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Tis the season to be firing people.. sorry.. laying off people.. Another "Family Own" company just come in and told people to pack up and close up shop. No warning, notice or anything. So much for being a "Family Business". So what is worst? Getting laid off by a local so call family business or corp world? And if you knew your business was not going to make it in advance, why not say something then?
What's family owned got to do with anything? It's a business not a charity. Family run businesses and corporations both close up shop unexpectedly. In reality though, usually there are a ton of red flags so you can see the writing on the wall.
Businesses don't always know they're not going to make it. Frequently, there's business meetings - the kind with accountants and financial officers. They go through everything and see what the bottom line really is. Can they pay their bills for the quarter or month? Are they in the red? Is there any way out? If the meeting is on a Tuesday and the discuss their options then, they might determine at the meeting that the will close the end of the week so they can tie up loose ends. Why would they tell employees? Do you think it's going to change anything? It's not like they know weeks and weeks in advance.
But why is it always around the holiday season? seriously gets annoying as eff.. and makes your company look even worst..
Has nothing to do with the holidays. It's the end of the year. In the land of accounting and taxation, the end of the year has HUGE repercussions. If they're in the red the end of the year, they're in HUGE trouble and closing is their only option frequently.
Yea that is what i get from the news. Seems they just come in and close up.. and the corp least try to give you severance pay.
Typically, if a business is closing, there's no severance. Doesn't matter if it's a family owned business or a corporation. Severance usually happens when only one office is being closed/merged. Even then there's no guarantee of a severance package. They also come with a TON of strings attached.
Typically, it's not like oh we're closing Friday so on Friday we'll give you 5 grand. The office may not close for 6 weeks as it prepares to close and send everything to the office handling that stuff now or merge offices together. No severance packages unless you stay until the last day....so it's hard to line up a job. You'll probably get a few weeks without a paycheck assuming you can find a new job quickly. Depending what you do and where you are, that isn't easy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2
Right i had the same type person. Every holiday, we got a turky, and xmas got a 100 gift card to target.. he hated walmart. He did his best to let everybody know what is going on and each qt, he would post his finances. So everybody knows if they are making money or losing it. He got divorce and it was brutal. She wanted it all, so to keep it from happening, he sold it to his kid. He didnt want it and just shut it down soon as he sign the paper work. Worst thing to happen to such a great guy.
Sounds like you knew the writing was on the wall. Divorces don't take a month unless you're a celebrity in Hollywood. Divorces especially contested ones can draaaaaaaag on for years. Sounds like that was the case here and folks knew the divorce was taking forever and she wanted the business or at least a huge check from it.
His kid either didn't really want it or got in over his head. Until you own a business, you have no real idea how much it requires. It's not 9-5 40 hours a week.
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Originally Posted by arwenmark
Usually there are laws regarding this when a business is closing a facility or going out of business. When my husbands facility closed in MA there was a mandatory 60 day notice as well as other retraining and other benefits that applied, that do not apply in a regular lay off, OP have you checked the laws in your state for a situation like this?
Totally depends on the state. Usually, the company has to have a minimum number of employees in that specific location. I believe in my state, it's 50 employees. There's ways around that though. If they go bankrupt, they aren't waiting 60 days for anything. The courts won't allow them to spend money they don't have. Also if you slowly layoff employees here and there and get down to 48-49 employees, the law no longer applies to you. There are other loopholes as well.
Excuse was declining sales and increase cost.. All the ones i been to were always packed and food was good. 35 years and closing it up.. But now? if they saw the sales were declining 6 months ago, should have done something then.. not during the holiday.. or much less let them work through the holiday and close up first of the year. They tick off alot of people doing this announcement.
The restaurant business is INCREDIBLY hard! Sales may have been fine 6 months ago and in the last 2 months dropped like a rock. It's not like businesses have stock piles of cash hanging out in the corners of the building. Food costs have been increasing. Delivery fees are increasing. Employees now have to be able to get health insurance through the company in many places and that costs a fortune.
Just because you've been to a location doesn't mean it's packed the entire time it's open. It also doesn't mean that any other location doing the same sales volume.
They're not worried about ticking people off. They're closing their business! They're out money, too. They're out jobs, too.
They're closing their business! They're out money, too. They're out jobs, too.
Exactly. So many people don't understand this.
If we are in the red, we pay our employees first before my husband gets paid. If we were to close, that would be because we had to lay off our employees one by one, and then finally, knowing we owed too much to vendors and the government and insurance and workmans comp, and everybody else in the dang world (it seems), that we won't be paid at all for a long long time, hell we're lucky we at least own the building our shop is in, what if we were leasing that too?
And to top it off, we don't have the luxury of just going out and getting another job. No other owner is going to hire a former owner, because they think that they aren't going to want to work as hard because they were once the boss, and it gets difficult.
They're all the same today and its been happening all over the places for YEARS now. "Recovery". ROFLMAO. If this is recovery I hate to see non-recovery. . All greedy toads trying to find any excuse to cut costs and line their own pockets. No accountability anymore on the heads of leaders. They have free reign to reign all the hell they want.
Its like when the teacher leaves the classroom and the students go ape****
Every employee is at risk of losing their job without notice. Just ask professional sports players/coaches ( I mention because these are "in the news") - see it all the time. Such is the world of business.
Typically, if a business is closing, there's no severance. Doesn't matter if it's a family owned business or a corporation. Severance usually happens when only one office is being closed/merged. Even then there's no guarantee of a severance package. They also come with a TON of strings attached.
Typically, it's not like oh we're closing Friday so on Friday we'll give you 5 grand. The office may not close for 6 weeks as it prepares to close and send everything to the office handling that stuff now or merge offices together. No severance packages unless you stay until the last day....so it's hard to line up a job. You'll probably get a few weeks without a paycheck assuming you can find a new job quickly. Depending what you do and where you are, that isn't easy.
Sounds like you knew the writing was on the wall. Divorces don't take a month unless you're a celebrity in Hollywood. Divorces especially contested ones can draaaaaaaag on for years. Sounds like that was the case here and folks knew the divorce was taking forever and she wanted the business or at least a huge check from it.
His kid either didn't really want it or got in over his head. Until you own a business, you have no real idea how much it requires. It's not 9-5 40 hours a week.
Totally depends on the state. Usually, the company has to have a minimum number of employees in that specific location. I believe in my state, it's 50 employees. There's ways around that though. If they go bankrupt, they aren't waiting 60 days for anything. The courts won't allow them to spend money they don't have. Also if you slowly layoff employees here and there and get down to 48-49 employees, the law no longer applies to you. There are other loopholes as well.
The restaurant business is INCREDIBLY hard! Sales may have been fine 6 months ago and in the last 2 months dropped like a rock. It's not like businesses have stock piles of cash hanging out in the corners of the building. Food costs have been increasing. Delivery fees are increasing. Employees now have to be able to get health insurance through the company in many places and that costs a fortune.
Just because you've been to a location doesn't mean it's packed the entire time it's open. It also doesn't mean that any other location doing the same sales volume.
They're not worried about ticking people off. They're closing their business! They're out money, too. They're out jobs, too.
I seriously doubt the family who been in business for 35 years is broke. I personally was able to meet one of the owner at a food show a year ago. Showing up in a 65k GMC truck, wearing gold like MR.T handler. And local news station posted some of their places.. They aren't broke and they be eating good this holiday season vs the ones in the soup line. Its hard to find a business owner that be in that situation, unless they are flat out broke and refuse to work for somebody else. I did work as an master controller for a big TV station years ago, and owner was bouncing payroll checks like crazy. He would fix the issue but we had to wait till the following pay period to get that check to cover the others he pass on to us. I quit after the second one bounced, and few weeks later he sold off the company to clear channel. On more investigation, he was bouncing our paychecks so he can save up enough funds to cashout on some property he been wanting. He was risking our financial lives for a condo. We all know business owners will take care of their stock holders first prior to feeding the fish. Im sure every CEO/executives gotten well paid during their layoffs, while others just get the box and shown the door.
I seriously doubt the family who been in business for 35 years is broke. I personally was able to meet one of the owner at a food show a year ago. Showing up in a 65k GMC truck, wearing gold like MR.T handler. And local news station posted some of their places.. They aren't broke and they be eating good this holiday season vs the ones in the soup line. Its hard to find a business owner that be in that situation, unless they are flat out broke and refuse to work for somebody else. I did work as an master controller for a big TV station years ago, and owner was bouncing payroll checks like crazy. He would fix the issue but we had to wait till the following pay period to get that check to cover the others he pass on to us. I quit after the second one bounced, and few weeks later he sold off the company to clear channel. On more investigation, he was bouncing our paychecks so he can save up enough funds to cashout on some property he been wanting. He was risking our financial lives for a condo. We all know business owners will take care of their stock holders first prior to feeding the fish. Im sure every CEO/executives gotten well paid during their layoffs, while others just get the box and shown the door.
You don't know if the restaurants folks are mortgaged to their eyeballs. Driving a $65K truck doesn't mean a damn thing. I drive a $53K SUV. You know what that means? I have a HUGE car payment every month!
We all know business owners will take care of their stock holders first prior to feeding the fish.
Absolute BS!
We take care of ourselves first and everyone else is equal as far as being beggars at the gate. Employees, vendors, stock holder... they are all the same once we decide to cash out our windfall.
We pick this time of year because it saves us from having to deal with fiances (even if only for one day) of a new year. It's also a nice time because we have time to now do some decent holiday shopping without any burden of the business. Plus we get so much free time to celebrate happily with our own family and friends with no worry about new years profits. Of course, many of the luxury vacation resorts actually have less bookings due to the holidays so we can get a whole lot of personalize butt kissing we deserve. It takes so much stress off us that it's the most logical time to shut the doors. There just isn't any downside to shuttering this time of the year.
Its not for me.. its just others out their got no notice.. You would figure being a family business they would be family respectful. Not come in to a place and tell people to pack up 2 weeks before the only holiday family is first. I guess to some its just another holiday, or typical business ethics.. Much like you want a person to provide 2 weeks notice much as possible, but you want to just show up and lock the doors and give no notice to their employee? One way street?
Business is business. Just because it's "family owned" doesn't mean it's any different. To an extent, Walmart is family owned...
The only thing I can think of is that certain corporations may be better suited to provide severances or be required by law to provide notification.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2
But why is it always around the holiday season? seriously gets annoying as eff.. and makes your company look even worst..
I think you simply hear more about it around the holiday season as it makes more compelling news. It's also a last ditch effort to turn things around or realize your results as most organization's financial periods match the yearly calendar.
Excuse was declining sales and increase cost.. All the ones i been to were always packed and food was good. 35 years and closing it up.. But now? if they saw the sales were declining 6 months ago, should have done something then.. not during the holiday.. or much less let them work through the holiday and close up first of the year. They tick off alot of people doing this announcement.
I'm not sure what you mean by "excuse". Like these people were looking to sabotage their own business? In just about all cases, the owners are also losing their jobs. And while some may be better off, others may have lost a lot more than just their income. They don't provide notice because like anything else failure related, people don't want to accept that until there is no other choice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2
I seriously doubt the family who been in business for 35 years is broke. I personally was able to meet one of the owner at a food show a year ago. Showing up in a 65k GMC truck, wearing gold like MR.T handler. And local news station posted some of their places.. They aren't broke and they be eating good this holiday season vs the ones in the soup line. Its hard to find a business owner that be in that situation, unless they are flat out broke and refuse to work for somebody else. I did work as an master controller for a big TV station years ago, and owner was bouncing payroll checks like crazy. He would fix the issue but we had to wait till the following pay period to get that check to cover the others he pass on to us. I quit after the second one bounced, and few weeks later he sold off the company to clear channel. On more investigation, he was bouncing our paychecks so he can save up enough funds to cashout on some property he been wanting. He was risking our financial lives for a condo. We all know business owners will take care of their stock holders first prior to feeding the fish. Im sure every CEO/executives gotten well paid during their layoffs, while others just get the box and shown the door.
Perhaps, perhaps not. It all depends on the situation. If you made $500K a year, it doesn't automatically make you rich. You could also be spending $550K a year....
In the end, I think the perception here is that someone who own a successful business is automatically wealthy. That isn't always the case. You can never tell unless you look at the balance sheet. Of course, just because they lost a business doesn't automatically mean they're broke either.
As for your station owner - there are certainly bad people out there or people who make stupid decisions. But they hold jobs all over the corporate ladder, from the intern all the way up to the CEO. For every CEO that stole their employee's money or jacked up needed medication by a thousand %, there are many others that built hospitals, universities, and gave back to the community.
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