Good luck Paduan!

I hope you handle it better than I did.

At a former employer we had a major layoff the week before we were doing the annual inventory. As the IT guy that meant three 18 hour days in a row. My boss, the VP of finance, was elsewhere that week (I guess he didn't want to risk being attacked by any disgruntled soon-to-be-former employees) and I heard from another source that my name was on and off the layoff list several times. He called in to check how preparation for the inventory was going and ask how my honeymoon went. After some smalltalk I asked him if I was going to have a job after the inventory was completed, the line went silent. After some sputtering he suggested that I talk to the HR folks.

At the meeting in HR it was confirmed that they were going to let me bust my hump to get the work done over the weekend and then give me a pink slip early the following week. I told the HR guy that I wanted all of my outstanding expense checks, time and a half for overtime and 5 grand or I was leaving with the other laid off folks. He said he'd pass it on but didn't think management would go for it. I told him I didn't think they would either. They agreed to my demands before the end of the day.

The turn-around specialist they'd brought in to save the company (which he did) pointedly refused to acknowledge my existence after that but it didn't really bother me. I guess what I did to him was what he was used to doing to others.

I'd like to say I was young and naive but I was in my thirties and had been through a lot of layoffs. To be honest I regret the way I acted that day but on the other hand it felt *really* good.

I don't know if it'll ever come back to bite me, but what's done is done.

I wish I could say I was shocked by our Paduan's situation, a company decides to let a loyal, hard-working and effective employee so they can outsource his job. On top of that, they schedule a mission-critical, death march-style upgrade for that employee's last month which happens to be, just coincidentally, during the Holiday Season. It's a perfect storm of venality, indifference and incompetence.

First, I get the impression that this upgrade needs to be done as quickly as possible, hence the death march. This sounds like the sort of thing that causes disruption during the upgrade process, so it needs to be finished as quickly as possible once it starts. Therefore an offer to either work past the Dec 31st deadline or stay on as a consultant will likely be a non-starter in this situation.

Bottom line, they'll need you to do the death march. Don't even think about it unless they agree to compensate you for it and put that agreement in writing. Forget about time and a half. Suggest a bonus of one month's salary to be added to your severance package.

Lastly, I'd like like commend the LW for his professional and ethical behavior. Were it me in this situation, I'd be pretty tempted to do a lot of personal web surfing, work on my resume and take long lunches during my last weeks with the company. If the company thinks that they can get better results by outsourcing their IT functions, why not put that theory to the test?

Paduan,

By the way, if you manage to find a new job between now and when the time is up, give them their two weeks notice, work a reasonable amount of time for those two weeks and then leave with a smile on your face. I hope you get the chance to do that.

This episode shows just how far companies have gone in betraying the employer-employee relationship. Extra effort should be put in with the implied agreement that it will be appreciated by the company, and perhaps compensated. When they expect tremendous effort after eliminating your job, they have broken all reasonable employment agreements with you.

Bob is right, you need to be professional. But this company has no right to expect you to respect them and provide any extra effort for them. They have forfeited all their respect through their actions. Respecting your employer is not the same as being professional with them (as Bob's example so clearly shows).

Again, if you get an offer in the mean time and tell them you're leaving two weeks earlier then when _they_ wanted you to, tell them its only business. I'm sure its the same lame line they used on you when talking about the layoffs.

Good luck in the future. May you never work for a company this awful again in your career.

Agreeing with all the above, I would recommend offering to stay as a contractor, base rate $200/hour minimum 80 hours.

Who knows, you might get lucky.

Best of luck going forward!

Bad situation, sorry you are in it. Some thoughts:

The company gave you advance notice of your termination. This is not always the case. I have heard of many cases of employees working 100-110 hours a week, diligently and professionally, up to the surprise pink slip day. Rick’s comment above is pretty much the norm – he had to corner his boss to find out if he was on the list and his boss still didn’t have the you-know-what’s to tell him. Niiice.

I’ve heard this said many ways: the bottom line is that you are “in business” for yourself regardless of how you are “classified” (employee/contractor/consultant/freelance etc.). This means that:

You maintain training in your field whether your employer company pays you to or not

You represent yourself in the best possible way to all people you contact, whether fellow employees, bosses, outside contractors, etc. You never know who your next “client” or “customer” will be. Professionalism, responsiveness, meeting deadlines, etc. are all “marketing” and important. The consultant hired to roll you out the door may end up being your next boss – if you stand out from the crowd of the disgruntled others.

Maintain outside contacts and continue to develop your network.

Don’t just focus on the current customer (employer), prepare for the next one too. Loyalty is, very sadly, dead.

Prioritize your time effectively. IMO, drop the volunteer plans before dropping job search and job completion. People will understand. Unless you are unusually disciplined, write a plan. If you feel you need to spend 15 hours a week on a job search, plus 60 at the current job, you should have a personal timesheet tracking the time. Don’t shortchange your future.

Forget revenge or retaliation. It only harms you and your reputation. But you can dream about it, sometimes that feels good. :-)

IMO, Bob’s advice is good. And he didn’t even pay me to write that.

One company I'm familiar with offered generous termination packages contingent on employees training their Pakistani replacements and staying for a specified length of time. This was at least an honest arrangement with realistic incentives to maintain professionalism and complete corporate objectives. Absent this kind of package, Paduan owes the company nothing beyond an honest 40 hours of work each week.

This is also a time to watch your back: A company that abuses people this way will abuse them in other ways, too. Maintain your professionalism and work ethic, though, because any bad attitudes or habits you develop during this period may be hard to break at your new job!