Screwed over by the management…

I work for a pharmaceutical company. Usually this is a pretty safe industry economy-wise, but the double choc-dip recession or whatever it’s called has finally spurted forth and bitten us on the arse in a rather substantial big-stylie fashion.

The (sarcasm alert) ‘hardworking professionals’ in upper management decided to save money by putting a highly paid team together *facepalms* to handle this crisis. They adopted the tried and trusted method of picking another bunch of likewise cuntboils to come up with a plan of sheer flabbergasting genius….

Priority 1: Protect their own useless jobs
Priority 2: Get shot of anybody that remotely knows what they’re doing.
Priority 3: With the exception of themselves, whoever is left will have their wages cut and their T’s & C’s amended so they lose many of the ‘perks’ that they had previously enjoyed – like Private health care etc.

Well that’s ok then. We’re obviously in safe hands.

You may think that this is going to be one of those bitter rants along the lines of: ‘Wah wah – they made me redundant’. It isn’t. Although I wasn’t amongst the 300+ people they got rid of – I don’t consider myself one of the ‘lucky ones’. If anything keeping me on merely compounds their decision as being even stupider. In the blink of an eye (or 90 day ‘consultation period to be more precise) hundreds of collective years of experience and knowledge has been blitzed; yet the useless likes of me have been kept on to pick up the slack…I’ve only been here 10 months – what the bingo-winged fuck do I know? Nonetheless now I have twice the work to do, with nobody to train me in my new responsibilities, and I’ll probably get a pay cut for my efforts. Cheers.

Staff morale is about as chipper as you’d expect – what with lost comrades and the constant of an uncertain fate it’s like the fucking WW1 trenches round here. Like rats trying to jump ship before the arrival of a shit-storm tsunami, the few of us left to rattle around this ghost town of a building are looking for ways to get out. In between our sharing of shell-shocked expressions, our only topic of conversation seems to be the realisation that this plan is destined to fail and everybody’s hard work over decades will crumble away just so the next couple of month’s balance sheets look a bit healthier.

I know things could be worse – there are people out there with far more worrying issues, and yes, at the moment I can still pay the mortgage but I can’t help but wonder…How many lives are affected by such corporate fuckwittery on a daily basis?
(Mr Twisty Cheeky The worst kept secret in B3ta..., Mon 6 Aug 2012, 12:23, 12 replies)

You're not coming across as a reliable story teller

( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 12:38, closed)

Heeees baaaack.

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Tue 7 Aug 2012, 9:33, closed)

They're heeeeeeeeeeeeere!

(Sivvus trolley collision in the fruit aisle led to a jam, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 10:22, closed)

oh christ
Why the blithering fuck weren't you naughty stepped? Or for preference set on fire
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 11:18, closed)

Problem with this type of story
is it's always necessary for the reader to accept that anyone in a higher position to the storyteller has to be catstrophically stupid.

It also has to be accepted that length of service = a constant improvement in performance.

Neither of these are reliably true.

Although you are no doubt correct when you say it's not a bitter rant about being made redundant, it's definitely a bitter rant of some kind.
(username failed moderation, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 12:59, closed)

The Peter Principle explains it.
People in senior management positions generally are stupid.
(ubergeekian, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 17:55, closed)

This.
Is just a complete mirror of what a friend was going through recently, thousands spent on consultancy, then the redundancies, then - oh we don't have staff, lets hire some temps.
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 13:53, closed)

A colleague of mine
Got £60,000 redundancy on Friday, turned up Monday doing exactly the same job on better money.

That was in the early 90s, so about £100,000 today. He was a consultant who was made redundant from the consultancy company but whom we then offered a permanent job.
( Ghoti Fingers, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 18:10, closed)

Clicking 'Like'
Even though its not the right word.

I worked in pharmaceuticals up until last year, when I was one of the unfortunates made redundant - turns out it was one of the better things to happen to me. Quickly found a job in Enviromental, far more secure, and the part of the company I left is continuing down the drain fast.

I have to admit a certain amount of schadenfreude when chatting to mates still working there...
(Fleximus Rex briefly gave up lurking on, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 15:09, closed)

Are you the ones
who were selling adult drugs to kids in the US?
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Mon 6 Aug 2012, 19:42, closed)

No UK industry that actually produces anything is safe in these times.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 1:28, closed)

Pharma's circling the drain at the moment.
Lipastor off patent, Alzheimer's drugs going tits up before stage IV, etc. Rumours that the Chinese and Indian governments will be happy to let patent infringements go on under their watch to avoid paying bucketloads on trials and developement while avoiding paying the patent hoders, etc.
Scary shit.
At this rate, all the drug discovery is going to end being done in the academic sector...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Tue 7 Aug 2012, 12:58, closed)