Company wide 10% reduction in Salary

[bigKenny]

WTF? I already was underpaid. This is the downside of working for a privately owned company.

The douchebag president enclosed this 2 pg letter in our paychecks. The first page was all bullshit about the economy and the state of the company, blah blah blah. I would have lost attention, if this line wasn't underlined "Effective March 1, 2009 There will be a temporary, across the board, 10% reduction in all salaries, hourly pay, and commissions." Just come out and say it already, fucking douche.

[BLAZEN]

i guess i should be happy i just got a raise and a bonus...my boss keeps complaining about how busy we are

[C-fer]

Sorry to hear that man.

But any business man will tell you a bad news memo (should)always have a buffer of BS before the actual bad news.

Good news memos usually get right to the point.

[paigesauce]

ouch. sorry brosef.

[bigKenny]

eh, It just gives me an excuse to finally update the old resume and see what's out there. They'll realize how much they miss me when I'm gone.

[name change request]

similar thing happened at my job

oh well

[Nyteshade]

Originally Posted by bigKenny

WTF? I already was underpaid. This is the downside of working for a privately owned company.

The douchebag president enclosed this 2 pg letter in our paychecks. The first page was all bullshit about the economy and the state of the company, blah blah blah. I would have lost attention, if this line wasn't underlined "Effective March 1, 2009 There will be a temporary, across the board, 10% reduction in all salaries, hourly pay, and commissions." Just come out and say it already, fucking douche.

Would you rather lose 10% of your pay or not have a job? I don't know what your company's president is like or how he runs things but let's assume for a minute that he is financially responsible and tries to keep overhead expenses from getting too high. What else is he supposed to do if sales are in the shitter? There's only so much you can cut back when it comes to material costs, building overhead, etc.

Generally cutting pay means that it's getting very bad for them and if they don't cut pay, they would have to start cutting jobs. Obviously, he values his employees enough that he doesn't want to put any of them on the street. Try looking at the bigger picture once in a while.

[Rod Cramwell]

What do you do? How does working for a private company make it worse...?

[HomoSexualPredator]

indeed. My bf had a 10% pay cut about a month ago and I'm getting a 5% cut soon. We both work for publicly held companies.

Very few companies have enough cash on hand to ride this ish out without making some cuts somewhere.

[>]

That blows super hard.. sorry Big K, you too Joel. /squiggly face

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by bigKenny

eh, It just gives me an excuse to finally update the old resume and see what's out there. They'll realize how much they miss me when I'm gone.

I wouldnt count on it, if you havent been watching the news lately there are 645,000 people losing jobs every single month. That means there are several million people looking for work right now, and chances are quite a few of them have a quality resume and would be more than willing to take your job for less than your getting paid to do it.

This would be the worst time in your adult life to decide to go job hunting.

[bigKenny]

Originally Posted by Nyteshade

Would you rather lose 10% of your pay or not have a job? I don't know what your company's president is like or how he runs things but let's assume for a minute that he is financially responsible and tries to keep overhead expenses from getting too high. What else is he supposed to do if sales are in the shitter? There's only so much you can cut back when it comes to material costs, building overhead, etc.

Generally cutting pay means that it's getting very bad for them and if they don't cut pay, they would have to start cutting jobs. Obviously, he values his employees enough that he doesn't want to put any of them on the street. Try looking at the bigger picture once in a while.

They already let go of a lot of people. I understand the argument that less pay is better than no pay.

They didn't value their software engineers enough in the first place, is my real gripe. No one with my experience would start at my new "temporary" salary, even in this economy.

[bigKenny]

Originally Posted by C.A. jones

What do you do? How does working for a private company make it worse...?

I assumed larger companies/corporations would have some sort of contractual guaranteed salary clause.

[bigKenny]

Originally Posted by e-brake

I wouldnt count on it, if you havent been watching the news lately there are 645,000 people losing jobs every single month. That means there are several million people looking for work right now, and chances are quite a few of them have a quality resume and would be more than willing to take your job for less than your getting paid to do it.

This would be the worst time in your adult life to decide to go job hunting.

I'm not going to count on it, but I met a guy at Mardi Gras who works for a company exactly like mine on the west coast that is desperate for someone like me. I would be nice to see what's out there is all.

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by bigKenny

I assumed larger companies/corporations would have some sort of contractual guaranteed salary clause.

Only companies that depend on unions. You can see how well thats working out for all the GM employees whos guaranteed salary contracts have insured that they are all going to be on unemployment by this time next year. Companies with policies like that cant survive down times and fold like a house of card when SHTF.