Merger at work - should I be bothered?

[hexagon123]

Just found out my company is merging with another.

Agh.

Just been promoted.

AIBU to be worried?

I work in social housing

What are you worried about?

I've worked in a few companies that went through mergers. Some were fine, others not. Hard to know without more details.

If you’ve just found out then yes. In my experience management who are part of the business future are brought into the circle of trust earlier rather than later.

Your promotion is inevitably double edged as there will simply not be the same management headcount post merger. This is obviously worse for those at the top relative to middle management. Middle management face pressure due to efficiencies; eg if you manage a team of 4-12, it could be flexed up by one third to doubling (6-24), with accompanying headcount savings.

If it's Credit Suisse I'd be very worried.

It's only ever worked out well for me so please don't panic, take a logical strategic approach to it.

Often a merger will take a while to really bed in, during that period there may be restructures but that could be good, look for opportunities, make sure you demonstrate your knowledge and capability and if you are interested in continued progression make that known to your line management.

are Credit Suisse involved in social housing?

Oops,sorry, missed that.

Any mergers should have some kind of integration plan. Worth asking your line manager whether your post will be affected. Generally it's the top tiers that start to worry.
We are merging with another company (also social housing here) but I doubt its the same one as we've been well informed for over a year about it.

Is this Sovereign/ Network?

I've come back from long sickness.... so haven't been at work.

Are you NW based?

My BIL (at director level) has spent the last few years slimming down a company after a merger. So merging 2 HR departments, 2 fleet maintenance teams, 2 pension departments, closing sites where 2 are close together. The list goes on.

They will almost certainly make cuts in management, back office functions and remove any duplication.

We're national.

Try not to worry OP and look to see if there have been any communications in emails, social media etc. They should be telling you what's going on from a wider perspective

Not much point asking Line Management. They probably don’t know any more about future plans than you do.

My company merged & the Bean Counter accountants at the top made us all redundant.

In your shoes, sit tight, work out how much redundancy you might get and polish up your CV. Be prepared for the worst but hope for the best.

The ceo stated "it's so hard to recruit and we aren't looking at redundancies".

If they've told you they're not looking at redundancies then don't panic.

Which of the organisations is the bigger? The one you're currently working for, or the other?

I worked for a company that "merged" with another. We were the smaller business and in reality it was a takeover with the main business owners staying on only for a limited period of time while they handed everything over.

We all TUPE'd over to the new company and within a couple of years we'd all left as the bigger firm ethos and the poorly managed transition made it a horrible place to work.

We'd been given the option of redundancy when the merger went through as it also included a relocation, but it was an office in Central London, which I'd never done before, and I was in my mid-20's so I thought I'd give it a go. I lasted 4 months!

I think if I'd been in the bigger organisation in the first place there would have been little transition and little would have changed.

In summary, wait and see what happens OP. See how the merger progresses and get your CV brushed up in the meantime, just in case they either restructure, or you just don't like the new business.

Smaller.
Our head is going to be the head of the new organisation

@hexagon123

The ceo stated "it's so hard to recruit and we aren't looking at redundancies

It would have been useful to share that in your OP.

In that case it sounds like you've nothing to worry about beyond getting to know your new colleagues.

Because they don't lie?

They're much more likely to not say anything than to tell you not to worry if they were planning redundancies

There’s lots of recruitment problems in the UK at the moment so if that’s affecting your industry too (sounds like it is from the CEO’s comments) then I wouldn’t worry too much about job security.

Also sometimes companies will make savings by closing vacancies rather than getting rid of staff, or making savings through attrition.

If you’ve just been promoted you’re likely in a strong position anyway because you‘d be a top choice for going back to your old level in a worst case scenario?

Now's here radical idea , ask your employer not a bunch of random idiots on t an internet forum !

@hexagon123

Because they don't lie

Does your CEO normally lie?

In which case crack on and panic. But based on the info you've shared it's probably ok.

Oi! Don't you come on here with you radical ideas of common sense!

@hexagon123 , I've been through three mergers. One went tits up because we were taken over by/merged with a company with no history in our field, they let too many experienced people leave and the ones who stayed didn't have the experience or history to keep the work up.

The other two went well. The last one we didn't even notice any change to start with except lots more bodies in the office. Both companies had worked together from different angles so the merger meant both sides brought large corporate customers to the table with a small overlap.

We have now expanded globally. We were doing this ourselves slowly but new company had stuff already happening which pushed us on.

Good luck and hope it works out.

I’ve been through 5 mergers 😅

I’ve been the larger company for 3 of those. Varying quality of “integration plan” each time. Do you like what you do? At the smaller companies, the people who stood-out from Day 1 - keen to get to know new people, happy to get stuck into the serious amount of problem solving required when integrating etc are still here.

So that would be my advice. Be positive, embrace change and throw yourself into any opportunity that crops up. And if there truly isn’t any redundancies, then what have you lost?