Thread regarding Thomson Reuters layoffs

I think when you say you’re colleagues laugh. That’s telling. Look everyone of you has to be selfish and look after number 1. There will be this pack mentality and we all stick together camaraderie and there is real comfort in that. BUT at that end of the day you need to pay your rent, feed your kids etc etc. No one is going to do that for you. Not one of those colleagues who all say the right things and ‘Stick with you’. So take my advice, join the banter, be a team member but look after you. If you end up in a job till June whoop whoop, they’ll be the ones crying when they are sat on the dole on £60 a week. Do what is best for you!

Btw- it does sound like some are so upset that the prospect of £60 a week on the dole is better than hanging around, so good for them. Each to their own and as I said look after No 1!

You would be served well by gathering your co-workers together and deciding en masse to not train your replacements. Provided that your job functions are crucial to the company, you all as a group tell TR you will either all leave, forgoing severance, or stay at a multiple of your current salaries, for the next five years. Non-negotiable. If no one can do your jobs without you training your replacements, and TR can not function without your product, then you have the power. You just have to have the balls to take it.

It's up to you.

Don't get me wrong, you are both correct. However, it is still demoralising, knowing full well you are on a sinking sink, and little can be done.

I too have seen it happen before. But when you can see it happening, months in advance, and you try to tell your colleagues who just laugh....

I am probably one of the ones being professional and getting on with it - I am not involved with the training, nor would I wish to be, but I have a job to do - until January anyway (and I pretty much know that's my departure date)

Why is such a bad thing to be in a job and being paid until June. That’s a monthly pay check, benefits and severance at the end. I’d be well happy. You could leave in January and not get a job for months. So as hard as it may feel. Be selfish and keep up your attitude and keep that pay check coming in.

Hate to break this news to you, but laying off a large number of people off and migrating their jobs to a low cost centre and then getting these very same people to train their replacements is not new in Reuters. We did this when we moved a very large number of jobs to Asia. We were asked to train them after being told we were being laid off. Apart from one or two people, nearly all stayed to train their replacement. We too were told it would be a nine month exercise. For some teams, it ended up being 18 months!! I understand how this news hit's you like a freight train. As you also pointed out with Wrexham, even with us, there were a few people thinking it wouldn't really happen and they would change their minds. They didn't... After acceptance set in, you realise that you need to act and behave in the best interests of yourself and your family. Most came round to acting in the most professional way because they thought it would be the best thing for their future job prospects in terms of how they left the company. Some didn't behave that way. What I saw longer term after the exercise was that the most bitter/upset people found it the difficult to get a new job. Those who adopted the "I will be as professional as I can" mindset walked into a job much much quicker. Maybe that mindset helped them plan their future much better including giving interviews. I promise you this effect was very visible and real. I would never have believed it had someone told me how attitude makes such a big difference but I witnessed it first hand. Bear in mind I'm talking about a large group (teams) of people with a variety of different skills including those who had very propriety skills worried about their marketability. Perhaps those who stayed bitter showed it in their interviews or could not get themselves in a good place to plan their future career as they should have. But that's what happened and I'm sharing this with you as I have been through a very similar exercise and maybe sharing this will help. Today (years later) I would say most have ended up in great or better jobs.

Same in Geneva..