Made redundant

[MarkA74]

Well, I was notified yesterday that I would be one of the four people to be made redundant at the end of this month.

 

So what next? Anyone looking for an experienced Project Manager?

 

I know this company isn't the first to make redundancies and it probably won't be the last. Have you been declared surplus to requirements? Have you made any plans?

[Chris Beesley]

Gutted for you Mark. Not sure if its your bag or not - I spotted TOA are looking for staff at present. Clicky!

[tokm]

How far of a stretch (travel wise) would Alton Towers in Staff's be for you?

 

If its not out of the question, have a look at the jobs on there recruitment website >> Link.

 

As you can see, theyre after a Project Manager atm, as well as a few others.

 

HTH, T

[The Gaffa]

Really sorry to here about the redundancy, Hope you manage to find something soon.

 

May I suggest that you have a look on the PLASA website, www.plasa.org

 

I did notice some Prod Mgr Jobs on there a couple of days ago.

 

HTH.

[soundo26]

Well, I was notified yesterday that I would be one of the four people to be made redundant at the end of this month.

 

So what next? Anyone looking for an experienced Project Manager?

 

I know this company isn't the first to make redundancies and it probably won't be the last. Have you been declared surplus to requirements? Have you made any plans?

 

I got made redundant in June, I have 35 years in the industry and have not been able to find a job yet! I am working freelance but things seem to be very quiet out there, not helped by the fact that I'm not well known because I've been employed all my working life so it's hard to get a break into companies until they have tried you, but they will only try a new freelancer when all their other contacts are unavailable, a slow process!

 

Good luck with the jobsearch, let's hope this will be a short recession..........bring on the next general election!!

[greenalien]

let's hope this will be a short recession..........bring on the next general election!

 

Regardless of political affiliations, change of government etc, it would be daft under present circumstances to assume that this will be a short recession - this is 'batten down the hatches' time. If you find yourself unemployed, now is not the time to wait around for the perfect job to appear - what's most vital is to get registered for JSA and start signing on asap, then take any job you can get, even if it's the proverbial supermarket shelf stacking, as even a 'minimum wage' job pays than being on benefits, and it will look far better on your application for the job you really want if you are employed rather than on the dole.

[soundo26]

let's hope this will be a short recession..........bring on the next general election!

 

Regardless of political affiliations, change of government etc, it would be daft under present circumstances to assume that this will be a short recession - this is 'batten down the hatches' time. If you find yourself unemployed, now is not the time to wait around for the perfect job to appear - what's most vital is to get registered for JSA and start signing on asap, then take any job you can get, even if it's the proverbial supermarket shelf stacking, as even a 'minimum wage' job pays than being on benefits, and it will look far better on your application for the job you really want if you are employed rather than on the dole.

 

Nothing is regardless of that! I have been in this industry and constant employment since 1970, fully employed under PAYE! When I was made redundant in June I was advised to claim JSA so I spent days getting all the stuff together they want to know, spent over an hour in an interview and told to come back in a couple of weeks to sign on. Went back two weeks later, only to be told I am not eligible because my wife has a part time job at minimum wage at the local school, because she does 24 hours a week that negates my claim, tried again the next time and was told the same thing and also not eligible because I'd actually managed to get two days freelance work! I gave up!

 

Later I was told you should be eligible for Non-contributory JSA, did all the paperwork, interviews etc and told to sign on again. Went back to sign on, told I am not eligible because my stamp is not fully paid up, I've been fully employed all my life until then, I was told I have to prove that I have paid up, I have all my wage slips and took the P60s down, not enough. I.ve checked with my ex employer and was told that the Tax office had made a ######-up and everything was fully paid & here I am, unemployed with not a penny from them even though I've paid in a fortune over my lifetime and watching the last of my savings dwindle to nothing whilst wondering how I'm going to pay the mortgage because there's very little work coming in and no-one has any jobs and if I apply for the rare one I might find no-one answers! Good brain & loads of experience , looks like it's shelf stacking for me then!

As I said before............bring on the election because this lot are a complete waste of time!! Sorry to get political in here, but I bet I'm not the only one here in this sort of situation.

[Rob_Beech]

As we see constantly, it is those that work that get punished for working, those that don't get my money.

What would happen if Fred Smith down the road doesn't look for a job as he's never had one, he'll keep getting paid to sit on his arse and nobody will care. What happens if I don't pay my £12,000 tax bill in the next week and a bit, I get my arse kicked and I get a fine. Why? because they need that money to pay Fred Smith down the road. Poor sods got nothing to do all day sat on his arse, so they're giving them sky tv now.

[soundo26]

As we see constantly, it is those that work that get punished for working, those that don't get my money.

What would happen if Fred Smith down the road doesn't look for a job as he's never had one, he'll keep getting paid to sit on his arse and nobody will care. What happens if I don't pay my £12,000 tax bill in the next week and a bit, I get my arse kicked and I get a fine. Why? because they need that money to pay Fred Smith down the road. Poor sods got nothing to do all day sat on his arse, so they're giving them sky tv now.

 

well said Rob!

[karl]

As I said before............bring on the election because this lot are a complete waste of time!! Sorry to get political in here, but I bet I'm not the only one here in this sort of situation.

Yeah, because a change of party and the economy will suddenly boom, everyone will get their jobs back overnight, all criminals will go straight and the sick will miraculously recover! Dream on.

 

While it's trendy to blame the Government for everything (and let's face it they do seem remarkably incompetent) I don't think the recession is all their fault.

 

It all started when we moved from being a cash based economy (where people saved up to buy things) to a credit driven one (where people bought every thing now, on credit). This led to a boom but keeping the boom going relied on ever increasing borrowing and you can't keep running up more and more debt forever. Eventually the repayments become too expensive (this would have happened a while ago but for falling interest rates).

 

Now that the brown smelly stuff has hit the fan everybody is blaming the banks for reckless lending and the Government for, well, being the Government. Nobody seems willing to say "Maybe it's our fault for running up shedloads of debt to buy things we don't REALLY need." After all you can live perfectly well without a 60inch hi-def TV or I-pod or games console. You can even (shock horror) live without a mobile phone!!!

 

Trying to persuade the banks to lend people more money (as all the main parties seem to be advocating) only puts off the inevitable. Better to grin and bear it and get the whole sorry mess overwith as quickly as possible then return to a more sensible and stable economy built on real money not fictional loaned money.

 

I feel sorry for all those affected by the fall out from this (and all those of who are yet to be caught up but no doubt will be). I just hope that the whole thing isn't dragged out for longer than necessary by which ever flavour of Government we finish up with.

[MarkA74]

Well the agency I'm with have been searching around to see what may be available and a few names have popped up, the only problem is that one looks like a one-man-operation with a 10 year old website and another is a company with a less than respectable reputation, so I'm stuck between a rock and hard place right now.

 

One the one hand (looking at it positively) there are companies who want to meet with me and potentially take me on (with any clients I can take with me), on the other hand (being negative) those that want to take me on ain't that great.

 

I know that I shouldn't be picky, as a job is a job and I need to keep paying the mortgage, but after 12 1/2 years of AV, may be its time I finally dragged myself out of the industry and did something else instead? I've been thinking of endless options over the last couple of weeks, do I go freelance (again) do I re-train to do something else (sparky / plumber) do I find a job driving 7.5T'ers? I really don't know which way to jump right now.

 

Mentally I'm finding the thought of my future quite daunting and I know that I need to keep things together, otherwise I'll go barmy! ;)

[Guest lightnix]

As I said before............bring on the election because this lot are a complete waste of time!! Sorry to get political in here, but I bet I'm not the only one here in this sort of situation.

Yeah, because a change of party and the economy will suddenly boom, everyone will get their jobs back overnight, all criminals will go straight and the sick will miraculously recover! Dream on.

We'd have wound up in just as big a mess under the Tories, because they also favoured exactly the same kind of "light touch" regulation (a.k.a. turning a blind eye) of the banks that got us into this mess in the first place.

 

While it's trendy to blame the Government... I don't think the recession is all their fault... you can't keep running up more and more debt forever.

 

Now that the brown smelly stuff has hit the fan... Nobody seems willing to say "Maybe it's our fault for running up shedloads of debt to buy things we don't REALLY need." After all you can live perfectly well without a 60inch hi-def TV...

Bang On! Although there are several innocent victims of the global recession, there are equally those who lied and lied again; mainly to themselves about what they could really afford.

 

I just hope that the whole thing isn't dragged out for longer than necessary by which ever flavour of Government we finish up with...

I don't think anybody knows how long it will last and if they do, they ain't saying because the markets would go into terminal meltdown if they did :D

 

As I understand it (in a limited way): What the US banks, did by lending money they didn't have, to people who couldn't repay it and then repackaging (i.e. misdescribing) the debts as prime investment opportunities to be sold on (to Northern Rock, RBS, HBOS, etc.), was to effectively bypass the Federal Reserve as the source of the money supply. In short: they "printed" a load of virtual "cybercash" and then injected it into the global banking system.

 

Some estimates put the total amount involved at $20 Trillion, but whatever it is, governments worldwide are faced with the prospect of having to eventually print all that cash for real - at which point inflation will spiral.

 

Even for those still in a job, the future is far from certain and the present isn't too pretty, either. I get paid in Euros, but unfortunately, I've been unable to get a Euro current account, only a long term savings one - apparently in case I'm a drug baron trying to launder my ill-gotten gains - so have had to convert to Sterling each month. Although the falling £ has meant I've been getting a healthy monthly "pay rise" in Sterling terms, I've equally lost a couple of thousand quid, by not being able to keep my pay in Euros and I'm now in danger of earning so many pounds, that I'll wind up in a higher tax bracket. At least it might pay for Fred to get a Wii to go with his Sky+. Bless ;)

 

Although I was able to save more last year than I did in the previous five, I'm getting the lowest interest rates ever and have had to lock a fair chunk of it up for a year, just to guarantee a poxy 2% (before tax). My other half (who is retired) has seen the income from her savings (on which she relies) drop by two thirds. So what to do, now that investment plans have gone awry? Save as much as I can, for an old age that I may never see; only to find that it's worthless in five years - or spend it on keeping her comfy and having a good, old-fashioned, materialistic lifestyle for as long as possible? :P

 

"Spend it...", said a banking member of the "Spinning @..." juggling club, last week. "...Spend it on hyper-insulating your house and making it as energy efficient as you can. That way, in ten years' time, you might just be able to afford to turn on the heating for a couple hours a week."

 

Truly: We live in Interesting Times :(

[soundo26]

As I said before............bring on the election because this lot are a complete waste of time!! Sorry to get political in here, but I bet I'm not the only one here in this sort of situation.

Yeah, because a change of party and the economy will suddenly boom, everyone will get their jobs back overnight, all criminals will go straight and the sick will miraculously recover! Dream on.

 

While it's trendy to blame the Government for everything (and let's face it they do seem remarkably incompetent) I don't think the recession is all their fault.

 

Ever had Deja Vu? look back 30 years, it's strangely familiar............................same party & ideals! Same mess!

[ChazHS]

As I understand it (in a limited way): What the US banks, did by lending money they didn't have, to people who couldn't repay it and then repackaging (i.e. misdescribing) the debts as prime investment opportunities to be sold on (to Northern Rock, RBS, HBOS, etc.), was to effectively bypass the Federal Reserve as the source of the money supply. In short: they "printed" a load of virtual "cybercash" and then injected it into the global banking system.

 

Some estimates put the total amount involved at $20 Trillion, but whatever it is, governments worldwide are faced with the prospect of having to eventually print all that cash for real - at which point inflation will spiral.

 

Even for those still in a job, the future is far from certain and the present isn't too pretty, either. I get paid in Euros, but unfortunately, I've been unable to get a Euro current account, only a long term savings one - apparently in case I'm a drug baron trying to launder my ill-gotten gains - so have had to convert to Sterling each month. Although the falling £ has meant I've been getting a healthy monthly "pay rise" in Sterling terms, I've equally lost a couple of thousand quid, by not being able to keep my pay in Euros and I'm now in danger of earning so many pounds, that I'll wind up in a higher tax bracket. At least it might pay for Fred to get a Wii to go with his Sky+. Bless :** laughs out loud **:

 

Although I was able to save more last year than I did in the previous five, I'm getting the lowest interest rates ever and have had to lock a fair chunk of it up for a year, just to guarantee a poxy 2% (before tax). My other half (who is retired) has seen the income from her savings (on which she relies) drop by two thirds. So what to do, now that investment plans have gone awry? Save as much as I can, for an old age that I may never see; only to find that it's worthless in five years - or spend it on keeping her comfy and having a good, old-fashioned, materialistic lifestyle for as long as possible? B-)

 

"Spend it...", said a banking member of the "Spinning @..." juggling club, last week. "...Spend it on hyper-insulating your house and making it as energy efficient as you can. That way, in ten years' time, you might just be able to afford to turn on the heating for a couple hours a week."

 

Truly: We live in Interesting Times :)

 

I don't know what to reccomend mate, unfortunatly financially we are all in a gamble. Now however is a good time to buy property as no-one is, so there are some deals to be had. People still need somewhere to live so you may well be able to get some good rent income. However as I said, it is a gamble.

[johnhogg]

I have also been made redundant from the same company as the OP.

I'm not a PM, just a lowly tech... but I wonder what some of you guys think.

 

I'm contacting companies for freelance work and sending my CV off, should I push the fact I specialise in lighting/sound and charge slightly more, or do you think I'd be better off charging less and being General AV.

 

I think that lighting is my strongest area, but still more than capable all round. In your experience, is there more or less demand for specialised technicians v's general technicians.

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

John