Comments on: Credit crunched

By: ms_well.words

ms_well.words — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:11:00 +0000

First sign of a failing publisher?

They make staff pay for items from the coffee machine.

(And/or these days, they stop stocking freshly ground Fair Trade product, and instead re-stock the machine by getting the MD's assistant to run round to Lidl to bulk-buy high-chicory instant stuff.)

By: Kirses

Kirses — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:34:00 +0000

I wish I had asked these questions back in January when I started with a dymanic small company…I was made redundant 7 months later due to their inability to pay my salary..

By: Johnny

Johnny — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:12:00 +0000

Meantime, while people try to get on with their lives, the financial crisis is going to be `fixed’ by the astute actions of… the people who got us into this shit-storm in the first place…

With people around who believe in that I surely must be able to get a buyer for my castle.

By: The Bureauista

The Bureauista — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:30:00 +0000

hmm. I take your point up to a point, but there are degrees of uncertainty. When I say ‘guaranteed business’ I mean business where contracts have been exchanged, rather than tentatively agreed to. In the past, when outsourcing was the norm in my industry, tentative agreements would have been enough to convince me a particular employer was a viable option – not any more. Whether businesses are being squeezed or not, they are outsourcing less out of caution. For this reason, I would look for much stronger business relationships and contractual obligations before I’d throw my lot in with a company.

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:05:00 +0000

I’m here from Quinquireme, and I don’t understand this talk of “guaranteed business”. Now I may be thick, and I am definitely a Yank, but the only “guaranteed business” I ever heard of was the kind you get from your brother-in-law. For everyone else, there are no guarantees about the future whatsoever: there are contracts, but people break them all the time (and yes, you can go to court, but you probably do better not to, given the cost of doing so), and anyway, what if it’s your business partners that are going under?

My employer is Google, a large and extremely profitable business: but if the world’s firms turn against online advertising, or the queries stop flowing, we fold up and die. That doesn’t make me refuse to work there; there’s no getting away from permanent uncertainty.

“Which is greater, the mountain or the sea?”

By: patroclus

patroclus — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:04:00 +0000

>>If I ever go for another job interview, it won’t be the training opportunities and the staff canteen arrangements I’ll be asking about; I’ll be requesting to see the balance sheets and to have a long chat with the company accountant. I’ll be asking exactly how much guaranteed business is coming in in the next six months, what contingencies are in place in case a client drops out of the picture, whether there are savings to cover salary payments in the event of an emergency<<

All of this is immensely sensible – in the current climate, *anyone* going for a job anywhere should be asking these questions of a potential employer, and not just in a small business either. In fact, depending on their current circumstances (e.g. if they haven't borrowed any money, if they have cash in the bank etc.), small businesses may be better placed to weather the storm than many larger ones.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:29:00 +0000

Ouch. If I needed more evidence of the economy collapsing, it would be the number of people I know who've lost their jobs in the last month or so.

The next few months sound like they'll be quite an adventure, though!

I'm attempting to cling to my full time job while conducting various freelance work (except mine has a lower likelihood of gaining me actual money). In some ways, the kick in the pants of losing my job would be good for my productivity. But there's no doubt it's a huge shock to the bank account, too.

Will be interested to hear about the next few months as they unroll, though!

By: Johnny

Johnny — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:06:00 +0000

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. And, of course, as a Discordian I’m suitably thrilled that it took a world economic collapse to get me the possibility of more precious Bureauista face-time. Even more thrilled simply at the possibility of Bureauista face-time tho. Praise be to The Goddess.