Thanks everyone for your excellent info, but more so for your wonderful
support. It will take me a while to process it all. I want to research some
of the suggestions before replying more fully. Thanks again!
On Oct 7, 2016 1:01 AM, "Todd Andrews" <starman(a)pobox.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Within the last few weeks my neck spasms have gotten significantly worse
such that I cut back from a four hour workday to one hour. And then a week
or two after that I heard from one of my co-workers (not management!) that
the company I work for was bought out by another company. I had a phone
interview with the new company president on a Mon, which I thought went
pretty well even after telling him I was 20 hours a week and on disability
and only recently switched to a five hour week. The following Fri of that
same week the new president said he would not be offering me a job at the
new company. Six of us (three programmers, two admin staff, one project
manager), including me, were laid off. We got the no-hire decision that Fri
and within about two hours our (six) phones were disconnected and our
logins were disabled (no more access to company servers, including no more
email). We didn't even get to finish our work day they moved so swiftly. We
barely had time to let the rest of our co-workers know and to wish them
well. No severance pay. There didn't even seem to be a plan for final
checks for accrued vacation until a couple of us spoke up.
Chuck, I'm curious how it has been for the companies you worked for when it
came to agreements not to compete. I signed one when I started with this
company about five years ago. It basically says that if I go to work for a
client within a year of not working for the company that the client must
pay my employer half of my yearly salary. Do employees get released from
this when the company technically doesn't exist anymore? The six of us were
laid off the day before the new company officially took over. I've already
been offered a part time job by one of the clients but I told them about
the agreement not to compete. My former employer, in prior years, has made
two or three exceptions to this and employees were able to work for clients
without paying 50% of their annual salary. Is there a "norm" for this kind
of policy?
-Todd