The Importance of Buffers (partner has lost her job)

I remember reading that one @skater you guys really did go through the ringer back then.

 

With integrity like that, it's a great thing that you started your own business.

Its a rare thing and clients really appreciate it.

 

We did! And it wasn't the first time either. The point is.....you've got this. It's only a temporary set back and you'll get through it and go on to bigger & better things. I feel that sometimes these things come around to test us, although that does not negate the pain at the time.

 

Make sure she doesn’t do anything to jeopardise her redundancy payout, especially as it should be taxed lightly, relevant if they force the termination in this financial year.
Marg

 

Absolutely! As tough as it is for her emotionally just now she's trying her best to get this all locked down in writing ASAP. @Marg4000 she's got a 12:00 meeting with them and HR again today to go through her hand over package, should have some more concrete dates after that. My guess would be they'll split the difference and hold her to mid June. She's already told them she's happy to continue to take calls and e-mails from her teams post-redundancy to help them out, (she's got some awesome staff that are really going to find it tough when she's not there to shied them).

 

Well, if she gets an autumn or early winter cold, this is definitely the time to take a few days off - if she has any sick leave available.

Really dedicated people often work through illness, and end up with stacks of sick leave...

 

Exactly, she has over 100 days of accrued unused sick leave @Joynz but like I've said before, she wouldn't abuse it even after all this. The last thing she wants is to risk a vindictive reference. I don't think they would be that nasty, but you can provide a crap reference without actually being disparaging in it if you know what mean. She's overthinking a lot just now, with the shock of it still sinking it, she's super paranoid about how it looks to t prospective employer that she's been retrenched, all that type of stuff. A crisis of confidence of sorts after having the rug pulled out form under you after so many tears.

 

A few points.

Before hubby retired 6 years ago, his (large, multi-national) company no longer gave out formal references, on legal advice. All that was formally issued was a basic letter confirming the dates of employment. Of course, individual employees could still give personal references, but not on company letterhead.

I don’t think there is as much stigma around redundancy these days, it happens so regularly and for a wide variety of reasons. Most modern thinking is that, when a company downsizes, the lucky ones are those that are made redundant first rather than be left to deal with the extra workload.

Give Emma time to process and grieve for her experience, a blow to anyone’s self-esteem. Maybe schedule a few days away somewhere nice when she finishes up? Even a long weekend is something for her to look forward to, to celebrate the start of her next working life.
Marg

 

Thanks @Marg4000 - wise words.

 

Yes, but her former boss (who was amazing and is now a very good friend) was let go (bullied out) 4-5 years ago now, so may be looked at as irrelevant. One of the Team Leaders under her would give an amazing one as Em has supported her in building a fantastic team, so that would be good one from that point of view. The financial analyst that left a few weeks ago (another very intelligent, strong woman that simply couldn't work for them any longer so walked out - seeing a pattern yet?) will also give her a great one as she can quantify that actual tangible financial benefits that Emma's programs have resulted in.

Its just current "boss(es)" that may (or may not) be the issue. I'm probably being a little unfair under the circumstances, they have no reason to give her a good one, I think the main thing is they just don't really know what she does. Her role has been essentially one of a Director without the title, her actual "bosses" are so out of touch with what she does it's not even funny.

EDITED TO ADD - even the Head of HR (another female) confided in Em yesterday that she's looking to move on ASAP, she's the third female head of HR in 4 years, they have all said the same thing, dreadful culture in upper management.

 

@Propagate - I might also suggest that Emma request the assistance of an outplacement agency (useful as they are ). An independent brain (paid for by the ex-employer) to give her some time to work through the issues and getting back into a job-ready mindset.

 

She's meeting someone this afternoon, I can't remember the name of them. She was able to request a business mentor through them too. I'll find out the name later on.

@geoffw indeed, she's only really been cursory looking at the jobs boards just now, it's been a full on job trying to pull together a hand over list in the interim. I'm sure she'll feel heaps better after today's meeting and can get a definitive finish date pinned down. I really can't guess which way they'll go, I'm hoping they'll cave with some pressure form HR and let her go at the end of the week on Garden leave, but being the types they are I suspect they'll offer to split the difference and hold her to another two weeks.

 

So, they are holding her to work right up to June 30. No negotiation.

The main reason they gave was the work that she does still needs to be done, yet every time she asked who was going to do it after June 30 then, and what’s the difference finishing next week or 4 weeks when the work will still be there regardless they wouldn’t respond. She pressed them on it several times and they wouldn’t give an answer other than “we expect you to work until end of June”.

The main one, which we surmised last night was probably the reason, is from June 20 to June 30 the wage advices are released (don’t know exactly what it means), but basically all the wage reviews for members are release in that period and Em checks every single calculation and signs off on it before she authorises publishing to get it out to members. They come through in dribs and drabs between 20 to 30th, it’s a very stressful time of year for her has they HAVE to be signed off by June 30 and published to members. It’s a solid 10 day stressfest of long days and nights.

That’s is what they are expecting her to do in the last ten days of her notice.

She is disappointed in herself as she broke down in front of them with the stress of it all. They didn’t give a ****.

HR Head was in the meeting and is disgusted, she is going to report to the CEO on what’s going on, not that it will make a blind bit of difference either way.

So, poor old Em is stuck now, she’s got to work through her whole notice and get the advices signed off as her parting gift.

If these guys had any clue they would have waited until end of June, after the advices had been done and then gave her notice, it would have cost them another months wage is all but quite how they expect to drop all this on someone, then expect them to be clear headed enough to run such a massively important task right before they are marched out of the door is beyond me.

Her Team Leader came to see her this morning, she’s great at her job but doesn’t do well under stress. Em has been her manager and mentor for years and always there as a crutch for her. She barely keeps on top of her own role. These two characters called the TL in this morning and basically told her most of Emma’s old operational duties will be passed down to her. So, not only was she barely coping with what she had, with Emma there for support, she’ll now have no support and a metric ton of extra work on top plus no direct manager and these two numpties are based out of state… that’s just one of her departments too.

I’m so glad Em is getting out, crap way to go about it but at least in just over 4 weeks she walk out the door with her own head held high. I feel for the people left behind under her that she has shielded from a lot of this garbage for the last 4-5 years though, they’ll now have no direction, no mentor-ship/leadership and no one to report to plus more duties handed down to them.

Oh, and still no official letter of redundancy, just the initial "possibility" one. Apparently they've calling a meeting with her again on Friday to lock it all down, funny, I thought that was what today was for. I think they cacked themselves when she handed over her "job list" this afternoon and it sank in a bit just the shear volume of stuff she has to get done on daily basis. Just need to get this thing all locked down in writing ASAP. HR Head has been involved in every meeting so it would be very difficult for them to rescind for any reason, just makes it even more difficult for Em to just keep doing the right thing by everyone until it's finally over.

 

Shame on them.
Please tell her don't be disappointed in herself. She deliver great work and she knows it. I hope all turns well for you both, and that she will get better more amazing role soon.

For her team, when she has found the next role she can hint on potential available talents to recruiter, if her former team members need it. They have her as their reference.

 

@Propagate I feel a family emergency coming on.......Might just be around 20 June that you both have to go to the UK

 

I like your thinking

 

I think that is pretty standard, besides which, a paper reference would be pretty useless, and any HR person worth their salt would be following it up with a phone call anyway.

Can Emma ask one of the previous directors or the ex-CEO to act as a referee? If I were in her position I would possibly be disinclined to ask the current management anyway, or at the very least only as a backup.

Cheers,
Inertia.

 

She will @inertia her old boss will give her an awesome reference, trouble is she was let go over 4 years ago now, so I'd wonder what a prospective employer might read into that? Using a boss form 4 years ago as referee over a current boss? Also, Emma's role has evolved a lot in those 4 years so there may be a degree of irrelevance in terms of "work" in a reference from her old boss with regard to the roles she'd be applying for. It'll come down to the kind of role she applies for I guess as and chose some referees accordingly, avoiding these clowns if at all possible.