I have had my own software company for the past 10 years that was doing very well prior to the recession, but alas this last year the turnover has been less than a minimum wage, almost dead.
Anyway, I have also worked as Operations & Technical manager for a digital imaging company as an employee for the past 20 years.
We all arrived at the office today to be told the company was now in receivership and so that's it. We are all redundant.
Fucking brilliant....3 days before pay day, so we won't get any pay this month and it will take approx 2 months to get what is owed to us in redundancy via the government insolvency scheme.
Fuck, big big fuck. So, at 49 years of age I now have to try and find a similar paying job (£50,000 pa), which in this economic climate there is about zero chance of doing.
So, talking with ex customers tomorrow to see if there's any mileage there in transferring the projects to a new company (ie, me).
What a bunch of cunts.
Cunts abound these days.
That sux Jon, hang in there.
Sounds way too familiar... Sorry that it had to happen to you Jon! Chin up mate!
That is a bitch
I hear the contract market has picked up a bit, pay will be good, but will probably mean working London, which is a pain in the ass from where you are.
but worth keeping as a backup plan if needs be.
Well Jon, Good luck with this.
If you were making 50K a year, I hope you saved a big bunch of it, because it will hold you over during this tough time.
Do you have unemployment compensation over there?
Yes, I've got enough tucked away to keep us going for a few months, and then we should get redundancy funded by the government, but that won't pay out for 2 months yet...but that will then give us another few months lifeline.
Contract work in London would actually be good. London is not a problem from here (Canvey Island) and I have been in London visiting customers etc at least 2 days a week anyway. I have some serious phone calls to make tomorrow and see if my contacts really are as good as they claim they are.
Here's the kicker, one of the MD's (there are 2 of them) just bought himself a brand new BMW last week. They of course own the premises themselves, so the "company" has no assets at all. They have been hiving money off for years and just bled the company completely dry...and guess what....they are both at retirement age.
Cunts !
by the way, cheers for your comments.
Sorry to hear it. I've been there and it's never any fun. Just keep confidence, you have transferable skills, and you'll find something no prob.
Things are looking up. Just secured 2 contracts that were with my previous employer. Told them what had happened, they were so pissed off at how I had been treated that they have now signed the work over to me. We now have premesis, and equipment that we have begged and borrowed and are up and running. Should be turning a profit within the next 8 weeks.
Fuck this is hard work....all about talking to as many people as you can as quickly as you can to salvage the customers from the old company.
Now you just need to hire some employees who will call YOU a cunt when you retire wealthy in a few years Jon! ;) :D
CraigBert — Sep 29, 2010Now you just need to hire some employees who will call YOU a cunt when you retire wealthy in a few years Jon! ;) :D
;D but seriously, I absolutely would not just fuck people over in the way they have done to all of us. It really stinks that it IS legal to do it in this way. We have all worked all month basically for free ! They have called in the receiver 3 days before pay day to ensure they do not have to pay anyone a penny. Fucking stinks.
Anyway, shitloads of hard work to do over the coming months to get to any semblance of wealth.
This is both exciting and terrifying all at the same time.
Scary shit.
sounds good - could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Oh well, I don't think I will be picking up a guitar for many months now as every minute of my time is now going into the new business. More meetings lined up tomorrow, and another customer confirmed they will move to us today. Damn difficult to try and relax at the moment...time really is money !
It sounds like you are doing the right things to pick things back up. What happened sucks, but things will work out. Makes things a bitch in the short-term. Keep at it bro!!
Sorry about that brother. I am hearing that same story all too often these days.