A year after I retired, my ex-company lays off everyone in my old division

[Tadpole]

I retired from the DOD about a year before the small frog pond I occupied a cushy position in was combined with a larger pond that already had a good-ole-boy of their own in my comparable position. Had I still been on board I imagine that I would have been placed in a sidelined position with an impressive title until I reached my planned retirement. So glad this happened after I retired.

 

[FiveDriver]

What I learned today was that Nortel in particular lasted 120 years.

Does that 120 years include the Bankruptcy Saga ?? Now there's a Corporate History to be proud of.....

"Nortel's 2009 bankruptcy case—the largest in Canadian history—left pensioners, shareholders and former employees with enormous losses while Nortel executives continued to draw "retention bonuses" totaling $190M US during the eight-year post-bankruptcy period."

 

[JoeWras]

Nortel. Ugh. Don't get me started.

 

[Danmar]

Nortel. Ugh. Don't get me started.

I was once approached for a senior job there in 2001 I think. Wasn't interested. Also got close to a very senior job at WAMU in 2002. Thought i was going to get that one. Met with the CEO for an hour and a half. Lucky I didn't.

 

[audreyh1]

I had a slightly different experience. About a month after I left, the FBI raided my company. When the dust settled, the Director of Marketing, the Comptroller, and one other person went to jail.
The charge was bribing a government procurement official.

Wow!

 

[RunningBum]

Does that 120 years include the Bankruptcy Saga ?? Now there's a Corporate History to be proud of.....

"Nortel's 2009 bankruptcy case—the largest in Canadian history—left pensioners, shareholders and former employees with enormous losses while Nortel executives continued to draw "retention bonuses" totaling $190M US during the eight-year post-bankruptcy period."

I won't disclose how I know but I hear the Nortel bankruptcy is apparently finally about to be completely settled. The assets and businesses they were able to sell off actually brought in a pretty good price, though not enough for any common stockholders to get anything. Hopefully some of it will get funneled to the pension fund, but I don't know anything about that.

 

[FiveDriver]

This discussion of the Telecom Collapse reminded me of the shenanigans that went on in that sector as some companies were circling the drain.

One of my buddies went to work at a Startup with high hopes of cashing in the Tax-Free ISO options. Of course, each round of funding was always fraught with the danger of downsizing & layoffs. When a funding series came in a little less than expected, his company called 2 simultaneous meetings. A certain group of employees was told to report to the Conference room, and the rest of the company were told to report to the Cafeteria. All of the Conference room employees were given their Exit packages and escorted by Security to clean out their desks and leave the premises within the hour.
The Cafeteria group were given free coffee and cake.

Months later the next round of funding also came in a little light and 2 meetings were called. This time, the Cafeteria gang was happily expecting their free cake while the Conference room was like a gallows. But, you guessed it.......Security escorted the Cafe crowd back to clean out their desks and nobody got any cake.

 

[JoeWras]

This is all giving me a big headache. Bad memories.

The brightside is this discussion may help shorten my OMY problem.

 

[NW-Bound]

Such is life in high-tech industries. Easy come, easy go. I was involved in 2 start-ups during this bubble. We made money for a few years, then came 9/11. Crashed and burned. I would do financially a lot better staying at aerospace megacorp at my cushy job, and gritting my teeth through idiotic indoctrination, bureaucratic "training" and lectures.

There's a price for everything, and certainly that paycheck. If you enjoy your work, upper management thinks that perhaps you should be made to pay to work there or something. I think they hate their employees.

 

[EvrClrx311]

I had a similar disaster happen in my last office and the bitter/sweet feeling after...

From 2011-2015 I was a part of building something special, engineering embedded systems stuff... it was cutting edge, and fun! Amazing team of six, and we really pushed the boundaries of what was possible. I LOVED the job, and became an expert in it... I felt respected and valued for my contribution and vision. I was the youngest on the team (most were later in career), but had become the subject matter expert and was tasked to train the system at conferences. In late 2014 management rolled over, and due to politics in the office my mentor and PM got removed and pushed out the door... they replaced him with someone who wasn't technical, but had a lot of management experiences (apparently). It was really sad to see. The problem was that the mergers above him created a group who was threatened by successes and so they sought to remove what they felt threatened by. Really silly business model

Anyway, in late 2014 we got a new boss... this new PM didn't seem future focused, he was more aware of taking the easy path in things and redirected work in silly ways, then focused primarily on selling our selves, rather than actually engineering solutions. When I would meet with him privately, to discuss what had worked... the deeper level stuff seemed to bother him, he didn't actually want to know about it, so I lost the ability to communicate what I saw as innovative and improvements. He just wanted to hear positive news, and boasting about the latest numbers. He was more of a career business guy who ruled by tearing down others, and micro managing... problem was he wasn't technical. I fought with him for about six months, trying to tell him the disaster that was coming from his policies, and eventually I gave up and left, as well as 3 other members of the team around the same time.

What really bothered me most was that I was labeled as difficult and negative, when nothing had changed in how I was operating (I was just pointing out what I saw as coming; before it would help us avoid missteps; now it was just over the heads of people who preferred to hear rosy things, and seemed bothered by any mention that difficulty was coming)... I moved on to another group in 2015, luckily was also great work... really enjoy what I'm doing now, but it's not quite as good as that previous job. Just last month I found out that my predictions came true and the project fell short in all the areas that I was vocalizing at the time... the project was scrapped and the whole group removed. What's really sad is seeing something that I helped create and put so much into fall so sharply (and in avoidable ways)... the technology is no longer cutting edge or useful and it fell too far behind competitors

Lesson learned... it feels good to be right, but if you're right about a doom and gloom disaster coming... it serves no one any good to voice those concerns in a way that comes across as defiant.

 

[Breedlove]

Worked for an Oilfield Service company BJS , when I went to work for them 1990 we were worth 285 M . We got bought out in 1999 by BHI for 5.1 Billion Last July I was told that I had to be cut , kind of a funny sidebar when they laid me off they took me to the HR office . I was trying to talk to a lady I could hardly understand . Finally I thought they can't eat me , I asked her where you from she said Saudi Arabia ..........I then asked her are you a U S citizen she said I am here H1B please continue . Really bothered me . Today I read that BHI is selling the old division they bought for 5.1 Billion to Goldman Sachs for 374 million . I have moved on !

 

[brett]

I worked in IT. I saw downsizing for 20 years. Downsizing, offshoring...you name it.

Lots of colleagues left over the years. Most went on to better jobs, different careers. A few fell by the wayside.

The upside was that I decided not to RE until I got the package. It took a year or so but I was able to walk away with a very lucrative settlement. I know of several folks who manged to get two or three very good packages from their various employers. Sure helps the retirement fund.

 

[MRG]

When I left the sawmill in '84 for Megacorp they had about 80 people w*rking. The President and primary owner was a really horrible man.

As a example they paid a voluntary Christmas 5% bonus for perfect attendance on a weekly basis, paid the Friday before Christmas. This was a blue collar w*rk force, and this is Christmas money. Not this year, guy decided times are tough, and it's voluntary. I watched grown men crying as they realize there's no Christmas this year. He does promise it won't happen again, true to his word he pays the 5% bonus next year. Then announced that the mill was shutting down for 2 weeks, no pay, unemployment didn't kick in, no Christmas.

Those were some of the things that made me get out and into a different career. Two years after I left they went broke. The place sold at auction to pay the bank notes!

A friend stayed there as he had a small ownership position that became worthless. He filled me in on how foolishly the President ran the place into the ground. He was a bad person and an id10t about business.

 

[kcowan]

Hopefully some of it will get funneled to the pension fund, but I don't know anything about that.

Current pensioners stand in first place behind the lawyers. They got 0.70 cents on their dollar.

(I bought Nortel stock when it tanked to 0.77 cents. I was filled at 0.86 and when it rebounded to 1.70 I sold it all. It eventually went all the way to over $7 but pigs get slaughtered.)

 

[audreyh1]

This discussion of the Telecom Collapse reminded me of the shenanigans that went on in that sector as some companies were circling the drain.

One of my buddies went to work at a Startup with high hopes of cashing in the Tax-Free ISO options. Of course, each round of funding was always fraught with the danger of downsizing & layoffs. When a funding series came in a little less than expected, his company called 2 simultaneous meetings. A certain group of employees was told to report to the Conference room, and the rest of the company were told to report to the Cafeteria. All of the Conference room employees were given their Exit packages and escorted by Security to clean out their desks and leave the premises within the hour.
The Cafeteria group were given free coffee and cake.

Months later the next round of funding also came in a little light and 2 meetings were called. This time, the Cafeteria gang was happily expecting their free cake while the Conference room was like a gallows. But, you guessed it.......Security escorted the Cafe crowd back to clean out their desks and nobody got any cake.

Yuck!

 

[Winemaker]

My mega corp sold my division to a competitor 6 months before I turned 55. The competitor did not offer health insurance to retirees, but did fund a special 401k type account for retirement health expenses vesting after 10 years. No thank you, please.

The former mega corp, after 1 year, cut the remaining employees health insurance after they thought they dodged a grenade.