DH's employers are utter bastards - a rant

[onedayallthiswillbeyours]

Poor DH learnt in a group zoom meeting this afternoon that his position is being got rid of in a company "restructure" to save money. They didn't even have the professionalism or plain human decency to warn him privately in advance, he had to hear it in front of all his colleagues!!!!! He was headhunted into this "new" (for the company) position 8 years ago and has given it his heart and soul. There is no one else on his level in the company structure. There is one manager above him and 6 other employees below him in the structure as it stands at the moment. He has been told he can reapply for one of the junior positions at £8k less pa with no guarantee he will get it (after all he is totally over qualified) and he has to compete with the other 6 existing employees for only 6 available positions (all are being made to reapply for their own jobs). One poor person will be made redundant completely at the end of it all (it might be DP, who knows). The company know they have them all over a barrel as there are literally no other jobs available in this niche area of employment at the moment due to the covid situation.

DH has basically turned the place around in the time he's been there but unfortunately his direct boss is a lazy sod who has successfully made himself seem indispensable when it's actually been DH doing all the hard graft these past 8 years! I'm sure it's all legal, they will have made sure of that, but seriously such an immoral and sleazy thing to do. They know that the choice of being made to grovel for a junior position with less money, less sick pay, less holiday OR become unemployed with no hope of finding a new job any time soon is not a choice at all for a person with bills to pay and children to feed  .

I'm not sure why I'm posting really, just to get it off my chest I suppose. Our only option is for DH to grovel, beg and plead for one of the junior positions (and knowing that if he gets one, someone else will be out of a job makes it even more unbearable 😭). I wonder how many other greedy immoral companies are claiming government job retention money whilst at the time screwing their employees over with "restructuring" bollocks and making them redundant anyway.

Is there anything else he could do

I don't know slippery. He would probably need to retrain. He's been in a pretty niche business for the past 15 years. There are probably transferable skills but I'm not sure what jobs there are around at the moment even in other areas. It's all just such a shock we haven't had time to even think about options 😭

If they are that awful why would he want to stay?

Bills still need paying and no other jobs around at the moment is what it boils down to.

It’s not much fun hearing about this sort of thing under any circumstances. It’s quite common, in my experience, to be told publicly about restructures: I’ve usually worked for big organisations.

If his employer want to lose the role, that’s their prerogative. It doesn’t matter that he was the first incumbent, or that his boss is, in your opinion, useless. It’s unpleasant for you and your husband but you can’t personalise it. That’s business, I’m afraid. Better to cut costs and keep the business running than to carry on making a loss for fear of causing upset to employees.

Fair enough of course but in that case there’s no point getting riled up about them. They serve a purpose in keeping your bills paid. Works both ways. I don’t meant to sound unsympathetic but there’s a huge amount of people on MN saying terrible things about their employers right now but they are free to leave. They stay because they want to continue to be paid.

By way of example
Utter bastards
Lazy
Immoral
Greedy
Screwing employees over

Pretty harsh words for people just trying to run a business and providing your DH with a salary.

Bollocks, they're utter scum for doing it like that

He should be due a fat redundancy package at least, right?

That sucks OP, sorry to hear that. Quite a few moons ago I worked in local government, they had a restructure and let everyone know who was being let go by having a meeting with everyone say watching a PowerPoint, if your name didn't appear in the presentation you were being let go. I honestly cannot think of a crappier way to do it.

My mum got made redundant after 10 years from her role after about two weeks of lockdown.

She was furious and obviously took it really personally. What she found difficult to see that Covid and the resulting lockdown was the final blow to a business that was already struggling.

The redundancy process isn’t cheap, especially for a senior staff member who has been there for nearly a decade. Id try not to feel victimised by this decision without knowing the reason behind it.

Pretty harsh words for people just trying to run a business and providing your DH with a salary.

No excuse for being arseholes though is it?

OP that's awful & unprofessional to announce in that way.

There are plenty of employers taking government money & treating employees like shite! My own has taken every thing available to them even though there's no drop in income - in fact they're making around £100,000 extra by charging clients a fortune for processing furlough claims - all the while banging on about this economic downturn & a blanket ban on pay rises for staff!

Wombat wow I'm actually gobsmacked that it is considered usual practice to tell an individual that they are losing their job with no prior warning in a general meeting.

I've been made redundant like that too op. It's not great but it's not personal.

It's the way it happens. He hasn't been singled out if all 7 in the meeting were being told they were all being made redundant. They possibly had to do it this way for transparency.

The best petty revenge option is to see if the other six will agree not to make any application for the six positions remaining until the last minute. I've been in a similar position before, it's petty but it does make senior managers nervous.

Well, work is pretty much the central part of most people’s lives both in terms of waking hours and in terms of where the money comes from so yes it is indeed deeply personal to be told you’re losing your job. Unfortunately many people these days seem to have lost their humanity, which is perhaps even more of a personal loss.

OP YANBU

That's an awful way to do things. Absolutely he should have been informed privately.

I don't know, but it doesn't sound totally legal to me, that his position has become redundant, and now he is eligible to apply for one of the 6 lower level positions.

If he does this, and gets one of them, he won't be due any redundancy - or would be be anyway? I think you should confirm this. Regardless of him getting the lower-level role or not, he's entitled to a redundancy offering, surely?

Otherwise ir sounds like they are trying to save money - he's made redundant from senior role, takes more junior role, junior made redundant will cost them less?

Shitty way of behaving for sure.

Dog he was singled out as he is the only one whose role has been made 100% redundant. The other 6 have been asked to reapply for their jobs. They are not being made redundant (yet...)

It’s perfectly normal when several people are affected by a restructure, to tell them all at once in a group meeting. Otherwise the first person told will start telling everyone else. Better they all hear it properly from management simultaneously. Alternative is your DH hears about it second hand from a colleague which is surely much worse.

Then they’ll all be able to have an individual consultation meeting, and should get more details about what happens if he doesn’t want to apply for one of the available positions, how much redundancy pay he’ll get.

I understand it’s upsetting, but is there any reason to think there is not a genuine business reason for this?

Earrings that is a really good point. We are worried that if he applies for one of the lower level positions (and even if he doesn't get it) he will no longer be eligible for his redundancy package. It's not a huge package (about 2 months pay) and he is in a very low paid industry but it's better than nothing.

”he is the only one whose role has been made 100% redundant.”

I thought you said the positions in the new structure were available to everyone?

He would still be eligible for his redundancy pay, if the new position isn’t a ‘suitable alternative’, which means (among other things) no less favourable terms and conditions.

They cannot have the six jobs remain the same. That would mean current post holders would have to be appointed. They need to change the JD’s for all, so your DH has a chance.

Sorry but I think they don’t want him anymore. Put all energy into a good exit and get great representation to get the max redundancy

Statutory redundancy is actually very limited indeed and really not an attractive option. Those suggesting fat redundancy packages may be shocked. My DH is high salaried with 35 years service and would be entitled less than £14,000 - only 20 years service and weekly wage of £538 is counted.
Of course individual companies may have different schemes but that is the statutory amount. Not great.

Flowery thank you for your insight regarding the redundancy package. I don't want to give too much away so have changed the job titles - but in the meeting they said it had been decided there will no longer be a Deputy Station Master position (DH's job), there will now only be six train driver positions and any of the 7 railway staff (6 existing train drivers plus DH) can apply for the six train driver jobs. . Train driver job descriptions have been given to all parties. DH has lots of experience as a train driver so he fits the job description.

Sorry not sure if that makes any sense or if I've just confused everyone and myself even more. I guess everything will be come clearer in the next day or two.