapevine?

Although to be honest we never said there would be an announcement for the very reason you've mentioned, it would usually be put in diaries as a 'team meeting' or similar

Very cruel and very mean! I hate that. DH and I have both been in that situation. Mine was a couple of years ago, the day after there was an all expenses paid afternoon tea and drinks for all the staff because we had managed to get graded Good by Ofsted! Imagine every one of those senior leaders who were quaffing drinks with us workers, knowing that by the end of the following day, some of us would be out of a job!

Bloody shit. Hope it's something as ridiculous like they're closing early for Christmas!

Maybe they are announcing that they will all be getting a Christmas bonus as they've done well this year? glass half full

Yes it is unnecessary for a company to make their staff feel worried in this way. It is hopefully not bad news (Xmas bonus, a massive new customer, a big acquisition of another company?) but in any case they should have been more thoughtful of how they go about things.

Hopefully this is just managerial incompetence rather than intentional nastiness. You would be surprised at how many managers don't think about things like this. Hopefully the news is positive; even so it is worth raising the issue with someone (informally) to make the management aware that they made people worry unnecessarily.

I would much rather that they did this honestly and said they'd be an announcement then lied and said catch up or team meeting; which then makes you worry about future team meetings... but they have to say something to try and get as many people to go; and this will. People will be curious or worried and show up; so the company can tell a large majority and cut the risk of people finding out whatever it is through exaggerated rumours.

I hope it's nothing bad OP.

I hope it's good news but unfortunately people can be thoughtless and mean.

In my previous job there was a meeting scheduled for the Monday...it was unusual as the new department head had not long started and it was also with the ceo and other senior management. I jokingly asked her if we should be job hunting over the weeked and she looked me in the eye, laughed then said all will be revealed.

The meeting came and she sat slumped at the desk with her head down while the ceo told our department that we were all redundant, there were 2 jobs up for grabs but we'd all need to apply and be interviewed! One job was my job description (minus extras I done) which I got but the other was written for a colleague, the only person who had the qualification within the organisation...also a qualification that had little to do with the actual job!, but was based in a different department. They wanted that person to get the job. My colleagues in our department were made redundant and it was an awful situation.

I was once temping (with HR, at least 3 of them knew) at a huge company when they ushered everyone in the (massive) site into one place (including me and other temps). Where they announced the whole site closure.
It was my first day.
People were crushed. My god that was awkward. It was hugely distressing for some of them.
I just couldn't believe they put people through that sort of apparently jolly (coffee and cake handed out at the start) - then WHAM!
I felt it really should have been smaller scale more personal from managers etc (but then most of them were finding out at the same time too). I guess they wanted it that way.

Been through this too (only once or twice, but for an absolute massive company).

The main reason they do this with announcements is due to sharing information rules centring "the city" - so basically the affect it has on share prices/stock markets; there are severe consequences for not following protocols regarding these things.

It could well be good news regarding bonuses, or even something along the lines of a takeover bid offer, not necessarily redundancies.

A major high street bank I used to work for communicates its redundancy rounds via leaks to Sky News. I'll never forget the day I learned something like 30,000 of us were going to be fired via Sky News. It was days before we got any formal communication from HO. Disgraceful way to treat people.

My company will do this for anything sensitive that affects the share price. Sometimes it's redundancy but more often than not it's a customer/regulator/media related event that requires blanket communication.

YANBU to want your husband's company to have some compassion and appreciate that announcing an announcement can cause worse stress than the actual announcement, even if it is job losses the reality is always easier to handle than speculative worrying.

Hope it's something mundane or beneficial.

How's things? Hope the news wasn't as bad as you thought it might be.