Re: Tuesday's news: cost-cutting measures

[Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com>]

On Tuesday 03 September 2002 09:29, Jane Carnall wrote:
> It's not really worth sending this ANONFWD...
>
> Okay, I've just been told I'm "at risk of redundancy"...
> and unless I or the company can think up some
> "cost-cutting measures" by Friday, I'll be formally
> redundant.

Hmm.  

Your wording suggested that you are the only 
employee in that painful position right now.... 
or, are others also being asked to [re-]justify their 
respective existences?

I'm guessing that you are the one-and-only writer at 
the company. Assuming that you've been usefully 
busy up 'til now, the implication is that there is enough 
tech-writing work to fill the void.

Somebody mentioned the "rock and a hard place" implications 
of volunteering to work part time. If it's put that baldly,
then that's probably the reaction you'll get "You're
admiting, then, that you've been under-employed all these 
months? Is that it?". Similarly, if you come up with 
suggestions as to which documentation can be trimmed
from the schedule, then you are shooting yourself in the 
foot.
"Oh, well if we can get along without this and this and
this, then we can probably get along without the person 
who writes/maintains them, wouldn't you say?"

Given that SOMEthing has to give, then I like the 
notion of part-time. I also like the notion of a relatively 
formal meeting *before* Friday, to which you invite the 
appropriate people, and in which you extract from *them* 
what *they* think can be trimmed.

The idea is that you try to manage this evisceration 
such that the resulting, slimmed-down workload 
looks more like the amount of work that can be 
done by you in two?/three? days per week... or in 
five "half-days" (or whatever).  I think you really 
want *them* to be the ones who decide that one 
or another project or product is "redundant".

By the way, about that word "redundant" -- we don't 
normally use it in that context, over here on this side
of the pond. If you truly are "redundant", then somebody 
or something else is doing the job, and there's no hope 
for you (or perhaps for that other person, after the 
"death-cage" grudge match...). Perhaps they are 
grasping for a different term... "obsolete"?

"All of our documentation will now be done via 
thought transference, direct from the brain of the 
relevant engineer."   

By the way, you might want to try that line (previous 
para) as a little joke, and then segue into the issue 
of increased costs for customer support.

For that matter, if the manager of Customer Support 
is not among those plotting your asassination, then 
you might want to recruit her/him as an ally in the 
meeting.  Some judicious priming might be in order, 
before-hand.  Of course, if the majority of support 
calls are due to broken documentation, then you'll 
want to consider other avenues (ahem) and let sleeping 
dogs lie (to mangle a metaphor or three).

We've recently taken a company-wide 10% pay chop 
(preceded by the executives earlier this year), and it 
is generally acknowledged that if there were to be 
another layoff (we cut loose half the company last 
summer) then it would be ... er.... ah... 100% -- the 
doors would close.

Still, I wouldn't rule out any near-term manipulations 
of the workforce.  Somebody might get the bright idea 
to outsource the documentation.
If that came up, I'd definitely attempt a rearguard action, 
including:

- noting that some of our big customers are already picky 
  about the documentation (meaning that documentation 
  actually ISN'T just fluff, and some important people 
  (important to our fiscal future) have shown that they 
  value it sufficiently to make both complaints and 
  constructive comments... along with some praise, 
  and how often does *that* happen)
- raising the argument that somebody who already knows 
  the products and the industry (and all the developers and 
  testers) is better equipped to provide accurate and
  complete... and useful... documents
  also, if they lose the guy who knows what NOT to say 
  in our kind of docs, they'll incur an editorial overhead 
  that they don't currently have (i.e., some things that 
  are learned from the engineers and from the code, etc., 
  are proprietary -- which ones are which?
- pointing out that we already have empty cubicles, so they
  won't be saving much on overhead
- insinuating that any consultant/freelance writer who's
  worth the effort will demand rates higher than my 
  salary, which eats into any savings from not having to 
  pay my benefits
- reminding them that my laptop is one of the "boughten"
  ones, not one of the leased workstations, so there'll be
  no savings there
- suggesting that, since I've largely moved to Linux, I 
  won't cost them anything in Windoze licence fees.

My laptop is a few years old, but it serves my purposes
reasonably well. If the axe were to come too close, I 
could agree to work partial weeks, for reduced pay -- 
with the understanding that I'd be using the resulting 
excess time to pursue freelance/consulting assignments, 
to make up the shortfall (blah, blah, usual NDA/non-compete 
agreements). 

Or, I could just go to free-lancing  right away, and keep 
the laptop... since it already has my paid-for tools on it. 
I could work mostly from home, especially if they continue 
to give me access to the company VPN... though it's not 
entirely necessary.

I'd visit when necessary to attend project meetings or to 
try out new equipment and software. Since I already have a 
networked office at my house, I'd be able to begin taking 
the appropriate tax deductions. I live in a socialist state, 
so emergency and chronic medical insurance would not 
change. On the other hand, I would need to find some drug
coverage and possibly dental as well.

Maybe I'll just touch wood if I can find any of the real 
stuff around here... hmmm.

Well, good luck. If my ramblings are too remote from 
your situation to be of any use... then don't read 'em.

/kevin (who just got back from vacation this morning and 
           who was tellingly relieved to note that his
           access card still works   :-)

-- 
** DIR-ty DEEDS, and they're DONE dirt cheap. (Sing it, 
now...)
    


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