Mass redundancies

[No2politics]

Mass redundancies and relocations at client co. my contract is coming to an end and I've pretty much lined something else up, but it does make me think. Everywhere I have been contracting in last 5 years there have been threats of job losses. Many people prefer the illusion of job security but I think many on here can see through that, and decided contracting is well worth the reward. The difference in job security really is small in my opinion in current environment.

[Ketchup]

Directline?

[The Spartan]

There's no such thing as job security these days as my pals at Companies House found out

[northernladuk]

I can't remember a single time both in contracting and permie land before that some kind of redundancy process was running or being proposed in the last few decades. It is just the way it is.

[mudskipper]

I can't remember a single time both in contracting and permie land before that some kind of redundancy process was running or being proposed in the last few decades. It is just the way it is.

Yep, seen four permie colleagues go (one who had a very similar skillset to me) whilst I've just been renewed for 6 months. Go figure.

[bobspud]

In the past I was safe in contract at one of the major service co's while they were bringing in the permies sat around me and telling them they didn't make the redundancy cut and marching them off site It might be the only time I have ever felt uncomfortable taking a rate rise and extension in my life.

[Spacecadet]

I can't remember a single time both in contracting and permie land before that some kind of redundancy process was running or being proposed in the last few decades. It is just the way it is.

At some point companies lost the shame of making redundancies.
Laying people off used to be a sign of a company in trouble, now it's just a sign that a company is being head count efficient

[VectraMan]

I had a client in 2008 where they called everybody into a big meeting one morning and announced that that office would be shut and most would be made redundant. So I sat around waiting for the call from my agent to say that my contract would be terminated, but it never came. I stayed another 12 months, albeit having to go to a different site further away from home.

It was a bit of a shock for the long-term permie I sat next to, mostly because he suddenly found out how much more his skills were worth on the job market than they'd been paying him.

[sasguru]

This has been going on since the 80s, when it became the case in the Anglo-Saxon economies that cutting headcount improved your market price since it showed management being "efficient".
Meanwhile in more successful economies like Germany, cutting headcount was seen as a failure, since it showed you weren't gowing and/or planning for the future,

End result: Britain bankrupt, Germany rich.

[bobspud]

I was talking to a mates wife last week. He is a permie for a defence contractor. They were about to start a laying off process for yet another x00 blokes at the top because they are too expensive. At the time she was cheerful because she thought that he was being called in to be told he was safe and it would mean some dead mans shoes to step into for promotion. What she seemed to miss was that next year he's going to be as expensive as the guy he is about to replace...