Got handed my walking papers UPDATED! #120

ACORN

ACORN

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Today at 11:00 I was called up front for someone asking for me.
Met my new area manager, who said I guess you know why I'm here. I didn't.
My company is in the process of being sold. I was told by my new area manager that they were shutting my location down as of that minute.
49 years and 8 months down the drain.
This really upended our(wife and my) lives.
I don't know what to do.
Not looking for sympathy just feeling I need to vent.
I can't believe it.
My numbers were good. EBITDA has been around 30% when all the company is expecting is 15%.
 
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Man that sucks big time! I was only 27 (9 1/2 year's in the J&L Steel) when I got laid off for the 1st & last time. Needed 10 years to get vested. I had age on my side and ended up getting Electrical & HVACR diplomas, while also getting all the partying out of my system, sorta. Hope you find something to do and it doesn't set you back too much. That's a lot of time you had for "The man" to tell you gfy. Good luck...
 
I would not be surprised if the new owners are the kind of sharks and vultures who buy a company, then fire everybody except certain personnel to keep it viable until they sell off assets and cash out a company, in which case they don't give a hoot about product, EBIDTA or employees.
I sure hope you'll be OK financially.
 
There could be a lot of reasons, it's hard to say with the limited information provided. It's never a good thing to get sacked like that. We serve at the whim of our masters. I saw it coming and left about 9 months before I would have been canned.
 
What to do?

File for unemployment and hunt for a new job until the unemployment runs out. Don't worry, your previous employer pays that bill!

The job hunting part is pretty unobtrusive: you tell unemployment that you called an employer about a job (don't have to apply), you traveled to an employer but didn't get an interview, you sent your resume to employers X, Y and Z but haven't heard back.

Of course, you have to really have done what you tell unemployment you've done in searching for a new job!

If you had an employer sponsored retirement plan, you'll qualify for it since it vested after your first 5 years of employment with that employer.
 
ralph7 said:
Did this kill retirement benefits?
Seems like you would have been thinking of retiring anyway, after this length of time.
Click to expand...

No retirement benefits from the company. Only my IRA and Social Security.
To make a long story short, our company filed Chapter 11 a couple months ago.
Bids were taken for the various locations.
My location was supposed to be sold to the primary bidder, but had no secondary bidder.
Bankruptcy court found out someone in the company leaked information about the company to the primary bidder that the other buyers didn't have.
Bankruptcy court threw the primary bidders offers out because they had an unfair advantage.
The secondary buyer was awarded the sale.
5 days later they picked and chose who the wanted to buy.
Some locations had half my sales but were kept open.
Makes no sense to me.
 
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AJ said:
There is no loyalty in business.........
Click to expand...

That has been at the core of every move I've made since the late 80's. It's a cold hard truth you need to come to terms with at any job. I've had jobs where it was a choice between repairing my car, or keeping my job.
Choose the car, it'll get you to your next job.
Your boss won't care unless he's the involuntary pedestrian.
Always keep a buffer. The ability to float a few months is liberating. Its not like you can expect them to sign over the deed for your loyalty
 
venomballistics said:
That has been at the core of every move I've made since the late 80's. It's a cold hard truth you need to come to terms with at any job. I've had jobs where it was a choice between repairing my car, or keeping my job.
Choose the car, it'll get you to your next job.
Your boss won't care unless he's the involuntary pedestrian.
Always keep a buffer. The ability to float a few months is liberating. Its not like you can expect them to sign over the deed for your loyalty
Click to expand...

I have had two main jobs since I got out of High School. First was the Marine Corps, no real loyalty from the Corps itself, but there was among the people (both Officer & Enlisted). When it stopped being fun, I retired (24 years). Got a degree in Nursing, when I was tired of that (again loyalty among the staff, not the company), then again I retired for good (20 years), Guess I was lucky in my choices. Didn't make a ton of money, but we will get by......
 
I know it must be a whirlwind now with the wounds being so raw. But I promise you the sun will come up tomorrow and maybe, just maybe you will look back on this and smile. They may have done you a favor. Right now I'm still in admiration of 49 years of loyalty and jumping through hoops that you surely endured. But for now, know you have friends here on this forum. I'm pulling (and praying) for you and your family.

Roger
 
Acorn, that absolutely bites! The area manager, and i use that term loosely, is no manager...nothing more than a corporate hatchet entity.
"Guess you know why I'm here?" What the heck kind of a statement is that when that person is about to impact a loyal employees life?
If you are not under a "No compete" take all that data to their biggest competitor and offer your services as a consultant.
 
Babysitr said:
If you've been with them 49 yrs....soon will be able to get max. SSA and earn all you want....may be a blessing !!! take some deep breaths and enjoy life.....pullin' for you, good luck!!
Click to expand...

Already on SS. Pretty hard to live on just that. My wife quit her job to take care of her 92 YO Mom.
I was working to supplement my SS and to cover my wife's health insurance.
She's 59 and isn't eligible for Medicare.
 
The advice I got in my twenties was " keep your resume' updated and your suitcase packed ".

At sixty-two had worked for the same outfit for 26 years. One Friday I was working at my desk and one of the principles stuck his head in and asked if I was tied up the next week working on anything special . . . . thinking he had had a project that needed my attention I told him that there was nothing that couldn't be set aside a day or two if he needed me. His answer was basically, " that's good, 'cause you don't work here any more ". :mad:

I needed and had planned to work to at least sixty-five, and though the landscape in my area of expertise was changing they had told me that I could plan on being employed there until I reached my target retirement date. Went from the best company/situation in my entire working life the first sixteen years I was there, to struggling to deal with corporate bovine excrement the last ten because the company changed hands. The new outfit had no problem cutting corners and the clients went from the primary consideration to a 'necessary evil' from a company run by a bunch of college educated morons that couldn't do my job but insisted on telling me how it should be done. Lying for them was an art form.

The wife and I had a rough couple of years regrouping but it was all okay in the end per the Lord's plan. I now view it as one of the best things that happened to me in my working life. My biggest regret was for my clients who got shafted and cast adrift when they closed down my whole department shortly after dumping me. C'est la vie.

I'm sure it's a gut punch but you'll do what you've always done - you'll regroup, buckle down, and get past it. Because that's what men do. You have people counting on you and you'll look to those things you can do and let go of what you can't change. A ways down the road, you'll look back and see it wasn't the disaster it seems at present.
 
It ain't too comforting to be told it happens all the time, ain't happened to you til the other day. Your dynamics and income stream are leaving you in the lurch, I'm sorry to hear of anyone that puts that much time into making a living at anything and then kicked to the curb. Minimum wage jobs at Ace Hardware are what a few of my friends were forced to take up to bring in enough extra to avoid selling the house and making major changes in lifestyle. When I left my employer after 39 years I couldn't wait to get out the door, its one thing when you plan and are fortunate enough to meet your goals, its another to have the rug pulled out from under you. I can't begin to understand how you must feel, I faced a layoff once late in my career due to change of departments and therefore lack of seniority in my current department when state spending in transportation was cut due to legislation and ballot initiatives, that was scary...I'll admit, but my wife and I had never let our spending outbalance the loss of one of our incomes, breathed a sigh of relief when we paid the house off early and saved money whenever we could. I hope you keep your spirits up and figure out a way to make things work...Don't let the *******s get you Down.
 
The Chapter 11 was a big giant red flag.

A lot of times businesses are buying locations. If they already have your location covered with their own people they'll shut you down and move the sales to their team. Your company might have had a poor performing location that is in an area they currently aren't in, and they'll keep that.

I've had to tell people this many times: Companies are not human. They are profit machines. As they should be. Take care of yourself first, as they will not hesitate to throw you under the bus if it suits them. Don't feel guilty about leaving your employer in a spot because they won't worry about it if they do it to you.

This is from a guy that worked for an acquirer, and did the axing many times. Never pleasant. Never personal. Just businesses with complicated decisions to make so they don't end up in Chapter 11.

The irony was we did a good job and we got acquired. I would have been canned as superfluous, they had their own team that did the same thing mine did.
 
MDF4 said:
If you are not under a "No compete" take all that data to their biggest competitor and offer your services as a consultant.
Click to expand...


I was told by the original company president (who held multiple degrees and professional licenses) many, many years ago that those "will not compete" stipulations (in writing or not) are not 'worth the paper they're written on'.

Basically, he explained that the courts have ruled that an employer cannot make you give up your right to earn a living. Barring running afoul of copyrights or patent laws those clauses are meaningless and only designed to intimidate.
 
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I think under Chapter 11 non-competes would be void. How can you harm their business when they don't exist?

At best they are extremely difficult to enforce, and they usually rely on intimidation. In some states they are virtually worthless.
 
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AJ said:
I have had two main jobs since I got out of High School. First was the Marine Corps, no real loyalty from the Corps itself, but there was among the people (both Officer & Enlisted). When it stopped being fun, I retired (24 years). Got a degree in Nursing, when I was tired of that (again loyalty among the staff, not the company), then again I retired for good (20 years), Guess I was lucky in my choices. Didn't make a ton of money, but we will get by......
Click to expand...

Unfortunately a lot of us lived through the transition to loyal to the individual, not the company.
 
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