Posted: 5/5/2005 2:56:44 PM EDT
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Sorry about that - but I needed to scream my frustration somewhere. My news for the day is that my position has been eliminated  .No notice, job ends today, goodbye. I hate looking for jobs even more than Bang hates moving. Sorry ... had to moan to someone .... it shouldn't be my wife ... |
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Wow sorry to here that. Things are not looking good here in Oregon right now. Oh you can get work if you're willing to work for 8 or 9 dollars an hour. I'm kind of glad we're getting out now. I just don't see things getting better anytime soon. Really sucks. Bang |
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I think it depends on how many employees the company has if they have to give advance notice. Real true statement made above. Oregon is getting a little better for work but the jobs don't pay squat. Not in your case though. You'll find something better. There really are more jobs than 2 years ago. |
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I'll jump in, because I'm working for a company that's in the process of laying everybody off. The number of employees only matters for large layoffs - they're forced to issue 60-day WARN Act notices if laying off a certain percentage or more of the employee base - I think it's 25%. Under that, there's no requirement. As far as Oregon, we are a "Right To Work" state - neither the employee or the employer needs to give any notice at all for termination of employment. A lot of employers will be cool, and give at least a two-week notice, or if no notice, pay you through the next two weeks. |
Go take the state exam to be a real estate agent! That's actually how I got where I am, I got laid off from a machine shop ($17 an hour, certified weldor), then from a concrete plant ($10.75 an hour, lead driver, night shift, training all the FNGs), then I got laid off from the Dept. of the Interior ($17 hour WG-7), after that I said to hell with "workin' for da man!", took the CD rom real estate school at home.Every day I see people moving here from "out-of-the-area", they're buying houses for like $250,000/$500,000, I ask myself, "WTF are these people going to do here for money?". I can't imagine how they will even make the payments. 
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The company is a non profit, and with less than 100 employees (in the US) the WARN act doesn't apply. My contract was an "at will" one - no notice, no reason needed on either side. Quite typical for high tech workers these days. I thought today would be easier ... it was not. A small number of us have been given the option of staying on until the 20th to help ensure that a big meeting we were supposedly running in Paris is a success - of course, we get to do that from Portland. Its two weeks more pay, so why not?? Everyone else affected was basically escorted to the door. So, today there was an "all hands" meeting to explain why they had to do this - they were relatively truthful about the reasons (it was avoidable). So far so good, then when people started asking about what steps were being taken to avoid the problems which led to this, the CEO stood there and sprouted stuff taken pretty much directly from presentations I and a couple of others had given them on the problem areas, and how to address them -- at the time they were not interested, didn't even admit that the problems existed ... so all three of us end up laid off, and they "think" of all these good things --- shades of "so long, and thanks for all the fish"!! Except in this case its more like "so long - thanks for all the fish - and F you!" I think I damaged my tongue biting it so hard during that meeting... |
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Oregon's high-tech market is going to the birds, unfortunately. I work for a silicon wafer manufacturer in Salem (won't be too hard to guess who that is...  ), and we're closing up shop.When I started, in February of 2000, we had close to 1500 employees, if not more. As of today, we're sitting a fair amount below 100. I'm out of their around the end of June. Sucks, too, because the State and the City of Salem bent over backwards to keep the company in town, but poor decisions by now-deported management figures from the Land of the Rising Sun decided to close Oregon plants, rather than elsewhere in the company. Ah, well. Such is life - there will be better, cooler things down the road, Bob-willing. |
| The sad thing about giving an employee a two week notice is it gives them time to get angry at the company and do something bad to the company. I am an employer, and if I have to "let someone go" I will do it now and not wait. It is not an easy thing to do, but the employer must make some hard decissions in running a business. All employers know that we need employees to keep a business running. Heck, you guys are the front line of a business. I can say that Oregons economy is not the best right now. I have a employee that is moving on at the end of the month and I will not be able to replace him anytime soon. And good luck yo you in finding a new job. Yes some jobs only pay $8.00 an hour, but $8.00 pays a whole lot of Oregonians and puts food on their table. |
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Unfortunately, $8/hr will come nowhere near covering my current commitments. I do understand the idea that 2 weeks notice gives time for disgruntled employees to start dreaming up vengance, but I spent more than half my working life in Europe, where, by law, you get, and are required to give, 3x the salary period of notice. Most professionals are paid monthly, so thats three months notice. You know, it works just fine. People feel that that sort of notice period is very reasonable. 2 weeks is much too short - not really enough time for an employee to find a new job, and not enough for an employer to find a replacement. Both sides end up feeling bad about it. You also get employers who are completely, well, nasty is the only word I can come up with. I know of people who had new jobs lined up, and out of consideration for the current employer set the start date a few weeks in the future, then gave that number of weeks notice to their current employer -- who's reaction was simply to show them the door and terminate employment there and then -- leaving the person who was thinking they were being helpful with no income for several weeks. Guess what these people will do next time around? |
