Dear Evil HR Lady,
Our company just hit us with the news that we are being outsourced as of the end of this month. With that we received an offer letter from our new potential employer, and boy, oh, boy is it not attractive. I was told that if I do not take the offer from the new company that it will be considered my resignation. Interesting, as I did not think I could be forced to resign. I am also told there is no separation package. This leads me to believe that I take this massive step backwards in my career and quality of life or I am tossed out on the street with nothing, not even unemployment. The offer letter keeps my current salary but increases my work day by two hours and decreases my OT from time-and-a-half to straight time.
What am I to do? I do not want to go backwards.
To read the answer, click here: My company is ending OT pay but not OT work.
Suzanne, your title on the blog puts the situation backwards (and made me wonder what the problem was)–it’s correct for the page name and at CBS.
Ha! Wishful thinking. I’ll fix ti.
Just a theory, but it may actually be that this new arrangement is made to be total garbage on purpose to force you and your colleagues to quit, rather than the new company laying you off//giving severance.
Not saying that is isn’t legal…”exempt” can be manipulated to mean working 24 hours a day with no additional compensation and it’s legal. But in my experience with lay-offs there is always overlap in staff and what more profitable way to get rid of them then by forcing them to quit?
And P.S. I too was once forced to sign a weird new company contract if I didn’t “voluntarily” resign from the first company. Puts a whole new spin on the at-will concept. Seems more like coercion to me. Can’t companies just invest in better R&D than use these types of methods to make money???
They can call it what they want, but it’s almost certain that you can still collect unemployment. “Resigning” rather than accepting a significant cut in pay rate is probably not a disqualification for unemployment insurance. And, cutting the overtime rate, if it’s over 40 hours a week is simply illegal if you are non-exempt. You’ll certainly win on that aspect.
Just make sure you document this!
By the way, I am not suggesting that you quit. I’m just saying that if you do, this could be a situation where you are still eligible for unemployment.
“Can’t companies just invest in better R&D than use these types of methods to make money???”
Ummm…nope. The only thing the top dogs are looking at is (1) what the numbers will look like at the end of the current quarter and (2) the size of the executive-bonus pool.
The OP’s story sounds very familiar. I worked for a company that outsourced its entire IT department to an IT services company. I would suggest the OP start looking for a job and get out of there as quickly as they can. The faster the better. And hopefully ahead of his/her co-workers.