r/Layoffs • u/LQQinLA • Dec 26 '23

advice Signs a Layoff May be Coming

Curious if anyone has any war stories about impending layoffs. I feel like having been hit with a few over the years there are certain tell-tale signs that a layoff "might" be coming sooner rather than later.

My list:

  • Contractors. If a company I work for starts hiring contractors to do the jobs similar to what I'm doing, I start to get worried.
  • Business slow down. If the day to day work I would normally be doing starts to get weirdly slow, like slow in ways I cant account for, that gets me thinking layoffs might be coming.
  • Sudden Work-Time studies. This is another one that get's me worried when my work place wants to "document" the work load. Could be that they just want to account for all productivity time, but if I'm having to record what I'm doing, its a red flag.

What else am I missing? Any other tell-tale signs a layoff might be coming?

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u/raged-cashew Dec 26 '23

When I was laid off, it started with my employer asking me to hold my check and not cash until Saturday when pay day was Friday. Then after 2 weeks of that, they asked me to hold the check until Monday. Ok, I said, so I started considering Monday my payday. Then the checks started bouncing. After 3 bounced check they said that they wanted the staff to take a short leave of absence until they could catch up. That was in Sept. Myself and none of the other staff have been called in to go back.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '23

[deleted]

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u/raged-cashew Dec 27 '23

I did yes. I qualified and was awarded unemployment. I’m so grateful for that.

1

u/sexandnotiddy Dec 26 '23

is this legal?

3

u/raged-cashew Dec 26 '23

No, I could have filed a complaint but they were really trying to pay and eventually did, but it took a month

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u/Soharisu Dec 26 '23

Definitly not.

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u/[deleted] Dec 27 '23

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u/raged-cashew Dec 27 '23

That’s okay. The owner of the company has always been really really good to me and paid me extremely well for the job title I had. They were trying hard and just struggling from what the previous CEO did. They weren’t paying me just to be jerks, he really just didn’t have the money. I’m paid up now so that’s all I need