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WOChrisL’s Company Is Tanking Hard


ChrisL

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We figured my wife’s company would be severely impacted by the pandemic as they supply safety products to restaurants/food industry.  

Everyone (16 people)  just got an email that he is going to have to make drastic cuts and that the firm may not survive a prolonged shut down.   No names or positions have been mentioned yet but he’ll let those being impacted know soon.

My wife is one of the old timers but not one of the core 4 people (owner, owners daughter, 2 that helped him launch the firm).  She is one of the people who can do all of the business operations when they get rolling again though as she was there when it was just 5 people. 

Well see what happens, I told her to expect cuts today as the owner isn’t going to send that message & then let people twist in the wind over the weekend.  He’s genuinely a good dude and this has to be killing him. 

My firm just hired another 150 people nation wide starting next week and March was yet another banner month so we seem to be good for now...

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4 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

We figured my wife’s company would be severely impacted by the pandemic as they supply safety products to restaurants/food industry.  

Everyone (16 people)  just got an email that he is going to have to make drastic cuts and that the firm may not survive a prolonged shut down.   No names or positions have been mentioned yet but he’ll let those being impacted know soon.

My wife is one of the old timers but not one of the core 4 people (owner, owners daughter, 2 that helped him launch the firm).  She is one of the people who can do all of the business operations when they get rolling again though as she was there when it was just 5 people. 

Well see what happens, I told her to expect cuts today as the owner isn’t going to send that message & then let people twist in the wind over the weekend.  He’s genuinely a good dude and this has to be killing him. 

My firm just hired another 150 people nation wide starting next week and March was yet another banner month so we seem to be good for now...

There is a government program now that will loan money to small business and then forgive the loan if they can keep their people employed.

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11 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

There is a government program now that will loan money to small business and then forgive the loan if they can keep their people employed.

Not sure if they know that but I’m guessing they do.  I’m paraphrasing based on what she told me but I believe they indicated they are looking at these options.

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37 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

There is a government program now that will loan money to small business and then forgive the loan if they can keep their people employed.

The sad part is the machinery of gub'ment moves so slowly, and time is of the essence when you are bleeding $$$$

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1 hour ago, ChrisL said:

the firm may not survive a prolonged shut down.

I think that is a refrain that will echo across the country. Statistics stated on TV this morning is 11% of small businesses don't have enough cash to last a month without income, 6% can't last more than 2 months. Consider a business trying to keep employees on the payroll, usually the largest cost of doing business, for 3 months. Many, many small businesses will not make it. There is also a bit of talk about "zombie corporations" in the market that are likely to go away in short order. Then there are companies that simply aren't prepared for a downturn. The impact of this situation will be felt deeply.

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We had a short COVID meeting at work when I got back. We have put in place several safety and social distance measures. 
We are busy at the moment, but we expect that to start tapering next week. He assured us the company has reserves to maintain staff and payroll for a while. It was a lesson learned after an economic downturn in the late 90s. He just stressed no overtime and to make sure our billing is timely to keep income flowing for the company. 

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So my wife just got the call, laid off... The telling thing was the owner said “if” we pull out of this I’ll be calling you to come back...  She was getting a little burned out there anyway and was starting to look before CV19 hit so maybe it’s a good thing he forced the situation.  

We’ll be fine financially, shit the remaining  bonus I couldn’t spend was about 2 months of her salary let alone what we have in savings and I carry our benefits.  

 

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3 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

So my wife just got the call, laid off... The telling thing was the owner said “if” we pull out of this I’ll be calling you to come back...  She was getting a little burned out there anyway and was starting to look before CV19 hit so maybe it’s a good thing he forced the situation.  

We’ll be fine financially, shit the remaining  bonus I couldn’t spend was about 2 months of her salary let alone what we have in savings and I carry our benefits.  

 

Still a bummer.

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18 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

we have in savings and I carry our benefits.  

Savings and health coverage are pretty much the "essentials".  It's easier to scale down when one spouse is out of work when you're not sweating a big health bill or a worrying about food on the table. Just ride out the storm and move on to better things - eventually.

Good luck!

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Stressful times for sure. As I've said, I recently quit my job at an already dying company. I just don't see them surviving this crisis. Not the best time to look for a new job, but I'm betting the farm that companies will use this opportunity to clear their deadwood and hire on new blood when the coast is clear. Anyway, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. :unsure:

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Just now, team scooter said:

Stressful times for sure. As I've said, I recently quit my job at an already dying company. I just don't see them surviving this crisis. Not the best time to look for a new job, but I'm betting the farm that companies will use this opportunity to clear their deadwood and hire on new blood. Anyway, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. :unsure:

Yep - I was considering this year as a good "transition" year to another job.  Then this corona thing.  But we'll see, since there is likely to be a lot of flux in the job market.  Unpredictable times, though.

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Just now, Razors Edge said:

Yep - I was considering this year as a good "transition" year to another job.  Then this corona thing.  But we'll see, since there is likely to be a lot of flux in the job market.  Unpredictable times, though.

Agreed. I'd be lying if I said I was getting good night's sleep. 

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43 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

So my wife just got the call, laid off... The telling thing was the owner said “if” we pull out of this I’ll be calling you to come back...  She was getting a little burned out there anyway and was starting to look before CV19 hit so maybe it’s a good thing he forced the situation.  

We’ll be fine financially, shit the remaining  bonus I couldn’t spend was about 2 months of her salary let alone what we have in savings and I carry our benefits.  

 

Sorry buddy.  Is this the part where we talk about one door closing, another one opens, etc? 

One of my best friends in the world is a civil engineer.  Been with a small firm for 21 years.  Getting laid off.  He is like your wife, actually kinda relieved.  Sucks right now, but I am sure it will be better in the long run. 

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51 minutes ago, team scooter said:

but I'm betting the farm that companies will use this opportunity to clear their deadwood and hire on new blood when the coast is clear. Anyway, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it. :unsure:

Im sure some of this is going on but her company provides safety products to the food & restaurant industry.  Their revenue stream came to complete stop as nobody is ordering their products.  

It’s a small privately held firm and may not survive this downturn even if it’s temporary.
 

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9 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Im sure some of this is going on but her company provides safety products to the food & restaurant industry.  Their revenue stream came to complete stop as nobody is ordering their products.  

It’s a small privately held firm and may not survive this downturn even if it’s temporary.
 

Can your wife start her own competing firm to pick up her old accounts when this is over?

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10 minutes ago, jsharr said:

how many got laid off of the ones calling?  

Good point, three got their notice today, out of 15 employees.  It’s a smattering of existing people and the other two.

12 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Can your wife start her own competing firm to pick up her old accounts when this is over?

She wouldn’t do that and they sell products so she’d need start up capital.   But the owner is a good dude, she wouldn’t burn him.

10 minutes ago, jsharr said:

 

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4 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Good point, three got their notice today, out of 15 employees.  It’s a smattering of existing people and the other two.

She wouldn’t do that and they sell products so she’d need start up capital.   But the owner is a good dude, she wouldn’t burn him.

So she is one of the longest tenured employees and is one of the first to go?  Does she make more than the others?  Benefits?   Sucks that loyalty and time served did not weigh in to this.

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I am so sorry to hear this, Chris.  I believe many of us will be in the same boat very soon.  The silver lining is that I believe many creditors are going to work with us, as everyone will be defaulting.  Utility companies are not cutting power, banks may not be foreclosing, etc.  I have to try and look at any bright side that I can.

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4 minutes ago, jsharr said:

So she is one of the longest tenured employees and is one of the first to go?  Does she make more than the others?  Benefits?   Sucks that loyalty and time served did not weigh in to this.

Yeah and yeah.  They hired a VP of sales who probably makes more and he was let go.  The other one was a newer person who I’m sure made less.  No bennies, I carry those.

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4 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Yeah and yeah.  They hired a VP of sales who probably makes more and he was let go.  The other one was a newer person who I’m sure made less.  No bennies, I carry those.

That sucks.  I can see letting go the new VP, but your oldest tenured employee?  Make the ones that built the company suffer and keep the lowest paid workers?  Man that sucks.

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1 minute ago, jsharr said:

That sucks.  I can see letting go the new VP, but your oldest tenured employee?  Make the ones that built the company suffer and keep the lowest paid workers?  Man that sucks.

Yeah thanks.  I think they kept her assistant as she’s a single mom and they know i do OK and carry the bennies plus the assistant earns less.  This was probably just the first round.  I think by the time this is done they’ll cut it down to the 4 OG’s.  

We’re really not stressing, at least not yet.  As I mentioned I got a fat bonus just before all of this hit and after buying some bike parts literally couldn’t buy the other stuff I wanted due to store closures so we just banked it.   Besides any state & federal assistance and our savings which can carry us for over a year what’s remaining of my bonus is 4 of her pay periods of wages.  That alone will probably get us through this.

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1 minute ago, 2Far said:

Well, it looks like Cali has some generous UI bennies, plus the gummint's $600/week until 7/31, it looks like maybe your house will be clean and dinner will be on the table when you get home.

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As I was leaving Jack was lounging on the couch looking at me.  I looked at him and said, dude, your gonna be missing that couch soon!  That lazy little knucklehead will be super fit in the coming weeks! 

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2 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

As I was leaving Jack was lounging on the couch looking at me.  I looked at him and said, dude, your gonna be missing that couch soon!  That lazy little knucklehead will be super fit in the coming weeks! 

We joke about how happy our dog is with my wife and me in the house 24/7 now. She gets tons of attention and encouragement to go for longer walks.  Hopefully that's true for all pups.

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13 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

We joke about how happy our dog is with my wife and me in the house 24/7 now. She gets tons of attention and encouragement to go for longer walks.  Hopefully that's true for all pups.

My daughter got their puppy a couple of weeks before all this hit.  They had him on a nice routine before she got furloughed and SIL is working from home.   At some point he’s gonna have to adjust to being alone.

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My wife furloughed a couple people when this started, keeping the people who need the income.  They have savings that could pay the bills for maybe 2 months.  So, to apply for these loans, she had to bring those people back.  And if the loan gets denied, she will have to furlough them again.

I'm not thrilled with how my company is handling this.  The parent company is actually doing well, some of the divisions sell into the pandemic response.  They  are 95% family owned, sitting on $600M cash.  Our division sells into retail, we're going to take a hit, even after a record setting 7 or 8 quarters in a row.  Maybe even lose a little money, but not enough to crush us.  Instead of tapping into the parent company's savings, all managers have already taken pay cuts.  They are talking at least pay cuts for everyone soon, maybe furloughs.

I get how this puts small businesses under, but it bothers me that larger corporations, with plenty of debt available, are scrambling to not lose money.  This is a once in a generation emergency, they could stand to take a hit for a few months and make it back later!

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Sorry for your wife, Chris. I was in her shoes of thinking it was time to move on back in 2002 when our company went public. When I was part of a mass layoff of IT people, I was relieved, but at the same time upset that it wasn't on my terms. Glad you are in a position that the hit won't be as dramatic as for some. 

WoW returns to work tomorrow after 14 days of quarantine. I only had to do 7 because I showed "symptoms", she had not. Probably just as well we can't travel anywhere for a while since we used up all our paid time off. But we have jobs. So many friends are already seeing big financial hits. WoW works in scheduling for the hospital. They will be busy for a while. Our employer has saved reserves for just such situations. Said we are find for a few months...longer if we can keep any streams of income going. 

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