Mass redundancies, possible job lost

SamSam17

A friend of mine called me this evening to tell me his company had gone through mass job cuts today with quite few people being made redundant.

He's has been told his job is secure for few months, up to April then they'll reassess the situation. He's one of few to be kept on in his area. Should he start looking for a job now and plan an exit?

He's got a meeting with HR and his manager in a few days.

Is there any questions that he should be asking?

He's asked me for the advice but I didn't have much to say and thought I'd ask you guys.

Any advice is appreciated.

ACG

There is no cut and dry answer and nobody in the company is going to give him any meaningful information.

If your friend has been there for 10 years and redundancy pay is 3 weeks per year then I would be inclined to stay. If your friend has been there 2 years and gets 1 week redundancy pay per year, then I would be looking for a new job.

barbarawright

Probably worth seeing if the firm offers free jobhunting / interview / cv advice. Many do and it would be worth making the most of all opportunities

TELLIT01

ACG wrote: »

There is no cut and dry answer and nobody in the company is going to give him any meaningful information.

If your friend has been there for 10 years and redundancy pay is 3 weeks per year then I would be inclined to stay. If your friend has been there 2 years and gets 1 week redundancy pay per year, then I would be looking for a new job.

True there is no cut and dried answer, but mass redundancies would tend to suggest that any redundancy payment would be the minimum required by law, and therefore not anything like 3 weeks per year of employment.
Nonetheless, until your friend does have full details of any package, and can calculate (a) how long that money can be made to last and (b) how long it is likely to take to find another job, it's impossible to answer the 'stay for the money or look for a new job now' question.

stuartJo1989

Not a guaranteed method, but it may be worthwhile researching the company in depth. Look at companies house records, stocks (if they are on the exchange), public news etc. It may give you some indication on the longevity of the company + whether they are going to keep on people in your role (if you got through round 1 of redundancies then you *may* be fairly safe).

Still a bit risk mind you, and would 100% suggest sprucing up your CV and looking elsewhere.

SamSam17

Thanks for the response guys. He's had the meeting with HR and it seems like 95% of the jobs are going. The CEO is fairly sure they can make it through this difficult period with significantly fewer employees.

The redundancy pay is minimum required, as everyone seems to have been given a month pay + little extra (depending on length of service, etc).

A week on, and it seems quite few of his colleagues have managed to get few interviews lined up and most will probably be employed within 2 months.

He's been with the company for 5 years.

getmore4less

I would be concerned about workload.

Loosing 19 out of every 20 is a lot to pick up unless a lot were idle.

theoretica

I would look at what jobs are available and apply for the best ones. It would be so frustrating to be made redundant just after not applying for a really good job.