The Downsized » layoff

Surviving a Layoff

The Downsized Staff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:12:17 +0000

So you just got downsized. Depending on who you talk to, it was going to happen to 4-12% of us in this economy. That’s quite a few people. Here’s what it’s doing and what you’ll need to know as you approach finding a new job.

#1 -Register with your state for unemployment benefits as soon as possible.

It may sound like a no-brainer, but with the numbers of people who are seeking benefits today there is likely to be a backlog on the processing end. The good news is that many states have these resources and forms available online. Get in and get what you paid in to the system. The only thing that we at the downsized would have wished for was that the entire benefit could have been paid out at once.

#2 – Know what the recent stimulus package has done for you.

Great articles have been published that give a breakdown of what is and is not coming as a part of President Obama’s stimulus package. See Yahoo’s Article as an example. Misconceptions about the stimulus:

Misconception #1: Most people will get their stimulus money as a check this year
Misconception #2: The adjustment to withholding will have to be paid back when you file your tax return next year.
Misconception #5: You need to apply through the government to get the COBRA health-care subsidy.
Misconception #6: You can receive the COBRA subsidy the entire time you’re covered by COBRA.
And many others. Read the balance of the article at yahoo.com

#3 – Give your resume a good look

If you saw this coming or not, your resume could use a good polish. Take a few hours and think about what you’ve done in the last few years and make sure that those things are clearly, let me say that again, clearly called out on your resume.

Consider using a service to place yourself competitively in your chosen market. Using a service like Monster’s Resume Writing Service allows you access to experts who can guide you through the process and perhaps insight in to what’s happening on the business side of the job posting site.

Once you’ve written it get it out there so that employers can find you. Never doubt the efforts of a headhunter or corporate recruiter, the more people they place the more they make, and these times have been rough on them too.

#4 – Give serious thought to the job openings that you find – Cover Letters Could be Your Key

With more people out of work and actively seeking employment and fewer jobs available competition has increased for the limited number of positions. Find a way to stand out from the pack and give that hiring manager or recruiter a reason to call you. You need to shine.

RumorMill – UBS Laying off Brokers?

The Downsized Staff — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:35:23 +0000

We just heard about this. Are more white collar workers facing the chopping block? We’ll report back as soon as we hear more. No related posts. No related posts.

General Motors – Layoff Notices to White Collar Workers

The Downsized Staff — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:17:05 +0000

It’s not just line workers being affected by the economic slow down in the automotive industry anymore. On Tuesday March 24th, white-white collar workers at General Motors Corp were informed that their jobs were being eliminated next week. While this cut is reportedly only 160 positions, mostly engineers and support staff at the Warren Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, it comes as a part of nearly the nearly 3000 US jobs lost throughout the US for the automaker, and 47,000 around the world. Roughly 20% of the total global workforce.

While sad that so many American jobs will be lost in this heavy season of layoffs, corporate restructuring, or whatever the flavor of your euphemism may be, this is something that we may have seen coming. Back in 2007 General Motors posted enormous sales worldwide but maintained an operating budget that placed the company at $38 BILLION loss (3rd quarter 2007). Even a year ago news of trouble at the automaker forced the company in to over 70,000 buyout offers to keep from hemorrhaging cash.

Today the giant has seen cuts in salary, elimination of health care benefits, and suspension of dividends to shareholders, as well as widespread cuts in hourly positions, idling of assembly plants, and huge setbacks due to high energy prices, and the “credit crunch” which affects the GMAC lending arm of the company. During the Bush/Cheney administration General Motors and Chrysler were granted $17.4 billion dollars in government loans to continue operating. Background and Impact: General Motors is the second largest producer of automobiles in the world (second to Toyota in 2008). It had previously been the reigning global leader for the 77 years preceding. Around the world GM employs a quarter of a million people (give or take) across 34 countries. The company encompasses the following brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC< GM Daewoo, Holden, Humer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling (Thank you Wikipedia). 2008 saw total revenue at $148 Billion dollars with expenses and sales resulting in a net loss of $30 billion dollars. Sources:

Boeing gives 60-day notice to employees in March

The Downsized Staff — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:47:47 +0000

As a part of a projected 10,000 jobs across the company some 900 Boeing employees are expected to receive 60-day layoff notices. Of this latest group of layoffs 700 are from jobs in the Puget Sound region. The second, so far, round of layoffs has brought the total to approximately 2000 employees. The brunt of this layoff has hit the commercial airline group. To date Boeing has also reduced its contract staff by hundreds as a cost saving measure through other actions.

The commercial airline unit, responsible for producing aircraft such as the 747, 767, 777 and 787 (all manufactured in Everett, WA) is capable of turning out five to seven of these high capacity airliners per month depending on the demand of the market. The Boeing plant at Everett, WA sits on over 1000 acres, and has one of the largest buildings in the world (the main assembly building). Each 747 requires six million parts. The plant is staffed by 25,000 people on a three shift schedule.

The slow down of the economy, and the plight of the travel industry has finally reached the manufacturers. The consumer demand for air travel and the increased cost due to fuel and fees has caused airlines to change operating procedures, cutting routes, shifting schedules to accommodate a smaller fleet flying more miles, and carrying as full a load as possible. Additionally, less available capital on the part of the airlines to lease planes drops the demand for new aircraft significantly, even though the existing fleets may be taxed at a faster rate than in previous years.

The downside of course in seeing decline in an industry wherein a single product is manufactured from millions of individual components is that there are further downstream effects. While the plants themselves require the labor of several thousand workers to complete an aircraft, the necessary parts to build the aircraft come from a thousand suppliers across the country and throughout the world. IT is estimated that at its peak the plant could receive fifteen railcars of component parts per day to sustain the activity at the plant.

About Boeing:
Incorporated in 1916 in Seattle, Washington, Boeing is responsible for producing some of the leading military and civilian aircraft. The company employs roughly 160,000 people (as of 2008), mostly in Washington, California, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Alabama, and Kansas. The commercial airplane group is the second largest companywide following the defense systems group.

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Caterpillar to pink slip over 2000 more employees – layoff news

Caterpillar to pink slip over 2000 more employees – layoff news

The Downsized Staff — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:13:28 +0000

It would appear that Caterpillar, one of the global leaders in construction and mining equipment, is announcing another round of layoffs this March. Even with emerging markets in developing countries in need of equipment produced by Caterpillar, the plummet of mineral and metal prices has forced companies that would usually order gear to put those plans on hold.

Layoffs by Caterpillar are a means to realign the business and manufacturing lines with the needs of the global market and to best position themselves in the supply chain. Layoffs in January 2009, in addition to incremental layoffs through this announcement brings the total number of jobs lost by this global manufacturer to around 25,000. In January, Caterpillar’s layoff joined Home Depot, Sprint, the recently joined Pfizer/Wyeth, Texas Instruments, and IBM as thousands of workers worldwide in premium corporations were thanked for their service and excused as a reduction in force.

Caterpillar’s recent action hits hard in the United States. A majority of the layoffs in this round hit workers at a plant in East Peoria, followed by Georgia, and Indiana. Layoffs are not the only way that the company is looking to to support their bottom line and to weather the stormy economy. While not being let go, for the near future remaining employees are likely not to see increases to salary, corporate expenditures for equipment or other acquisitions, or new employees as hiring will be frozen.

Sources:

Caterpillar

Tracking the Cisco News for Layoffs

The Downsized Staff — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:08:59 +0000

Cisco, a tech company based in San Jose California, completed a wave of layoffs at the end of February 2009 totaling approximately 2000 of the 65,000 employees worldwide, 250 of which were at the headquarters. This follows an early layoff in October of 2008 wherein a little over 100 people were let go at a US facility in hopes that no further layoffs would be needed.

Common big business vernacular for a realignment of resources was invoke by the CEO John Chambers during the 2008 cuts and was also cited by the company in the February 2009 layoff. As companies continue to operate during this period of depressed economic times they must seek creative solutions which maintain a well trained workforce, hone their ranks to those workers and groups who perform their tasks most efficiently, and balance fear within the company with a responsibility to their shareholders for performance within the black. We at the downsized do not envy their position and hope that this dim period in our history will soon be over and that we will be able to reemerge better, leaner, and more innovative as the world’s economy becomes more competitive and hopefully more diverse.

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Los Angeles Unified School District Approves Layoffs – 9000 Affected

The Downsized Staff — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:50:44 +0000

In a move that should be unthinkable in an increasingly competitive global economy that is only going to get tighter, the Los Angeles Board of eduction is considering releasing teachers and staff to combat dire fiscal crisis affecting the state and the nation as a whole. The decision to layoff roughly 2000 elementary school teachers, 3500 nontenured teachers, and 3500 district and classroom support staffed will be made in the face of enormous protest by the teacher’s union. The district with an operating budget of $19.9 billion dollars (2008) is expected to see a budget shortfall of $700 million dollars over the next year and half with the possibility of that amount growing to an eventually higher number by the time the period is over. While the decision to release personnel will have to be made in June, the potentially affected staff were issued notices that their jobs would be on the chopping block.

The Los Angeles School District is the second largest school district in the nation (only New York is larger). Over the last decade enrollment has increased and declined with an annual enrollment of close to or exceeding 700,000 students. The district includes schools in the cities of Bell, Cudahy, Florence, Gardena, Huntington Park, Lomita, Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Maywood, San Fernando, Southgate, Topanga, Universal City, Vernon, View Park, Walnut Park, West Athens, Westmont, West Hollywood, and portions of Carson, Commerce, East LA, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Monterey Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, West Compton, and Willowbrook (2).

The district contains 878 K-12 schools (as of the 2007/2008 school year) and employs over 83,000 people, over 45,000 of whom are regular teachers. Teachers within the district are represented by the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union. Per the union, notices for a reduction in force need to be delivered to permanent teachers by 3.15.2009, though nonpermanent teachers would only get 14 days notice. Final notices for layoffs would be delivered the the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) by May 15th for permanent teachers, if they are to be delivered at all.

UTLA members who have received a reduction in force (RIF) notice should see the union website and download an RIF packet.The packet includes the following:

RIF FAQs (for Permanent Employees) (for Non-Permanent Employees)
RIF Basics
RIF Fact Sheet
COBRA Assistance Subsidy Program
Samples of RIF notices (for Permanent Employees) (for Non-Permanent Employees)
Displacement Guide
RIF Parent Flyer
RIF Parent Flyer (Spanish)

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