View Full Version : Credit Crunch - How has it affected your workplace?
Over the course of the past few months my IT team has shrunk from 7 to 3. That's 3 desktop support people for the whole company of around 600 people. Fortunately nobody's been sacked, just that every time someone leaves there has been a ban from up above for a replacement to be hired :( . As you couldn't probably imagine that's a lot of extra stress on the people left behind.
Prior to that about 30 were made redundant from the flexible resourcing department too. And now there's talk of closing one of the two London offices and selling off a part of the company.
At lunch time there was a impromptu get-together of my co-workers and a lot of us where very worried that we won't see the end of the summer without losing our jobs. It was one of the most depressing things i have ever seen!
What's it like at your work place? Is it turning into a ghost town in your office like it is here?
LouBarlow
24-07-2008, 16:48
Not at all. Well we haven't taken on any new staff in the last few months, but thankfully I'm in an industry not as affected as others by the crunch.
No problems at the Company I work at, only thing is the share price has dropped 50p or so in last few months
DVDWotcha
24-07-2008, 16:53
my work place has been in decline for the last 5 years !
The IT Department I work in has gone from 4 to 8 in the last two months, all of our clients are billionaires though, not Zimbabwean ones either.
Our place must have been preparing for the Credit Crunch for the past 8 years or so. In fact, they're so stingy, they're probably in a good position to survive any credit crunches to follow this one.
******** :razz:
The IT Department I work in has gone from 4 to 8 in the last two months, all of our clients are billionaires though, not Zimbabwean ones either.Can i pass you my CV?
I'm an honourable MP in disguise, and the credit crunch isn't having an impact round here ....quite the opposite.
We have plans for a whole new set of Tsars from Tsars R Us :)
There's going to be a Global Warming Tsar and a Global Cooling Tsar (just in case); a Tsar to listen to whatever Martin Lewis says on telly and then adopt it as policy; oh and we mustn;t forget the Tsar Tsar from Gaboor.
Not affected by the credit crunch....yet. The knock on effect of our customers cutomers cutting back could filter down the line, but I doubt we'll know for 6-12 months.
splobber
24-07-2008, 18:17
I work in an industry where the product is always needed (tampons) so can't see any slowdown as yet. Unless newspaper becomes a preferred option.
SIMON ADEBISI
24-07-2008, 18:19
Splobber the blobber stopper
LouBarlow
24-07-2008, 18:21
That's a gash industry to work in.
splobber
24-07-2008, 18:23
Indeed. It's full of these (http://thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513973)
In my own experience, ie a firm owned by one of our larger banks.
In the last couple of months, they have :-
- frozen some big capital expenditure IT programs
- postponed the centralisation of server equipment
- started to paw over every deal set up by sales, introducing stringent Risk requirements
- cut back on the activity of the off-shore IT team significantly.
So yes, it is having a significant impact.
I also know people who operate in a consultancy basis advising on company mergers and takeovers (SME's predominantly). The deals have floundered because the cash has dried up.
It's very clear that the finance industry, and anything linked to it, is still trying to adjust to the new economic reality.
Market sectors which can still operate with relative immunity? Well, in times like these the government still shows a remarkable ability to spend money. And the service arms of construction companies are still showing healthy return, due in no small measure to the generous largesse shown by the PFI deals - those chickens will take quite some time to come home to roost.
Well I was made redundant out of the blue about two weeks ago, from a job I actually really enjoyed and worked really hard at. There was a whole bunch of staff made redundant and I have since got myself a new job so the pressure is off and I can enjoy the next week or so. Really not a great deal of fun for a few days there though. :)
Mark
Fozzybear
24-07-2008, 19:37
Electronic service and calibration is actually doing well - when things are tight people keep kit they've got and pay to keep it going, which means more work for us. :)
glad to hear things have worked out pythons.
i worked for a big international company. today we received a company-wide email saying sales were up, but sales in the uk are down (we do have a poor commercial leader though). my job's safe though :)
god...i hope that's not famous last words.
oooh 999th post
Radiohead
24-07-2008, 19:52
165 were made redundant 2 weeks ago, me included. The company exists on advertising revenue and it's gone through the floor. The last 2 months saw revenues so low they wiped out the entire annual forecast profit.
They're about to go through a merger as well, so there will be more.
very quiet in the print trade atm. But then always is during July/August where we are. No redundancies as of yet, but have noticed some customers are tightening their belt. Until they need their stationery that is.
Really sorry to hear that Radiohead, i know times like this can be real tough, in 2001 i was made redundent and was on the dole for 6 months. I only just started in IT so i was one of 60 to go from Wilco. 7 years on i suspect my experience has made me more resistant this time round.
I'm sure a better job will come, it always does
NicolaUK
24-07-2008, 20:05
I work for myself so therefore no redundancy here but my OH works for a developer and they've made huge cuts across the board (Half of his department and 35% of total staff laid off, no new company cars or office equipment) He said yesterday that several of their subcontractor have put all staff on notice of redundancy :(
SIMON ADEBISI
24-07-2008, 20:06
We are up the walls. 12 hr shifts for the next month or so.
Cant really complain.
our share price dropped 90% and we've had 1200 job losses, so we've been hit big time
locutus_uk
24-07-2008, 21:28
I work for IT in a hospital and so it's business as usual
MrsJimbob
24-07-2008, 21:54
We seem to be hiring more people at the moment, but our bonus isn't looking good (although that's due to events happening as opposed to the economy). I know lots of people who are saying their companies are experiencing slow-downs though.
Vulcan101
24-07-2008, 22:28
I have friends who still work in the advice sector and they are telling me that some 40% of new clients have debt problems and/or housing problems caused by debt.
Bankruptcies are up and there are a lot of credit card/personal loan companies who are going for charging orders on clients property.
Work for a bank/credit card company, we can't get enough people at the moment, jobs in my team going up for the 3rd time tomorrow.
Although I don't think it will take much for that to change, seen it happen before almost overnight from hiring to recruitment freeze to redundancies.
RobDickinson
25-07-2008, 00:42
Well not affected my company as such, but between the credit crunch and the currency situation the company's profits arnt going to be great this year.
Financialy NZ is pertty stuffed, reserve bank has just droped rates from 8.25 to 7.95 in the face of rising inflation, 3rd largest investment company Hanover finance) has just frozen all assets (26 others have called in recievers), fuel, food etc are all skyrocketing and companies are ofshoring jobs as fast as they can. Oh and the property market is in official meltdown.
40000 less employees in the last few years, massive cuts on future product development, share price down by 70% and lowest for 10 years. No budget for anything I would say things have been better at my place :(
glad to hear things have worked out pythons.
Thanks twinkle, much appreciated. :)
165 were made redundant 2 weeks ago, me included
I'm sorry to hear that Radiohead, it can be a real kick in the teeth. But then I do believe that sometimes adversity can be good for you and from my experience (three redundancies) these things do seem to work out for the best in the end. I hope you manage to get something sorted ASAP!
Mark
OK, this morning we had 'the email' from the head huncho, that's there's going to be redundency's and one of my co-workers now has just been told his role his under a 30-day review :(
Poor guy is cut up about it, he has a family with 2 young kids.
LordoftheDance
25-07-2008, 11:53
Was made redundant 3 weeks ago, still no luck finding a new job yet. :(
i know we're for sale, but depending who buys us we dont know what will happen yet.
pyrogena
25-07-2008, 12:49
No issues here - we've always been cheap though and never spend anything we don't need to. Suppliers hate us.
Spose I'm lucky really, I "work" in two industries and neither would really ever be greatly hurt by a credit crunch.
Luckily i work in education so it's not affected us and I'd be surprised if it did :fingerscrossed:
Dick Long
25-07-2008, 13:07
Luckily i work in education so it's not affected us and I'd be surprised if it did :fingerscrossed:
Depends which sector, but schools can be closed after falling rolls or a bad OFSTED, college courses are frequently cut after poor enrolments (including whole departments), snd many Unis are now fearing very big staffing cuts if their budgets are cut further :(
Depends which sector, but schools can be closed after falling rolls or a bad OFSTED, college courses are frequently cut after poor enrolments (including whole departments), snd many Unis are now fearing very big staffing cuts if their budgets are cut further :(
This is my college I'm the multimedia manager so I'd be surprised http://www.osfc.ac.uk/spotlight/004.asp ;)
Radiohead
25-07-2008, 13:11
Thanks for the words all - I was made redundant in 2002 and was fine so I'm not overly worried. I've an interview next week and some other good possibles in the fire.
Roberto - IME once the 30 consultation starts it's game over. I elected to sack it, and take the period as pay instead as it's tax free.
Dick Long
25-07-2008, 13:38
This is my college I'm the multimedia manager so I'd be surprised http://www.osfc.ac.uk/spotlight/004.asp ;)
A new principal and/or an organisational restructuring is all it takes nowadays, so don't be too confident.
internetuser
25-07-2008, 19:53
LSC can do anything to a college, they can take 30% of your funding if you do not meet numbers or mess an audit up no problems.
try working with 30% less margin
Our business has increased in the last 5 months-quite a bit of export though (book publisher & distributor) been sending out between 10 & 12 ton of educational books to around 1200 customers a day.
We had 70 redundancies (67 voluntary) in Feb as we lost the biggest 3rd party publisher that we distributed for and we were bought out by a private equity company just after it was announced,we expected the distribution work to more than halve but we have since bought out another publisher and now need to hire new staff to cope.
threadkiller
25-07-2008, 21:44
we announced 3000 redundancies over 3 years 3 years ago, but we never got to that. But in the hear & now, my department has just put 50 million into a 500 million project:thumbs:
Had an email from the boss upstairs that my role is 'safe'
Still feel sorry for me friend :(
whiteswan
26-07-2008, 08:34
Hi
Well having a public house I thought the current bleak times would hit me more than it has.
It was the last thing I needed after the smoking ban and budget increases on the price of alcohol.
But amazingly we are doing okay - well a bit more than okay - we are doing really well - it seems the credit crunch is turning people to drink!
I don't do food, if things do take a downturn I may well consider going down this route.
It may all begin to go pear shaped tomorrow - but for the time being we are more than holding our own - but I am very well aware that 5 pubs everyday in this country close their doors never to open them again.
Dave - sunny Oldham.
internetuser
29-07-2008, 14:36
I know a few pub owners and a couple are doing really well, the others are suffering badly. Only busy at the weekend and even then not as much as they were.
1/3rd of staff reduced on all nites. And they are even working the bar alot more than 2 years ago
Again people have been dissappearing left right and centre :suspect: the office is about half full now.
Our local rugby teams pub crawl where we are based was 7 pubs long a few years ago, now down to just 1 pub left on that circuit.
AmazingTate
24-09-2008, 13:38
My place has announced 25 redundancies :(
since the start of this thread we've lost a futher 130 people from here.
Barnacle
24-09-2008, 14:30
We've not lost any people at our company, but at my mates company they are cutting 15% of the workforce (150 people).
No Xmas party globally, travel and training budgets slashed, project funding slashed left right and center, design agency of record dropped to pave the way for cheaper options, no consultant funding yet still millions to spend on advertising. :)
Well I have notice of possible redundancy. 7 staff have been laid off over the last few months. I'm an Estate Agent! Thankful for just having kept my job atm. We shall see how things go.
Brunodog
25-09-2008, 16:45
I am not sure if our company will make it through to Christmas, I would guess not. I am already asking around in the motor trade for any opportunities, but the whole industry is getting hit pretty hard.
Retronana
25-09-2008, 21:49
Some of you may already know, but I work for a UK based independent DVD publisher.
We have a pretty good business, it has grown over 50% in the last fives years so I can't really complain.
One of our retail distribution clients has just had virtually all its credit insurance pulled on Monday, and at the point that most DVD publishers are starting to gear up for Q4 they are having to take all the credit risk for this account.
Business X seems to have spent the last few days on the road with its FD I would assume trying to convince the UK arms of the majors to take a punt on them and avoid an issue of not getting any supply.
We took the decision today to not supply any stock until we can get payment in advance of shipping, I really don't think they have the funds to do this so I think we won't be shipping anything before the end of this month.
The knock on effect of the difficult trading position of this company will be massive, at least two major high streets chains could collapse (nearly 950 stores in total)
Its been a manic week trying to find a way to secure this business, although i think unless we see a massive change on its parent groups share price next week for the good I think its sunk within a few weeks maybe days.
Been in entertainment sales for nearly 9 years and this next week could well be my worst....watch this space and be careful where you buy your gift vouchers in the next few weeks, I'd stick with HMV if I were you :)
Fingers crossed
I work in IT for one of the biggest computer manufacturer in the world. Having already announced 10% worldwide job cuts last year and having seen my UK colleagues all go, I'm bracing for a big rumour to be announced next week.
Fully expecting to go sometime, as all development roles have gone offshore. Having been there best part of 10 years i've been ready to go, although now with the current economic crisis it's probably not the best timing.
mikegray
10-10-2008, 23:35
We had a meeting yesterday, unannounced, which I think made people nervous, but was actually an "everything's fine, nothing to see here" meeting meant to calm nerves!
Our company just had a decent few months but time will tell if that can be kept up. We have been hiring though not firing recently.
I work in the city and we seem to be on a headcount freeze even though we're about 2/3 down. Seems to be freezes everywhere. I work more Front Office focused. OH was working on Finance Projects for an Investment Bank @ Canary Wharf and was given 1 weeks notice this week.
Harold1066
11-10-2008, 22:59
Company I work for has gone from a staff of 15; 4 years ago to 9 at present.
Meeting called next week; so things don't look good. Can't see how the company can continue to work with even less staff, although I've been saying that for the last 2 years :-(
Drysolder
12-10-2008, 11:50
We're still taking on people recruited prior to this mess, but the news is that some of the payroll is caught up in the Iceland debacle, so we might not be paid this month.
Just have to wait and see.
We had a meeting yesterday, unannounced, which I think made people nervous, but was actually an "everything's fine, nothing to see here" meeting meant to calm nerves!
we had one of these a month ago. Seems we are in an ok position atm. But who knows whats going to happen...
There was a meeting yesterday at my work (while I was not in the office) and the news is that 18 people have to go... We were bought by a Far East company 8+ months ago and they're moving operations out there. I'm currently sat on the "consulation list", i'm not waiting around - already applied for 3 jobs this morning!
Spooky_uk
11-11-2008, 14:12
other halfs place is going through redundancies at the moment, though she is safe for the time being - 2 others from her department were let go this week.
no guarantee the compnay won't go under though :(
at least i'm safe, one of the perks of working in the education sector I guess.
SIMON ADEBISI
11-11-2008, 14:27
1000 temporary staff over 3 shifts were let go from our place. 2 sub contactors to the company let go 150 more staff between them.
pyrogena
11-11-2008, 14:32
We're advertising for a job at the moment and have had zero applications. In fact there are a number of places throughout the village that are reducing their opening hours due to "staff shortages". Don't know if this is due to cut backs or they just can't get the staff.
hookbeak
11-11-2008, 14:37
we've been trying to get another web developer for nearly a year. Decent ones who want a job don't seem to exist.
belgarion_v
11-11-2008, 21:50
21 years as a Software Engineer comes to an end this week, thanks credit crunch.
Vince
ryonhilluk
11-11-2008, 23:32
i know a couple of people who are having their roles 'reviewed' in the short term but as i only work part time (in an off licence) while at uni im ok. after uni though im concerned about the jobs market. i'll have a masters to go with my degree and as im only after saving money for a few months before going travelling i should be ok. have a place to live so no worries there. i could be in a much worse position so im rather grateful!
im amazed that so many of the pubs near me still trade seeing as for the past 5 months or so they have nearly always been empty except for a few hours on the weekend. one closed a few weeks ago but the others are still open, presumably getting into more debt. trade may have picked up slightly in recent weeks so maybe more people are turning to drink...
Work for a bank/credit card company, we can't get enough people at the moment, jobs in my team going up for the 3rd time tomorrow.
Although I don't think it will take much for that to change, seen it happen before almost overnight from hiring to recruitment freeze to redundancies.
As expected, recruitment freeze and contractor cull. Having said that, this always happens this time of year (people running out of cash in annual budgets) but it's more severe this year.
In my place, 10% of the workforce was sacked last month so that the 2009 projected figures would look better. Luckily noone in the Belfast office was affected as we cost a lot less to hire here, and as a result, the concensus is to build on the staff here in the UK than in the US.
So in a way, it's a good thing for some.
ascender
13-11-2008, 09:43
As expected, recruitment freeze and contractor cull. Having said that, this always happens this time of year (people running out of cash in annual budgets) but it's more severe this year.
Same here, as it always is at this time of the year. Its worse this time round as you've probably seen on the news (BT). The feeling here is that many are wondering just how many more people the company can lose while still functioning and being able to carry out the day to day work on customer contracts.
I'm expecting to get my notice in the next week as I'm a contractor, but its a strange position to be in when they're still winning business and new long-term contracts, to continue to be losing staff.
That's shocking news about BT - ten thousand jobs. I didn't even know they employed that many people...
I genuinely worry about the long term future of IT staff in UK. We were once told this would be one of the core sections of our knowledge-based economy. Now we hear about staff losses replaced by off-shored functions practically every day.
What happens when there is no core development ability available locally? Won't these offshore suppliers just create a cartel and push prices up?
I had to price for 3 Indian contract staff in '95. Just over a decade later I had to price for similar staff. The daily rate had increased THREEFOLD over that period.
I genuinely feel for the BT staff who will lose out, whatever their work status.
ascender
13-11-2008, 11:23
That's only part of the story. They've been on major cost-saving operations for 7 years or so now and have already shed a hell of a lot more staff than that, but its just never been hugely publicised before as the economy was healthy. The analogy at the start was that it was like turning a massive ship, so people knew it would take a long time, but I don't think anyone expected it to take this long.
They're also still outsourcing a lot of jobs to India throughout the company, so that will account for some of the jobs which go I guess. Also there's quite a lot of people being re-trained in roles who will either replace a contractor or maybe even take voluntary redundancy, so it looks like the people who go will come from various different areas of the business.
ascender
13-11-2008, 11:28
I genuinely worry about the long term future of IT staff in UK. We were once told this would be one of the core sections of our knowledge-based economy. Now we hear about staff losses replaced by off-shored functions practically every day.
What happens when there is no core development ability available locally? Won't these offshore suppliers just create a cartel and push prices up?
I had to price for 3 Indian contract staff in '95. Just over a decade later I had to price for similar staff. The daily rate had increased THREEFOLD over that period.
I genuinely feel for the BT staff who will lose out, whatever their work status.
You wouldn't believe how much of the core BT business is being off-shored (as its now called). Anyone not in a customer facing role seems to be at risk. Someone was saying that companies like BT will sign up with offshoring companies and within the terms of the deal there will be targets set out in terms of the number of jobs to be moved within certain times. There will then be bonuses relating to this, so its in everyone's interest to make it happen.
KennyVader
13-11-2008, 13:48
BT have been doing loads of telephone exchange rationalisations in the last few years, combining two or more into one etc, and they've got more of this work still to do. They have been gradually letting staff go for years, as long as they have existed since the GPO days really, I would not say that all their job losses are as a result of the "credit crunch".
Dave h-j
13-11-2008, 15:10
BT is stuffed full of contractors. They seem to have regular releases of people (always voluntory) who then appear as contractors a few months later.
Although this seems to be the usual contractor cull, it'll be interesting to see who left running things in April.
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