Company is voting today.
16% salary reduction (4 day week) or make 1 in 3 redundant.
The credit crunch & recession become a reality.
We’re not alone mind, speaking with contacts its the same all over.
Awful atmosphere here at work.
Sad day.

I’m in the fortunate position where a 4 day week sounds bloody brilliant.

Good luck to you though.

Not good, fingers crossed it works out in the long run….

Do you mind if I ask what industry you’re in?

takisawa2 – gutted for you, hope things pick up later in the year so that full time is back on the cards.

Oddly enough, the NHS is
NOT talking about a 4 day week!

I’ve just been into work this morning, got called into the office and was made redundant – couldn’t believe it, still shocked if the truth be known. Got quite a decent ‘farewell package’ but had to hand over my phone, laptop and credit card there and then. Get the car for two months though, just about enough time to travel to all the UK trail centre’s.

Scary times.
Found out this morning that the firm I left 8 months ago has made people redundant yesterday, lucky escape or just putting off the inevitable?

takisawa, I’m guessing people will be voting for the reduction in salary, no?

I work for the same company as Takisawa2, the company produces Pneumatic Solutions / Fittings, Valves, Cylinders for various industrial / Transport / Medical sectors.
Our Fittings Division supports 2/3rds of our productive output usually, but this has dropped dramatically on a week by week basis – 3 shifts + weekend shifts down to mostly day shift – never seen so many machines standing idle in the 16 yrs I have worked here.

I’m sat at home filling my Bankruptcy Statement of Affair form. Then down to the Courts before the weekend to start the process.

muffin man, personal or business?

i am looking at personal bankruptcy, and am not happy at the prospect of losing my bike, what advice have you been given re personal property and what receivers consider worth taking?

my advice has varied from, “they’ll take everything”, to “they’ll take everything they can sell for £1000 or more”… big difference

Muffin and Tim, thats terrible, so sorry to hear your situations. I hope things pick up for you soon.

neverfastenuff and takisawa2, sorry to here that. I’m in the pneumatic distribution industry. Who do you work for if you you don’t mind me asking?

we’re counting ourselves lucky at the moment. I’m in the contruction industry and we didn’t get a pay rise or xmas bonus… instead we stay on sam pay but leave a couple of hours earlier on a friday.

Muffin & Tim – really sorry to hear that. My family went filed for bankrupcy in the last recession. Cna you not give your bike to a friend? I know it’s technically illegal.. unless you set up an agreement to sell it to him for a pound and then he gives it back after x weeks/months? Things can only get better and hope you can sort things out

Sorry hear the news Paul, I,m union rep @ our place and we are fighting losing 120 hrs(3 jobs) out of our office(110 jobs) , but we have to get real and its hard to justify when theres so much shit going around.

Rich

I left my previous company on the 2nd jan for a new job. They went into administration on the 5th. I can’t see all my ex colleagues getting jobs too easily.

muffin man, personal or business?

Partnership so they are both combined.

My advice has been that they will only take things of reasonable value, they won’t go through your house and strip every ornament and piece of furniture out (unless they are valuable antiques etc). You will be asked to disclose anything that is of value (jewellery, furniture, cars etc) and they will decide wether it is worth the hassle to realise a few hundred quid or whatever. I have spoken to an Insolvency Practitioner and his best advice is to be straight and honest with the official receiver, if you hide any facts they have massive powers to keep you bankrupt for many years or charge you with purgery (sp!).

Just be prepared for anything though, but from the advice I have been given is that most people have little of any real value that is worth going after. DVD players, simple HiFi stuff etc is worthless at auction.

One thing I will say though is don’t be afraid to speak to friends and family about it, you never know who they know and who can help you. The Insolvency Practitioner I spoke to gave his time free as he was a friend of a business connection.

The company I work for just axed a whole department today. 25 people from my office told today.

Nasty feeling in the office.

**** me, all this sh1t news in one day.

Muffin and Tim – Sorry to hear all this guys.

I’m sat nervously awaiting a meeting with our biggest client. They owe us an awful lot of money and I’m preparing for the worst. I suspect (with very good reason) that they’re about to go under, and we’ll see none of what they owe us. In which case, I think we’re likely to go down with them.

Its an utterly depressing state of affairs as you just feel so powerless

Arse!!! 🙁

MrDoubleTake,

We work for a Global Business, part of the IMI group, – Norgren

Commiserations to everyone who is effected. May be joining you soon as I currently only have a temporary contract until the end of March. The only tiny, tiny silver lining to the cloud is that from redundancy experience two years ago it gives you plenty of time to get out on the bike – takes your mind off things as well.

Sorry to hear all the bad news folks. Truly sorry to hear it.

I work for a Japanese company and my boss got told on Christmas day that the project they had planned for 2009 was cancelled, despite having more than 35 people under contract. The rest of us were informed on 29th December.

It’s been a bit of a worrying time, but today we found out that they would pay out the contracts in full, which means I get a year’s money in return for terminating the contract early and I can carry on paying my mortgage for at least the next 12 months.

On one hand I’m disappointed because I’ve done the same job for eight years and really enjoyed it, and on the other hand it’s the perfect opportunity to make a career change and reduce the amount of time I spend away from home – 250 days last year – which is important now the kids are getting a little older.

I’m lucky compared to most, as at least I can afford to take some time out to look at all the options before making a decision about what I want to do in the future.

The worrying thing is that I’ve only been unemployed for three weeks and I’m already climbing the walls at home, mainly because I bust my arm on Boxing Day and can’t ride the bike at the moment!

We voted last week on 10% cut – result was a majority of 1 in favour which makes it unlikely they’ll proceed. Just waiting for the inevitable redundancies now…

Not to mention we’re spunking all our holiday up the wall to try and make the work last.

neverfastenuff, sorry to here that I know Norgren well, we sell your products among others. Mind you obviously not enough by the sounds of it. 🙁

thanks for the comments guys, but financially i am not in too bad a situation (or perhaps i am just used to it?)

I became a full time carer for my missus a couple of years ago, and so am forced to use the benefits system.

The credit crunch has not affected us too badly as we had already “crunched” as much as we could two years ago (well paid job to bare minimum).

I am looking at personal bankruptcy as this has been suggested by our creditors, they want to reduce their admin incurred by rearranging agreements every 6/12 months, as my situation is not going to change for the forseeable future. (well hopefully not!)

I really feel for those losing jobs with kids and houses to worry about, I know whats its like to live with worry and uncertainty, but its worth saying that material possesions arent the most important part of life.

thoughts with everyone above. Not a good situ and sadly shows how little it takes for the world we live in to fall apart.

Just think, all the above gloom is from just a few hours of one day, & on one little internet community. Now consider the bigger picture, countrywide, day after day.

Itchy, Muffin…best of luck chaps.

Hard times.

On a lighter note tonight’s night ride is looking good, as is the weather for my planned trip to Derbyshire on Sat.
Feel better already.

well im self employed so cant be made redundant , cant get a payoff or income support etc, the phone hasnt rung for more than a week, theres no emails, and things are looking bad.

(must go and pay the phone bill and get reconnected) sorryjoke in poor taste the last bit that is.

My company laid off 22 people two weeks ago and will lay off another 6 and close an office next month, about 40% of workforce will be gone.

The office is getting mighty sparse!

Everyone got their annual bonus, inc all those laid off.

my old mans just been made redundant. 70 out of 110 went ;-(

Takisawa2 – you would go and mention the weather would’nt you ?
It rained all the way home from work 2nite, still raining after my tea, still raining now… C you 2moz M8.

Blimey, so much bad news going round. I hope people who have lost their jobs can use Singletrack for meeting up, getting lifts and generally being supportive and being supported. At least mtbers can get that endorphin release and fitness which will be absent in so many lives.

We all got called in to a big meeting today, timed so that each of our UK offices had the meeting at the same time….. Everybody feared the worst.

Found out that many of our offices have put everybody on redundancy notice, but thankfully our office has escaped it, for now. Still, working in construction / engineering, it’s only a matter of time unless things improve rapidly.

we soon won’t be able to find a quiete trail anywhere midweek will we ? 🙄

Thanks for all the support fellas – to be honest its a bit of a relief – fresh start and all that. It’ll be a messy shite year, but I have the support of my family. 26 years of family business coming to an end though.

jees, sorry to hear all of the above – that’s grim stuff

best of luck to you all

not expecting to be joining you in the shite just yet (NHS – unbelievably, my dept currently has around 40% vacancies and we can’t recruit suitably qualified staff)

**** me – i must say I feel wuite far away from all this – the recession hasn;t bitten quite like this in NZ as far as I can see. We’re doing the opposite – i’ve just taken 2 people on to make sure we can meet our workload in the next 6 months. Although after that it could all fall apart I suppose. Sorry to hear of all the bad news guys – can;t offer much more than enjoy as much as you can the time off you get and best of luck finding something new.

Good luck chaps, seems many of you are in need of it. I, for now at least, work for myself, at least till the end of July. With a bit of luck the contract gets extended so another 3 years or so will follow.
It isn’t for me to tell you what you should or should not be doing so I’ll tell you what I did some 5 years ago when I got fired for calling my manager “a **** a$$hole” (he asked if I thought he was a w**ker to which I replied I had no knowledge of his way of spending free time; he didn’t like it either). I went home, had a bonk and decided to follow my hobby and concentrate on teaching people how to ride bikes.
At the moment I have 1 full-time guy, 1 part-time and a couple of every-now-and-then’s, plus myself.
I’d say have a good think, make a decision and go for it. You must have skills that are needed. If they aren’t, create a market for them. I don’t know, maybe Swinley Forest MTB Guide for Families?
Whatever you choose to do, don’t sit and wait.
All the best!

What not all the people on STW try to set up a company by pooling in all their knowledge?

😯