Letter from the employer…what could it be?!

[AnxietyLevelMax]

Letter has been sent out to all of the employees asking to attend a meeting on xxx day to update us on “current business position and proposed changes” and also stating “there will be no information provided prior to the meeting”…. Sounds scary!
what it could be? Company is not making losses. HR director who usually works from
home far away and only in the office few days a month has been rented a flat next to the company to be in the office daily for some
time now…everyone got a bonus in December cause company met the threshold (+200 employees)… has anyone had similar?

It’s never advisable to speculate when you get a letter from your employer because there are many reasons why an employer would send out these letters. When I was a manager for a high street bank, letters like this were a regular feature in the ‘noughties’, when the financial industry was unsteady. Mostly they were to advise staff that there was going to be a merger. Try not to lose sleep over an unknown quantity, remember that a meeting like this gives employees the opportunity to ask questions.

Company is being sold. OR Office is being relocated. OR Company has bought another company and there will be a merger.

I've had all three happen to me.

I've had one of these letters for a midweek meetings.
It was a buyout.
There were redundancies but mainly voluntary. Most of us were Tupe transferred over.

could be getting a listing (initial public offering ), or acquisition/sale/merger of some sort.

Don't worry, even if you're being made redundant, you will be fine.

I was made redundant while being on maternity leave. My employer achieved this by marking me as the lowest performing member of our department (completely untrue and randomly made up scoring).

Initially I felt very bitter and was very traumatised and vulnerable, unemployed with a new baby.

I have however found a new job relatively quickly. I work from home 5 days a week, which helps with nursery drop offs and pickups.

I also earn around 60k, whereas before my salary was 27k.

In hindsight, redundancy was one of the best things that happened to me in my life.

All the other people that were made redundant with me have also all moved on and found better roles.

Trust me, you'll be fine. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now.

Redundancy will help you to discover what else is out there.

I once worked at a company where HR bought hundreds of large carrier bags prior to such a meeting.

Workers are embarrassed to be seen carrying their personal belongings away in bin-liners.

@AnxietyLevelMax There are specific rules when large numbers of staff are being made redundant - check the list and see if it fits.
The stupidity of the folks who handle these situations for a living is legendary, Up In The Air with George Clooney was sold as a 'comedy drama' but is obviously viewed as an important training resource by some Human Waste departments. Brittany Pietsch dealt with this magnificently in a recent Tik-Tok recording of her remote firing which has gone viral and led to the Cloudflare CEO sending a panicked tweet - which compounded matters: https://www.dailydot.com/news/cloudflare-worker-fired-hr-cant-explain-why/
T-Mobile royally effed up a mass redundancy, breaching GDPR and costing a lot of money - this and other unforced errors are why the workforce are shunted through clumsy hoops.
Good luck.

@SoIdentifying no, no one works from home, only odd days when someone has to stay home, they are very flexible. My additional day which i am doing since this month only, was offered as wfh day as it is a shorter than a regular day and i dont have to travel when picking up/dropping of ds…
i really would hate being forced to look for another job. Cant force myself at the moment to look at indeed or elsewhere.
got this job over two years ago, on the same day we found out my dad has terminal cancer. I also am on antidepressants for a year now, awaiting a therapy. We just got out of major debts and having no savings. I really dont know if i can cope with another hurdle.

will it help to sign up for union? Would i be protected in any way?

If the company is doing well it's probably a merger or take over.

We have employees working in the factories, variety of people, and some employees being “office” employees only. I am one of the office employee and THE ONLY one not British there which was (still is sometimes) intimidating and have a feeling if they have to cut someone it will be me

It might be a merger or buy out with another company, or part of the company is going to be sold off etc. news about redundancies etc will probably be linked to this.

You're overthinking it.

Best of luck OP.

If most of the staff are non-UK (American?) could there be a mass issue with visas?

OP I know it's unsettling, I hope it turns out to be a positive for you.
I once read something that I still call on when needed.... don't spend time and energy worrying about things that you cannot control.
This is one of those times.
Good luck

Probably a merger. If the company is doing well and you all got bonuses, it's unlikely to be redundancies. Try not to worry, there's no point.

We had this recently and the company had been sold to another company. It all worked out OK.

Could be anything from restructuring, redundancies, moving production/office facilities, take over.

IME whatever it is might be best for the future of the business and not impact everyone, but there will be some people negatively impacted or a significant period of uncertainly while the dust settles.

Good luck.

Hope it's not as bad as you think. Even redundancy is never nice. Even if you get a better job eventually the unsettling nature of it is unpleasant.

Sorry wrong thread 😬

Consolidating sites perhaps?

I am one of the office employee and THE ONLY one not British there which was (still is sometimes) intimidating and have a feeling if they have to cut someone it will be me

This isn't how redundancies work. They have to cut jobs rather than people.

I think the HR person moving closer is a red herring as not all companies will make everyone redundant so they could just know they’re not impacted?

OP in the meantime you could have a quick look at what’s out there on the job market, if it helps you feel more in control. Or you could keep Google your company name to check the news section. My colleagues and I have had ‘advanced warning’ of redundancies by doing this! Often news gets leaked to industry sources before it finds its way to the staff.

This has happened twice to me...the first time our jobs were being outsourced to India and we were all being made redundant, and the second time in another company was to tell us they were cutting the team in half and we all had to really for the positions left. I would assume the worst but hope for the best if I was you.

We've recently had exactly the same! It was a restructure- only voluntary redundancies are we are doing well but job role changes etc