Last in, first out, always?

[ajdown]

As with everyone else, the company I work for is suffering the credit crunch, and we've just had a very useful email round telling us how bad things are and how we have to be really really sure if we want colour copying etc.

Anyway, there's also hints at job cutbacks.

There are two of us in the department I work in. I have been there 11 years.

My colleague has been in the job for 2 years. However, she is married to one of the directors.

Are there any circumstances where they could legitimately get rid of me, with more service and experience, and let her keep the job?

There's absolutely no way 1 person can deal with the entire workload of the department, so I think they'd find it very hard to get rid of one of us anyway, but I just have that feeling that they'd try and get rid of me before her, because of being married to a director somehow making her more 'important' than me.

The fact she struggles to do her half of the job as it is, is of course irrelevant.

Thoughts, fellow Urbanites? Any strategies I can put into place or documentation I could read up on to strengthen my position?

I have an admin job, and we don't do unions.

 

[cesare]

No, LIFO isn't used as often anymore unless there are employees affected with less than one year's service.

It's more usual to come up with selection criteria (hopefully refined through the consultation process) and assess against that.

 

[kyser_soze]

If they opt to make your job redundant and don't readvertise it there's fuck all you can do based on length of service, altho if there's a general awareness that she's a bit shit and you're competent then you could be OK. Also, it'll be cheaper to make her redundant than you.

 

[internetstalker]

As with everyone else, the company I work for is suffering the credit crunch, and we've just had a very useful email round telling us how bad things are and how we have to be really really sure if we want colour copying etc.

Anyway, there's also hints at job cutbacks.

There are two of us in the department I work in. I have been there 11 years.

My colleague has been in the job for 2 years. However, she is married to one of the directors.

Are there any circumstances where they could legitimately get rid of me, with more service and experience, and let her keep the job?

There's absolutely no way 1 person can deal with the entire workload of the department, so I think they'd find it very hard to get rid of one of us anyway, but I just have that feeling that they'd try and get rid of me before her, because of being married to a director somehow making her more 'important' than me.

The fact she struggles to do her half of the job as it is, is of course irrelevant.

Thoughts, fellow Urbanites? Any strategies I can put into place or documentation I could read up on to strengthen my position?

I have an admin job, and we don't do unions.

how it works normally is say 2 people (say your wife and directors wife) will both have to apply for the same job

I can only speak from my own experiance, but when this happened to me I got the job over the guy with more experiance ( I DID deserve it tho)

But TBH the decision had already been made before any interviews had taken place

 

[kabbes]

The redundancy process has to be rigorously dealt with. They can't just decide on a whim who they are going to keep. It's the *role* that is made redundant, not the *person* and so HR will have to draw up a list of the roles that are still required for the company. They will then have to justify who they are keeping for each role. In order to do that, they will have to define the skills and experience that are needed in the role and show that the person they have chosen best fulfils those criteria.

That's all I can tell you without knowing specifics, really. You will be entitled to find out what the (written, signed-off) criteria are for the roles being retained. That should help you determine whether or not you are the best person for the job and argue your case accordingly.

But a note of caution -- if your colleague also fulfils those criteria then you are essentially on a level playing field as regards skills; the fact that you may also heavily supersede the criteria is irrelevant. In such circumstances, if your colleague is cheaper than you then she might be the more appropriate choice (from their perspective).

Another caution is that their criteria may also reasonably involve the softer skills of interpersonal relationships and communication. You may be a technical whizz but if she also passes their technical hurdles then, as I say, this ceases to be relevant and you should bear in mind the importance of these other workplace skills.

 

[Kanda]

Under twenty people being made redundant within 90 days you do not need to consult, it would be best practice to though. Over 20 to 99 is 30 days and over 99 is 90 days.

I think that's right, if it's a small amount I don't think they have to consult or anything. (Cesare will prolly correct me)

 

[cesare]

Under twenty people being made redundant within 90 days you do not need to consult, it would be best practice to though. Over 20 to 99 is 30 days and over 99 is 90 days.

I think that's right, if it's a small amount I don't think they have to consult or anything. (Cesare will prolly correct me)

Below 20 there is still the need for individual consultation meetings - without 'meaningful' consultation (whether individual or collective) any redundancies dismissal/s will probably be unfair. You're right re some of the provisions of collective consultation though.

 

[internetstalker]

Under twenty people being made redundant within 90 days you do not need to consult, it would be best practice to though. Over 20 to 99 is 30 days and over 99 is 90 days.

I think that's right, if it's a small amount I don't think they have to consult or anything. (Cesare will prolly correct me)

we had consultation for 3 going for 1 jobs

 

[Fuzzy]

this process is about to start at my company. 40 across the company going from 7 offices. i've only been in my job 8 months and am not that senior so am fully expecting the boot. a lot of the people who work in my office have been with the company 5 years or more so really dont expect that they will hold onto me ove rhtem.

 

[Rajjie]

LIFO still happens in the aviation industry.