Wait or Go?

getmore4less

Use the consultation to discuss the future, what are the plans, when will they be cutting back again, how big will the UK team be what skill mix(could be a good position to be part of that team). how will the training be done, UK or offshore, where will that be.

It does not have to be a stay/go now it might be there are good reasons to plan to be in the next round.

Experience of going through an offshore can be very useful on a CV,

Many companies underestimate the training and support needed to offshore so ends up taking a lot longer, if outsourced then many miss the need for their own people on-site to make sure the outsource are doing the job.

It is possible to enhance your chances of being on the list if that is what you want without asking specifically. it's a bit of a game.

prunesquallor

What you say makes sense. If I stay I've decided to keep my head down and get on with work. I have applied for a position elsewhere but that's more just to get back in to interviewing, my chances are low.

That said, work load seems to have suddenly died down, so I'm a little concerned that there's some underlying meaning behind that. You mention training and support for offshoring - thing is I'm a developer so my motivation lies in that, not in training people - that's a different job.

When you say one can enhance their chances without asking, what sort of thing do you mean? I don't plan to play that sort of game - I'll just take redundancy if I'm offered it.

The good part about this exercise is it forces you to consider your future. And it's made it clear to me that I'm not growing enough where I am. The last few mini projects were self driven and think I've finally run out of steam. The other thing is I now know I disagree with offshoring in principle. Partly because if a business is benefitting from operating in one country, it should give priority to the company in which it operates. But also, I've learned that the low offshore salaries are in fact too low and frankly exploitative. That isn't right.

getmore4less

prunesquallor wrote: »

When you say one can enhance their chances without asking, what sort of thing do you mean? I don't plan to play that sort of game - I'll just take redundancy if I'm offered it.
.

It works both ways you get an understanding of the where things are going and decide where your preferences lies, you should be doing this all the time in any job, what do I need to be doing to get what/where I want.

You then drive things around you.

eg you don't want to do training, if that will be the future you tell the decision makers that you will not be a good choice for that role in the future could be direct or as part of the consultation dropping very strong hints.

If the work has been drying up they may allready have projects offshore depends how aware of the big picture you are.

prunesquallor

I'll just keep my head down and get on with work until such time as I'm made redundant - I won't volunteer as there are a few things in the uk that are adversely affected with voluntary redundancy such as it being harder to claim benefits should things get desperate.

Setting aside the redundancy for now, what's more pressing at the moment is the fact that my work stack has suddenly dried up. I was getting a steady flow of work until a few weeks ago and it doesn't feel like coincidence that it's suddenly died down around the same time as the redundancy announcement.

Does anyone think this may be a strategy to get me to want to leave? I don't have a problem with that strategy, especially as I've already applied to work elsewhere. However, my job application is likely to fall through, so in the mean time, how should I deal with the low work load? I hate not being productive at work, life gets dull very fast when that happens.

I'll have a priority task to work on this week but after that I'll have very little left. What's worse is the fact that in our department they hired at least 30 contractors about 6 months ago when they centralised our team to deal with all MI requests. They obviously can't stay permanently so I guess the plan is they'll eventually be replaced offshore?

getmore4less

Self training with the down time, learn skills that will enhance the job prospects.

There is a catch with redundancy that can bite if not carefull.
Not fully conversant with the rules but it has been mentioned on here that if you get a job offer sometime before you finish it can impact the companies obligation to pay redundancy.

Many companies do the decent thing and pay out anyway.

prunesquallor

We're still in "consultation" and nobody has been selected for redundancy as yet. All we know at this stage is the percentage being made redundant. So I wouldn't get anything if I was offered a job externally now. I'd simply be saving the company money by reducing redundancies by one.

I agree on the self training front - strictly speaking everyone should always be doing that anyway. Although admittedly I've become a bit lazy and complacent with self development. But still been working hard nonetheless.

I know you'll think I'm being big headed when I say this and I know that everyone is replaceable, but I honestly believe that to replace my current work rate it would take 2 people, possibly more. When I compare my work rate to others in the team I know for a fact that physically I do more than double. That's not to say I'm not expendable because I am, but I personally feel I'm at risk because one or two people aren't fond of me. No idea who, but that's the impression I get. Perhaps some one feels threatened or just doesn't like me? Don't know, I'm just guessing.

In any case it won't make a difference to my next steps: try and ramp up the work load to keep busy and self development. Although if I want to do self development via a decent course provider it will cost me at a time where I perhaps shouldn't be spending too much.

PlutoinCapricorn

£25k is not bad; it would be wonderful if you could get this and THEN get another job soon afterwards.

prunesquallor

Well yes - my ideal would be to be given forced redundancy at 25k and then look for another job. Whilst I'm not great at interviews, there are usually lots of positions for SAS programmers. It would be nice to find a largely remote working role but for now those don't really exist - at least not for this sort of job and not by UK based companies.

It's a shame about remote working - if companies adopted this approach they could employ on a global level and offer jobs based on ability rather than being restricted to either the UK or India. Then you'd be saving on costs of maintaining an office which can't be cheap. And wouldn't need to worry about cost of computer equipment and their ongoing maintenance. Plus other costs such as subsidising a canteen.

To me remote working feels like the logical progression from offshoring, not sure what others think? In the event that people need to meet, then they can do so very easily. But more often than not email and telephone are more than enough. In fact email is often the most useful as you automatically have a written record of a conversation.

getmore4less

Prepare yourself for contracting.

Use the £25k to transition into your first contract.

If you are as good as you say you are you will be on VERY good money after a couple of contracts.

prunesquallor

I'd say I'm better than the other permanents in the immediate team and maybe even a few of the contractors, although most of the contractors are of course better than me because they've been exposed to a much greater variety of work.

The only reason I've shied away from contracting is it will invariably mean commuting across london. I moved close to work a few years ago to escape the cross london commute and I hate the commute so much that I can't bear the thought of going back to it.

If I am picked for redundancy I will look at contracting as it's the only way I can really develop. But, judging by previous rounds of redundancies, they often try to redeploy people internally in order to save paying out.