So, we have an all staff meeting tomorrow about how we can help keep the company going

[jugglingwoman]

And as the memo said we'd all be asked what we wanted/thought, I suspect that we'll be asked if we're willing to take salary cuts.

Any ideas about the 'protocol' or what'll happen/what we can do or say?

Personally, I'd love to cut my hours down as I could then spend more time with my DS however I'm the only earner in the house so could probably only afford about 5 hours less a week.

Bugger

I expect you'll be asked for any and all views about creative solutions that will enable costs to be cut keeping the business afloat.

You will probably be told that unless everyone is willing to take a pay cut, or similar, then there will have to be redundancies.

It's all very well you saying you could only afford to reduce your hours by 5 a week, but you may not have much of a choice. if it's either redundancy or a pay cut you might prefer the pay cut even if you can't really afford it.

It may not come to that obviously, but you should be prepared that the outcome won't be good - it's just a question of how you can collectively achieve what is needed with minimum disruption and upset.

Try and think of other ways of saving money. Are there any financial benefits you could also forego, for example, or other cost-saving measures that could be implemented?

Not that I can think of sadly, unless the Partners were to stop going on expensive trips out!! I do the accounts so I already knew things were awful so I guess unlike the rest of the office, I pretty much knew something would have to happen.

The only financial benefits people get are pensions and the Partners/Associates get Bupa. TBH, we employed too many Associates too quickly (at nearly two and a half times my salary) and in my opinion, should make one of those redundant. Saying that, if it's the difference between a pay cut and a job, we would all keep the job and our colleagues.

My husband is starting paid work in September (he's currently doing teacher training) so we know that we'll have a second (and much larger) income from then. Unfortunately we were planning on then buying a house as we currently rent.

I'm hoping that if it's pay cuts it would be done percentage wise as obviously I earn a lot less anyway! I discussed it with my husband last night and we know we can afford to live on 10% less money, even though it wouldn't be preferable. At least we don't have a mortgage we can't afford like some of my colleagues.

I'm sure the partners will be looking carefully at how viable the number of associates they currently have is and the structure and make-up of the business is obviously an important thing to review in this type of situation.

If they have lots of expensive associates who aren't bringing in enough in terms of fees, they may be considering making changes. But it might be a case of wider-spread changes as well as that or instead of it. Part of what you find out might be more of a clue as to the extent of saving needed. There's nothing wrong with proposing changes to pension or healthcare arrangements as suggestions to save money. Anything is a valid idea.

Pay cuts would usually be on a percentage basis, yes, You would also hope that senior management would volunteer to cut their salaries/drawings in the case of partners, before anything else, but of course this may not be the case sadly.