Not right

[niccig]

I have to vent, because I can't vent to DH as he's feeling awful. His work will cut his salary 30% on top of cuts he took 2 years ago. Their reasoning - at his level, he should be bringing work in, which has never been a requirement before. And the kicker, the boss telling him this does have to bring work in and he doesn't have any current projects, and hasn't for some time. I bet he's not taking a pay cut. We're pretty sure they're doing this, so he'll leave rather than lay him off, so they don't have to pay severance.

I know DH will get another job. At last count 7 people are making phone calls for him, 3 of those are clients that give out work. They're calling companies they like to work with, and if DH gets hired there, they will send work his way.

We've got options, we'll work it out, but I'm just so mad for DH. :angry-smiley-005:

[crl]

I'm really sorry. We have work woes here too so I sympathize.

Catherine

[KrisM]

Ugh. Not fair for sure. I hope something comes through quickly for him.

[wellyes]

We're pretty sure they're doing this, so he'll leave rather than lay him off, so they don't have to pay severance. Yup.

I'd be on the horn with HR about the legality of this, in his shoes. It probably won't help, but what does he have to lose? I'd be furious.

[niccig]

Yup.

I'd be on the horn with HR about the legality of this, in his shoes. It probably won't help, but what does he have to lose? I'd be furious.

HR is one person. No recourse there. They're corporately owned, but we think this has come down from them.

DH was already looking to leave. There's a head hunter that's been aggressively targeted DH and his colleagues, as no one is happy and they think it's sinking ship. It's better for DH to leave now.

I will take my anger out on submitting every medical receipt I have to our FSA to get as much back as I can. I need new glasses, so I'll get those next week.

[BDKmom]

My DH has been through something similar. Thankfully, for him, it was the wake up call he needed to get out of there and move on to something better. Hope this leads to better things for your DH and your family.

[liz]

Hope this leads to better things for your DH and your family.

:yeahthat: and :hug:

[hellokitty]

I'm sorry that he's being bullied into this sort of situation where he is basically being cornered. I am hoping he gets a new offer quickly and that it is a GREAT job, so he can tell his old boss to, "shove it." The place he works at sound awful.

[Puddy73]

Ugh, I'm sorry that you are having to stress about this! Sending positive vibes that he is able to move onward & upward.

[DrSally]

Terrible. I agree that they're trying to get your DH to leave. Sounds like he'll have a lot of options though!

[Indianamom2]

My DH has been through something similar. Thankfully, for him, it was the wake up call he needed to get out of there and move on to something better. Hope this leads to better things for your DH and your family.

:yeahthat: We are smack dab in the midst of a very similar situation. Dh left his job as an attorney for a large firm on Wednesday. He starts working as a trust officer for a bank on Monday. It will mean a pay cut by a third, which hurts, but the hours will be infinitely better, much better vacation and a lot less stress.

The pressure at his job (and ironically, they REALLY wanted him to stay, even counter-offering against his new job) was indeed the catalyst for us to take that leap of faith. It's been a long time coming and I can't say that we're not angry and scared as well, but I really believe this is the right thing for our family.

I completely understand your anger though....life is just unfair.:hug:

[crl]

:yeahthat: We are smack dab in the midst of a very similar situation. Dh left his job as an attorney for a large firm on Wednesday. He starts working as a trust officer for a bank on Monday. It will mean a pay cut by a third, which hurts, but the hours will be infinitely better, much better vacation and a lot less stress.

The pressure at his job (and ironically, they REALLY wanted him to stay, even counter-offering against his new job) was indeed the catalyst for us to take that leap of faith. It's been a long time coming and I can't say that we're not angry and scared as well, but I really believe this is the right thing for our family.

I completely understand your anger though....life is just unfair.:hug:

Good luck to your husband with starting his new job!

Catherine

[ha98ed14]

Hugs! I thought he'd surely have another 5 years given how good he is and how hard he works! Sucks!

[Globetrotter]

I'm sorry they are treating him like this. Sometimes it takes a push to move on to better things, and it looks like he WILL find something soon! He deserves better.

[zag95]

Wow- sounds like some people are creating a hostile work environment!!!! Oi.

Hope he can find something new where he is appreciated and valued.

GL to you all!

[niccig]

Hugs! I thought he'd surely have another 5 years given how good he is and how hard he works! Sucks!

Yep, definitely sucks.

But DH was already talking to other companies, so he knows he can go elsewhere. And we're lucky with his friends, who are very loyal. If they said they'll give him work, they'll do it. But instead of it going to his current company, they're calling other companies for him and promising the work. DH's current bosses aren't happy that they're not getting the projects. They underestimated his relationship with these people.

[larig]

PTs for you guys. it's hard to see your spouse treated unfairly.

[jenfromnj]

I'm sorry. It sounds like he has some great friends and contacts, I hope that he's able to come up with a better opportunity soon.

[sste]

That is really sucky. :( But I agree with pps that it sounds like his work has been treating him suboptimally for a long time and this may be an opportunity in disguise . . .

Also I hope they gave you notice before this cut goes into effect at the very least. I would be pretty stressed if I found out I had to cut our budget by 1/3 starting next month or something. Hopefully, they structured in time to job hunt and make other financial arrangements, etc.

[niccig]

Also I hope they gave you notice before this cut goes into effect at the very least. I would be pretty stressed if I found out I had to cut our budget by 1/3 starting next month or something. Hopefully, they structured in time to job hunt and make other financial arrangements, etc.

Nope, it starts March 1. We pay all our property taxes, insurance etc in Jan, and DS's school and my tuition is paid through May. Next school year is the question. We're waiting to see if we hear back from other companies this week, and next weekend we're sitting down to work out a budget for the lower income. We do have an emergency fund, but don't want to use it if we don't have to.

Up in the air is my grad. degree, and DS's school. I may need to call my old boss and see if they have any project work. I might be able to juggle part-time work and part-time school, or if they have a full-time job - they offered me 2 full-time jobs last year, and I said no as back in school. We really don't want to pull DS from his school. They are not academic in early elementary, so if we put him in the public school he'll be behind in reading and writing. We're not sure if we could get him up to speed by September. But everything will be on the table. We don't have enough equity to refinance, and not eligible for HARP etc. If we could refi, that would help a lot - and if DH got a severance, we could use that to help with the refi, hence why angry that they're doing this to avoid paying him severance for 14 years of work with them.

We are pretty confident that something will turn up. But not knowing when, well that's stressful.

And DH is at work today, and isn't getting paid for it. It's a special project for a client that really likes DH's work and knows many other companies. She's calling on DH's behalf. So he went in today on his own to make sure she's impressed.

[sste]

WTH?!? What snakes. I am disgusted on you and your dh's behalf.

What a big stressor! It sounds like it will work out and that your DH will have options but it is the timing that is at issue. Maybe his current company is going under? I can't understand why they wouldn't just give people 3 or 4 months notice to maintain goodwill, ensure that employees are giving good effort on their ongoing projects, etc.

I hope it all resolves. If it comes to it, I wonder if you can speak to the private school - -I am sure they have dealt with this situation before and they may have some sort of loan or deferred timing to the tuition payment. And if public school ends up making the most sense, it is fortunate that your DS seems like one of those very well-adjusted kids that will make a successful transition wherever - - I really think socially is the most important and that your DS is a natural at that sort of thing. His reading/writing will catch up, probably in less than a year. Hopefully it won't come to that though. Also there are loans for your grad school - - I know that might not be the most attractive but it sounds like a second income is an even higher priority than before in some ways.

You are taking this very much in stride. You should be patting yourself on the back (and with the non-patting hand flipping the bird to his awful employer!!).

[sste]

Also would going back to your old job in some capacity give you a tuition waiver that would apply to your new SLP school? Are they in the same system?

Alot of the various staff people at my university are using their job for very reduced rate tuition while they get another degree.

Also sometimes state schools have research assistant or teaching assistant positions that will qualify you for reduced tuition. Once you hear from the grad school you can start looking into all of that - - I know you mentioned a prof. that you may be doing research for, she may have some ideas.

[niccig]

You are taking this very much in stride. You should be patting yourself on the back (and with the non-patting hand flipping the bird to his awful employer!!).

I am most definitely flipping off the managers. It's a very small industry, jobs get changed all the time, and at some point they might need my DH or the others they've done this too, to help them. And honestly, I don't think the help will be there. The attitude has been "just try to get a better job somewhere else". They were surprised when DH said "I will. I've spoken to x person and y and z companies already". Even if they offered to give him more, he's leaving. It's been a difficult work situation for some time.

I'm stressed about it..I've eaten a tonne of junk food and have done absolutely no study this weekend. But DH doesn't need me to stress him out...hence the venting here. I'm going in to have lunch with DH this week, and usually I go up and say hi to people. I won't this time, as I won't be able to be civil.

My old job is with a different university system. When I finished up my last project and said no to the 2 jobs they had, my boss told me to contact him if I ever need work. He usually has some project work that needs to be done, and he's told me he'll do whatever it takes to get me back there full-time (work from home, reduced hours etc). So, I think I could pick up some work from him. I don't know about grad. school until April, and there's an online program through same department that would let me work and study at same time, but I couldn't start that until May 2013. I did talk to my professor about some research work, and she might have some things later in the semester. I'm not your average RA, so I'm confident I can pick something up with her or someone else if it's available. I could look into a staff job at my college. They do want part-time librarian, often it's night and weekend work, which means sitter as DH will be working, but might also be able to swing some day shifts, as there anyway. I should go chat to the library's HR. One benefit is that I'm coming from a higher ranking college and speciality that most other librarians don't have.

DS's school will work with people. I might go and chat with them, but I think with only 1 child, we might not qualify. We have some time to work this out. I know DS would be fine if we did have to swap him, he's pretty easy-going. Lately though, he's been showing some anxiety over his school work eg. when doesn't get all his spelling right, so want to minimize any issues with that. If we do need to swap him to the public school, we'll work with him/get a tutor to help him improve his reading and writing.

The best scenario would be for one of the other companies to pick DH up as a lateral move. Most do have longer work weeks, so the downside is DH will have to work more for same money. But I do think he'll be happier, as other companies are getting all the great projects. If I have to go back to my old job, I'll do it. DH has enough stress on him as it is. My grad. school might have to wait or take longer. I can deal with that. We're a team, so we'll get through it together.

[trcy]

I hope he is able to find something better soon.

[3isEnough]

Wow, that really stinks. So sorry to hear about that and the horrible people your DH works for. I really hope he finds something much better and higher paying, if for no other reason than to stick it to his current employer!

One quick thought - you mentioned your FSA. I remember when I voluntarily left my employer mid-year about 5 years ago that I was able to claim all the money in my HSA that I had designated but not yet paid in. I don't know if the laws governing MSA, HSAs and whatever are still the same, but back then if you designate, say $10K for your HSA at the beginning of the year but you leave in March and have only paid in $2K, you can still submit receipts and get the full $10K. The only requirement was that the receipts had to be submitted within 1 month of the last day of work, or something like that. It ended up being a windfall of sorts, and all legal since that how the IRS structured it. The same was not true for the Dependant care account, with that I could only withdraw as much as I had actually contributed.

Like I said, that was 5 years ago so things may have changed since then, but it's worth looking into.

ETA: I just did a quick search and found this on wikipedia, confirming (in a more articulate way!) what I wrote above: One consideration regarding medical FSAs is that the participating employee's entire annual contribution is available at the start of the plan year, commonly January 1, or after the first contribution to the FSA is received by the FSA vendor, depending on the plan. Therefore, if the employee experiences a qualifying event during the first period, the entire amount of the annual contribution can be claimed against the FSA benefits. If the employee is terminated, quits, or is unable to return to work, he does not have to repay the money to the employer.

[lmh2402]

i'm so sorry, nicci. that really sucks. we've been on work-related roller coasters since '07 and i very much empathize with your stress. poor you and poor DH!! i hope something way better turns up soon :hug:

[niccig]

One quick thought - you mentioned your FSA.

Yes, I've already put claims in, and have a few more in next week or two to submit. I'll get as much back as entitled to.

[niccig]

we've been on work-related roller coasters since '07 and i very much empathize with your stress.

Roller coaster is a very good way of putting it.

I'm not coping well today - forgetting way too many things, and too much to try to deal with. I'll take a deep breath and do what I can.

Thanks all. I'll update as I know more. Hopefully, we'll know this week or next what's happening.

[arivecchi]

i'm so sorry, nicci. that really sucks. we've been on work-related roller coasters since '07 and i very much empathize with your stress. poor you and poor DH!! i hope something way better turns up soon :hug: Same here. It's miserable. Hope your DH finds a new job pronto niccig.