Got Made Redundant!!!!!!!!

[Marie]

Finish date July 24th

Just Gutted.....
Loved my job....
Took a paycut for nothing....

[gary d]

Sorry to hear that Marie, did you work for the company long? Are they offering a good redundancy package?

[Johnk]

Its the sign of the time's ,Its not nice but sure you will find something else hopefully. I'M heading the same way too have not got a date yet but will be gone by next June

[gfalls]

Tough break.. Hope you find something better soon

[Dragonheart]

Sorry about that Marie, puts the pay cut thing into perspective now though.
Take it from me though, it could turn out to be a great thing and a great chance might come from it. Happened me a few months, loved my job too, and was gutted, but then I got the chance to come here and experience a different side of life. Who knows, you might get a much better job you never have looked for otherwise in a few months.

[Marie]

Sorry to hear that Marie, did you work for the company long? Are they offering a good redundancy package?

Nearly 3 years, bare min redundancy package wouldn't even pay 2 months Mortgage!

[optical illusion]

Ghey, hope things work out for you Marie.

[TopCat]

Really sorry to hear this Marie, and hope something works out for you. As MJ said though (and I've heard it from a lot of people who got let go from here) it might open up some great opertunities for you!

[Mustang]

Sorry to hear that Marie. All the more unpleasant with a new mortgage to be serviced. I do sympathise, and I don't want to come across as the bad guy here, but I refer you back your quote on the pay cut issue of May 12th

Ya I sopose, could be worse, 10% persent was proposed but we fought it out and got it to 5%. But basically we are out by 100k a month to stay floating I can't see 5% pay cut's making those ends meet.

So the company requested a 10% cut and by your own admission yourself and others resisted this and reduced it to 5% but also by your own admission you thought that the 5% reduction would not have been enough to save the company. (That is of course not to say that the 10% cut would have saved the company -and jobs but it surely would have helped. On the flip side you could have taken a 10% cut and still be made redundant -only now with the redundancy based on 90% (as opposed to 95%) of your original salary loose-losse situation).
I didn't pull you up over it at the time as I didn't want to take the unpopular route and rub salt in the wound. It would seem a bit short sighted to resist a pay cut -when it was obvious that the reduced (negotiated) percentage cut would not solve the problem. Of course a gambling person would just hope that someone else would loose their job instead.
I don't want to sound unsympathetic but it sounds to me like the tactics employed by the workforce back fired.

This reminds me very much of the current electricians strike. They may well have a genuine (back dated) claim. However times have changed considerably since then. They work in an industry that is contracting massively. The labour court has effectively ruled in their favour. Entitlement or not a dose of realism is required. If there is decreased demand for your product/servie that does not leave you with a strong bargaining position. If this pay increase is granted, more electricians will loose their jobs. Fine if you are one of the lucky ones -to get an increase, not so good if you loose your job. Unions are supposed to be about solidarity -one for all all for one etc. Instead of retaining the staus quo -which is the most logical outcome (that or a pay cut) -most will benefit slightly, others will loose their job as a direct result - so much for solidarity

[adrian]

So sorry to hear this Marie. What sector do you work in as a matter of interest? I hope you get something sorted soon. Crazy times in Ireland at the moment....

[Bernard]

Sorry to hear it too Marie, hopefully something will turn up.
You never know, it might work out well for you.

[Marie]

So sorry to hear this Marie. What sector do you work in as a matter of interest? I hope you get something sorted soon. Crazy times in Ireland at the moment....

We are in the construction sector, we basically supply to the builders!
I myself work as a Credit Controller it's my job to be the bad guy ring you up and tell you you owe Money ect...
Which made the redundancy so shocking I would have thought my position in the company was needed more than most, to collect payment, sales are great and all that but I class them as gift's until payment comes in.

Also a head's up to you guys who have taking a pay cut, we took 2 first 5 % then we agreed to take a further 5% making it 10% all told, your redundancy is based on the salary you are presently on! Even though you may have took 2 pay cut's in the space of 6 week's you get screwed over.

[Mustang]

So sorry to hear this Marie. What sector do you work in as a matter of interest? I hope you get something sorted soon. Crazy times in Ireland at the moment....

We are in the construction sector, we basically supply to the builders!
I myself work as a Credit Controller it's my job to be the bad guy ring you up and tell you you owe Money ect...
Which made the redundancy so shocking I would have thought my position in the company was needed more than most, to collect payment, sales are great and all that but I class them as gift's until payment comes in.

Also a head's up to you guys who have taking a pay cut, we took 2 first 5 % then we agreed to take a further 5% making it 10% all told, your redundancy is based on the salary you are presently on! Even though you may have took 2 pay cut's in the space of 6 week's you get screwed over.

Tough outcome especially after two pay cuts. I would have thought a credit controller would have been a safe enough gig -as you say -hounding people for money - in the current environment. I hear accounts here at work chasing people for money and it's not a job I'd like. Hope you get sorted with something else.

[kevinod]

Sorry to hear that Marie, sounds like you didn't get much notice either! Hope it works out for ya. My brother who delivers around town reckons there are some jobs around here and there so hopefully something will come your way.

Another brother arrived back from 2 weeks holidays to the news that he & his team got a payrise!! feicers!

I'm on a 5% pay cut myself at the moment, supposedly temporary but time will tell. 2nd quarterly results due out, so we'll see if they need to cut another few million from the budgets this time, but hopefully there won't be any lay offs in my group for now at least.

I didn't pull you up over it at the time as I didn't want to take the unpopular route and rub salt in the wound.

So you thought now would be a good time??

[Mustang]

I didn't pull you up over it at the time as I didn't want to take the unpopular route and rub salt in the wound.

So you thought now would be a good time??

Kevin my point was that Marie and her colleagues had resisited the requested 10% pay cut, despite openly admitting that the 5% cut would not be sufficient to make the savings needed by the company. Obviously this situation was going to be unsustainable and something was going to have to give. My feeling at the time was that this was a shortsighted view on the part of the employees and that they could end up loosing their jobs as a result. However I certainly did not want to openly make that prediction as she seemed upset enough about the pay cut.
Scroll forward a few months and based on the initial update from Marie -she has lost her job -not an surprising result based on the information we had to hand. The damage had been done at that stage -no point sweeping it under the carpet. Once it's up on the forum, it's up for discussion. With the benefit of hinds sight it might have been better to take the 10% cut and retain a job. It appeared that there was a valuable lesson to be learned, and as such any positive that can be derived such such an event is useful -i.e the experience/lesson.
I am not trying to rub salt in the wounds but merely to point out that the writing was on the wall, and the obvious outcome came to pass. Unfortunate, but not unforseeable.

Since then, Marie has informed us that she did indeed take another pay cut. So now having the full story now, it does appear that she did all she could to cooperate with the companies demands. The pay cuts -at any percentage, may not have been enough to save this particular situation. Which does to an extent negate what I was saying above, however I was commenting on the information available at the time.
A conspiracy theorist might even suggest that the company knew the lay-offs were immanent and sought the pay cuts to reduce the redundency payements they would have to make

[Marie]

CURRICULUM VITAE

MARIE



Highly adaptable and Experienced Customer Service Professional with experience in a number of roles requiring an analytical and innovative approach. Strong team player with good communication skills. Consistently strives for excellence in every situation .Thorough .Focuses on Delivering Solutions.


CAREER HISTORY

Irish Wire Products January 2007 – July 2009
Limerick.

o Ensure that all accounts comply with their credit terms and liasing with these customers to ensure prompt query resolution and payment.
o Circulation of debtor statements for customers on a monthly basis.
o Daily allocation of incoming cheque payments and bank transfers
o Daily charging of customer credit card orders
o Maintenance of the lntel accounts payable ledger
o Contacting customers persistently by telephone to secure payment of our trade receivables within our credit terms
o Liaising with customers and staff to resolve customer queries
o Issuing reminder letters to customers regarding overdue balances in accordance with company policy
o Posting cheque and transfer receipts allocating to Customer accounts
o Preparing lodgements for banking
o Preparing excel reports on accounts receivable balances, both for internal use and for issue to customers
o Liaising with solicitors where necessary to secure payment
o Preparing bank reconciliations on a weekly and monthly basis
o Updating maintenance and monitoring details on our internal system
o Issuing contracts to customers for maintenance and monitoring
o Relief for receptionist and departmental holiday cover






Super Valu Watch House Cross November 2004 to Dec 2006
 Interviewing and hiring staff.
 Responsible for 9 staff members.
 Programming computers, and training staff in new.
 Scheduling programme times.
 Stock management – including supervision of stock takes, shortage/ purchasing reports, weekly performance reports to the Central office.
 Dealing with the public & responsible for large amounts of cash on a daily basis.



Smiths Toy Store. September 2001 to Sept 2001.
Work Experience!


EDUCATION AND TRAINING

College: Limerick Senior College, Limerick.

Course of Study: Certificate in Pre Nursing.

Word Processing and Excel

Basic & Intermediate Certificates in First Aid.


PERSONAL DETAILS

Date of Birth: 27-06-1983.

Health: Excellent

Leisure Interests: Swimming, travel and cinema.

Other Details: Excellent communication skills
Good team player
Highly motivated and possesses the ability to work on my own
initiative. Proven ability to manage many different tasks at once using effective time management and multi tasking while working in a team environment.


Anyone out there got any tips on how to improve my CV?

[CJ]

Marie, sorry to hear you've lost your job, theres still opportunities out there, good luck with the search.

I get through a few CVs each month and while I'm no expert, I'd suggest the following:

1. No job titles listed - add
2. Work in Smiths - remove 'work experience!' and add in a brief description of the duties you performed.
3. Add in the duration of study for your college course
4. Re personal details, remove 'Health' and 'date of birth', they're surplus to requirements.

I prefer the following format, others may have different opinions:

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Details

Name:
Address:
Phone:
Email:

<Synopsis of experience and skills>

Key achievements

Employment History

Education

Training

Extra curricular activities

References

Available on request.

CJ

[colm_mcm]

don't mention that you have a white FTO.

[optical illusion]

I look through a fair few myself, only today I was holding interviews.

The 'references available on request' raises my eyebrow though and even if it didn't, it means I have to ring them back, possibly getting their hopes up, take down the contact details, then ring their referees. I haven't time for that when joe bloggs has his referees printed.

[CJ]

The 'references available on request' raises my eyebrow though and even if it didn't, it means I have to ring them back, possibly getting their hopes up

Good point. I only ever deal with recruitment agencies who will do all of the chasing, its worthwhile listing references on CVs sent directly to employers. Come to think of it, I rarely see agency supplied CVs with references specified...

CJ

[Muad_dib77]

I know in Denmark it's common practice to hand over your references along with your cv when you apply for a job - along with detail on how the future employer can verify them - however in Ireland I haven't ever handed over any references..I've stuck to the "references available on request" line.. Been asked for them once, but that was very early in the interview process for a job I knew I wasn't qualified for..and I didn't get it (thank god! hindsight being 20-20 and all that)..

[Dragonheart]

Dont know if you'd have a portfolio in your line of work Marie but if you did then its worth putting in 'portfolio available for viewing', I had to cause the file ended up being about 100Mb in size and trying to send that via email was a no go.
I always include my referees at the bottom of the cv, no reason not too, I dont see it as confidential information and anyway a cv has to be treated in confidence so no harm doing that. As well I attach a copy of the reference letter to the cv, (as a seperate document so it doesnt push it over the 2 page mark).

[Marie]

Thank's Guy's Some really helpful Tips there that I would have never considered, there is so many people out there looking for work at the moment every little detail help's.It's very man for himself. Over the disapointment of being let go at this stage, time to get back on the horse and start again, not too pushed about what job I get as the position I was in at present, I never thought I would be happy sitting at a computer all day but I settled into the routine none the less and really enjoyed it.

Worse case - No work out there, I'm going to go back to medicine do a refresher course and I've only 2 more years left to be fully qualified Only problem being, I'll be back to being a broke student again, so the car would have to go, as you all know it's by no means a cheap car to keep on the road.

[soc]

I look through a fair few myself, only today I was holding interviews.

The 'references available on request' raises my eyebrow though and even if it didn't, it means I have to ring them back, possibly getting their hopes up, take down the contact details, then ring their referees. I haven't time for that when joe bloggs has his referees printed.

This is pretty standard and normally the job of HR - I have never checked an candidates referees because I really don't care - I decide based on interview if they can do the job - HR can do the background check.

Personally I would never put my referees on a CV for the simple reason employers should only contact the referee in the event they are making an offer - 99% of people would be absolutely sure their referees will be sound and the 1% of chancers would normally be found out at interview.