To ask what your place of work is doing to prepare for Brexit?

[ethelfleda]

What is the general consensus? Are companies trying to prepare or are they waiting until we know more about the deal?
The company I work for hasn’t done anything as far as I can tell. I’ve been off for a year on mat leave and so have had my head buried firmly in the sand.

They bought a company in mainland Europe. They didn’t directly admit it as Brexit related, but the press release was all about establishing a base in Europe. We are headquartered in England.

And the millennium bug is real. It is a general field overflow problem. We fix numerous bugs related with field overflow. Some in very unexpected places like a DB int PK overflow. For time, the next one is 2038 for 32-bit system. There is also the continual teething problem with summer and winter time. There will be a lot less bugs if we get rid of day light saving time as the EU suggested and just stick with summer time.

My employer's in the business of providing careers advice and training to get people back into work. When the economy goes down and unemployment goes up, our custom goes up.

My boss expects our custom to go up.

Deliveries not planned in April, stock levels being built up in the previous three months. A support group for EU nationals.

The same prep they do for every potential or definite crisis.
Fuck all.

I work for a charity and we aren't doing anything to prepare

Financial institution providing services from the UK into the EU so lots of people working all hours to restructure products, teams etc so we can still operate within the EU with minimum disruption.
In reality this means shifting lots of employees from London to Dublin/Frankfurt or Amsterdam.

Nowt. Being a global company, we have long known that a world outside Europe exists.

Nothing but I work 3 totally unrelated and different jobs.
All 3 work solely in the UK and all 3 niche business that are very, very unlikely to be impacted.

how will the loss of passporting affect you welshcake? I work for a financial institution as well, but learnt on Frday that we, as a subsidiary of a european bank, our London office will not be as ok as I always assumed, as will no longer be able to provide services to the continent. This basically reduces the workload by around 75 percent (and the workforce too I guess!?)

I work in international trade and logistics. There could be more work for us if people expand and trade globally - we could provide support to people who need to carry on trading with the EU in some capacity (customs regulations, advice on tariffs etc) but it is hard to know how to reach the companies that may need this advice!
I understand at a physical how brexit could affect our industry but it all depends on the nuances of the final deal.

The entrepreneurs look around, see all those German cars on the road and think "They're still going to need parts" and stock up. They may anticipate Dover getting clogged so are booking slots from Hull which they can resell. They see all these companies which have never traded outside the EU and think "They'll need a broker. I can learn how the forms get filled in and offer them a service".
Those who are smart and fleet of foot will see opportunities and make their fortunes. Unfortunately I suspect that most companies are doing little.

I work in the public sector under Birmingham City Council, they are seriously in debt anyway and are making cuts to pay for the Commonwealth Games 2022 anyway, my husband works for Debenhams who are planning to cut a third of their stores anyway, so we will probably have no jobs before Brexit happens anyway.

They see all these companies which have never traded outside the EU and think "They'll need a broker. I can learn how the forms get filled in and offer them a service".

I contend that the following two scenarios are more likely:

1. the companies decide to concentrate on the home market
2. or the extra costs involved make their products uncompetitive

Disquited this is similar to my thinking. Am trying to attempt to turn Brexit into opportunities for us —despite being a remainer—
But as an employee I am too far down the pecking order to make a difference. I can talk about my ideas with upper management but who knows if they will listen.

*the companies decide to concentrate on the home market

1. or the extra costs involved make their products uncompetitive*

Yes to option 1 - th higher rates of duty on imports will make British goods more competitive in a British market
Option 2 - not necessarily. Export customs brokerage is cheap and on most products, the additional rates of duty etc may well be offset in part due to a weakening pound. At least in the immediate future.

Sorry that you’ve had that news @ralphi. We will probably passport out of Ireland instead of UK (funds are already based there). Some positions will have to move to EU countries following that but not such a high percentage of our UK based workforce will be affected as yours.
I already live and work in Frankfurt (and have applied for German citizenship!) so personally should be ok.

Secondary school in London - we have already lost three very good teachers (Maths and Science) directly because of Brexit. I know it doesn’t sound like much but there is a shortage of teachers on those subjects and it’s difficult to recruit, unless we have NQTs who obviously don’t have any experience and are a financial investment for the school.

@Welshcake77- I think you might work for the same company as my husband. Big American bank? He’s based in Dublin and there’s talk of taking on additional office space to accommodate EU nationals who were working for the London office.

The entrepreneurs look around, see all those German cars on the road and think "They're still going to need parts" and stock up

Probably. But then you’re a few years down the line where UK customers who previous drove German cars realise they’re now much more expensive to buy, service, and they have limited options for where to buy parts so there may not be too many on the roads at some stage.

Does the UK entirely produce any cars? Vauxhall maybe?

Nothing really. It’s a European HQ’d company that are expanding massively in the UK and not much anywhere else.

We have a lot of open roles due to global skills shortages - instead of taking on staff from abroad (EU or non EU), there’s been a huge push over the past two years towards British apprentices.

@BoomTish ah we are technically an asset manager so probably not the same company but it sounds like many of them have the same idea!

Plans are in place to extend one of our plants and replace the oldest site we have with a modern purpose built one. Put all supervisors and QC on salary rather than weekly paid, thus increasing their notice period. Put all the lowest paid staff, regardless of age onto the living wage, rather than paying under 25s less. Increased workforce by 20% by taking temporary staff on permanently.

@welshcake77 - not the same company, so. They’re Hedge and PE.

Border Force have cancelled all leave from end of March until May and have told employees it is highly likely this will be extended. They are the government dept who control our borders and what used to be ‘customs and excise’ They are shitting themselves about leaving with no deal and the resulting chaos at all ports - land/sea/air including both public and private. That’s more than a long queue in an airport, it’s trying to get freight across borders too. This govt is incompetent and had absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

Nothing. You do know life existed before the eu

londonrach the world has changed quite a bit since then, don’t you think? And actually, we were known as ‘the sick man of Europe’ so life wasn’t great anyway...
As an aside, Auto, you suggest life would be simpler if ‘we get rid of day light saving time as the EU suggested and just stick with summer time’. Why summer time? We are on the Greenwich line. Surely we should stick with GMT, or isn’t GMT a bit meaningless?