Pay Cutts

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: Tempest


Do you buy any products from China or overseas?


I'm sure that I probably do, since just about everything is made in China. I honestly don't look at where things are made when I buy them, I buy mostly based on price. Does that make me evil? I don't think so.

Notice I was responding to dhise . He was complaining about manufacturing moving overseas for cheaper costs. If he buys such products....

If anyone wants to set up a manufacturing plant, get investors together and start one. You have the right (for now) to do it.

Someone did it...namely employers that have to deal with various employees, gov. regulation, taxes, health insurance, workers comp., supply, change orders, changing demand, making pay role, cash flow....

What? Too much work?

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Tempest

Notice I was responding to dhise .


Oops, my bad! By the way your post showed, it appeared you were responding to something I had said, but I didn't notice I needed to scroll down in that quoted section.

 

[demarpaint]

All I can say is I wish I worked for a company and had a chance to take a pay cut. Being self-employed in the construction industry in these times is very bad, business died totally. I can't collect unemployment benefits either, unless I dissolve my company, and stop all insurances. Try getting liability or compensation insurance with any kind of lapse in coverage in NYS. If the business ever picks up again I'd be dead in the water w/o insurance. Sad state of affairs. I'd gladly take the $405/week unemployment benefits, but no cigar here! There are no jobs either! But this too shall pass, I hope....

 

[tonycarguy]

As far as I'm concerned, no one owes anyone a job. If you worked somewhere for many years and the employer paid you a salary and provided benefits, then you got a fair deal and they owe you nothing. If you don't like how these businesses are run, if you don't like working for others, you're free to start your own enterprise and then you'll have the opportunity to hire people endlessly and never lay off anyone.

If you wait until your business turns unprofitable before laying off workers, you'll run your business into the ground. As GM found out, sales can turn on a dime. You shouldn't wait until things are terrible before you take action. I don't blame companies for laying off anyone even if they're profitable, because you just don't know how long the revenue stream will continue.

 

[PandaBear]

Normally 10% of may pay is bonus as long as I do my job, and more if I do it well, it was factored in with the base salary lower than market average to encourage higher productivity. This year we got no bonus, so in a way a 10% pay cut.

Now I still consider myself lucky, some of my friends are on 2 weeks per quarter shut down and they are basically out of pay 6 weeks per year.

Still better pay than my previous job, for a salary that was slightly above office admin and the job before that was even lower than an office admin, and I'm a daamn engineer!!!! for Pete's sake. Lesson learned from the pass and knowing that the recession was coming, I still put in 401k but in all cash, so I lost nothing since the crash, and I've sold all my ESPP at slight profit and only have one that was under water.

Not sure how much longer this company can last, and hopefully Toshiba will continue to be our sugar daddy until times get better.

 

[Mr Nice]

Tony,

I kind of argee with what you are saying about being your own boss. I have a good friend that was an electronics tech in the Navy (worked on nuclear subs) then repaired Cath Labs, C-arms and X ray equipment for a major medical equipment manufacturer. They laid him off and he decided to open up his own Imaging repair business (ISO that contracts with hospitals,medical clinics, doctors offices).

His labor rate is $250 per hour, not including parts. Any call he gets, he charges 1 hour travel time ($250) right off the bat even before he puts his hands on their equipment to fix it. Sure the guy works for himself and doesn't get a 401K, sick pay, vacation or big company benefits..... but sometimes being your own boss is really the best way to go.

I went with him once to replace an X ray tube at a local hospital (1 hour travel time, plus 4 hours labor) and he explained it perfectly..... As a small business owner, you pick the number you want to make each day (whether its $500, $1000, $1500) go out there and work for yourself. No need for the stress, worry ,drama or layoffs from a big company like GE, Philips or Siemens. If the guy didn't get laidoff, he would only be making a third of what he makes today.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
As a small business owner, you pick the number you want to make each day (whether its $500, $1000, $1500) go out there and work for yourself.


I choose $50k/day. $10k/hour porta to porta.

See how easy that was?

 

[Mr Nice]

When you are in the medical repair business, you have to charge an arm and leg. Heck, the big boys charge $400 per hour. And cash poor hospitals try to aviod OEM to reduce costs. But this guy also has operating costs like any other business owner, but he has ZERO inventory since the parts are too expensive to be sitting on the shelf, some parts are obsolete or some parts have to be shipped from another state like the $25,000 Xray tube from Salem Virginia.

If there are people out there looking for a career change, all I can say is that there is a whole lot of money to be made in this field if they are willing to go back to school and learn a new trade/skill.

 

[Mr Nice]

I forgot to mention,
this hospital has two Cath labs, ours is out of service, but the one next door is booked one case after another. A doctor walks in and asks me to look at their dye injector machine that is not working (it injects a clear dye into the catheter to make the arteries of the heart show up more clearly during the series of X-rays that will be taken as the fluid goes in). Any dye that drips onto the machine eventually hardens and ends up looking like died plaster/dried liquid paper. I noticed is all over the machine, including the hand held switch that prevents the button from being pressed all the way down (apparently the Cath lab doesn't wipe down their machine after each case).

So I tell the doctor that I will fix it no problem, simple fix even though we weren't called in to fix it, just install a new Xray tube. I disassemble the switch, get a screw driver and some towels soaked in warm water and clean all the plaster looking dried dye that is caked up inside the switch. I reassemble the switch and make sure the machine works and ready to go when the doctor comes back and needs it for his next case. My friend tells me to get the make, model and serial number of the dye injector machine. I ask him for what, he tells me that we are going to write up a 'Service Ticket' and charge the hospital for my 1 hour labor to repair the machine. LOL, I think its highway robbery to even charge for this service, buts that how this business works.

 

[Shannow]

How's this for loyalty.

Announce to your workforce that you will be moving their jobs to China, and the factory will close down...entirely, 100%.

They are offering redundancies.

However, the time of termination is entirely up to the employer, anytime from 6 weeks to 12 months away, but 100% guaranteed.

Find another job between now and then (whenever then happens to be), and lose redundancy pay.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
How's this for loyalty.

Announce to your workforce that you will be moving their jobs to China, and the factory will close down...entirely, 100%.

They are offering redundancies.

However, the time of termination is entirely up to the employer, anytime from 6 weeks to 12 months away, but 100% guaranteed.

Find another job between now and then (whenever then happens to be), and lose redundancy pay.


What is the size of the redundancy?

In many cases it is better to just give up the redundancy if you can find another job. It is always better to leave at your term instead of the bosses'.

 

[Shannow]

3 weeks per year of service I believe, nothing to sneeze at if they are a lifer.

I've been denied "voluntary" redundancy twice over my career...would never base my future on the presence or otherwise of a payout.

But can understand a late 40s worker struggling with the decision
.

 

[Patman]

I feel sorry for the 3200 Nortel workers that are getting laid off over the next few months. The company is giving them no severance packages at all! That would be brutal! I'm glad I wasn't put in that position, at least I've got money coming in to pay my mortgage while I search for new employment, for that I'm very thankful, it takes a lot of the stress off me.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: tonycarguy
As far as I'm concerned, no one owes anyone a job. If you worked somewhere for many years and the employer paid you a salary and provided benefits, then you got a fair deal and they owe you nothing.





Under that one dimensional view, only a fool would ever "enjoy" his job. He/she would do absolutely the minimum possible to remain within the highest pay scale within the compensation frame. That way the company would be assured to absolutely "getting what they pay for" and NOT ONE DIME MORE.

Were you that type of employee? If not ..then you're throwing your talent away on some foolish thought that it will be rewarded.

 

[PandaBear]

It is still true that no one owes anyone else a job, but good employee quits all the time at the worst possible time, screwing up projects if the employer is too cheap.

I've seen that happen as well, some employers wonder why no one wants to work for them even if they pay above average salary (most Japanese and Korean companies).

 

[Steve S]

Pay cuts turn into big bonus for the management.

 

[Shannow]

The company that is putting of the workers that I referred to yesterday is in strife for giving the execs an 80% pay rise last year.

 

[Cutehumor]

yesterday, my manager told our team of 20 people to bring a resume to her ASAP. She didn't say why. So I'm thinking management is going to go through our resumes and decide who they are going to keep. Our evaluations will be in March with no pay raises of course, so it's going to be interesting..

 

[peterdaniel]

The sad part is that the dumb %^$##@ managers that make the dumb &%#@^(!# decisions that got the company in the s**t hole that they are in, are usually the ones NOT fired.


And in baseball, when the team loses its the manager that gets fired.

Only among human beings my friend can we have such "logic"