Question

[Partial]

So my company laid off 10 people or so in the past week, and cut my hours down for 20 to 10. From Jan - May I worked 30 hours a week. Then, I worked 60-80 from May - Sept. Then from Sept until Jan I have worked 20 hours.

I guess I am lucky that I didn't get laid off, but I'm pretty irritated.

Tonight I'm supposed to go out to dinner with the vice president of my my tier of the company. Just him and I. I'm not sure whats its about, but I assumed it was a job offer. Now I see my hours are cut, so I'm not sure what to think.

How does one handle said situation? I'm pretty irritated but don't really want to express it to the VP. I'm worried that my body language will speak of my unhappiness with the situation. Any thoughts on why they're taking me out to dinner if they're cutting my hours and keeping me around?

[Zool]

Sex Frank?

[retailguy]

How about, if you show up, paste the best smile and happy attitude on your face that you can, endure the inevitable small talk, and then LISTEN to what he has to say.

Be openminded, polite and attentive. You've got the rest of your life to be pissed off if it doesn't go well.

My hunch is that it isn't a bad thing. You could drive yourself nuts trying to figure out the 2,000 possibilities of what it could be. Odds are that it's something good. VP's aren't required to take anyone to dinner, especially when it's their idea. How could this be a bad thing? If it was bad, you'd have just met with the HR person, who'd have thanked you for your service and sent you on your way....

PATIENCE. (My guess is that will be one of the things he asks from you as the company whethers a small downturn.)

[Freak Out]

How about, if you show up, paste the best smile and happy attitude on your face that you can, endure the inevitable small talk, and then LISTEN to what he has to say.

Be openminded, polite and attentive. You've got the rest of your life to be pissed off if it doesn't go well.

My hunch is that it isn't a bad thing. You could drive yourself nuts trying to figure out the 2,000 possibilities of what it could be. Odds are that it's something good. VP's aren't required to take anyone to dinner, especially when it's their idea. How could this be a bad thing? If it was bad, you'd have just met with the HR person, who'd have thanked you for your service and sent you on your way....

PATIENCE. (My guess is that will be one of the things he asks from you as the company whethers a small downturn.)

Good advice....go with the flow and enjoy the dinner ya freak. He's buying and you are going to enjoy it. Order a great meal with a very nice wine. It will all work out. Is it a good restaurant or just another flatlander heart attack?

[Partial]

It's a pretty good mexican restaurant from what I understand.

Patience doesn't really work out when you've got bills to pay, though.

[Zool]

It's a pretty good mexican restaurant from what I understand.

Patience doesn't really work out when you've got bills to pay, though.

Whats better, patience or acting like a d-bag in front of your bosses bosses boss?

[Partial]

It's a pretty good mexican restaurant from what I understand.

Patience doesn't really work out when you've got bills to pay, though.

Whats better, patience or acting like a d-bag in front of your bosses bosses boss?

Obviously I'm not going to act like a DBag, not his choice to cut my hours. Unfortunately, this probably means I have to start pursuing a job for after college. That's a bummer. I really, really, really, really like my job. See my facebook job description for what I'm working on, it's pretty sweet, but please don't post about it here.

Anyway, it will probably be pretty awkward as we scheduled this dinner a long time ago before the budget cuts were announced. I'm sure it was originally intended (at least I am very confident) as a welcome to the company dinner.

[Zool]

If they were gonna can you, they wouldn't take you to dinner. As RG said, at best you'd have a sit down with an HR rep.

[LL2]

It's a pretty good mexican restaurant from what I understand.

Patience doesn't really work out when you've got bills to pay, though.

I thought you were still in college and living at home. Being the conservative business minded person that you are I'm sure you undertand a business has to do what a business has to do in tough times. Like the others have said enjoy the meal and maybe the VP will move you into a better full time position.

[arcilite]

I'm sure you know the proper business/eating etiquette.

But if not, maybe quick read to brush up on some things.

[Pacopete4]

Partial,


the worst thing u could do is go in there nervous. Relax and be personable with your boss and have a good time but be respectful. He's not going to can you while at dinner so he might be trying to get a read on you as a person. If you show your confidence in yourself and become in good with your boss, it could be a very good thing for you as he may see you in his future plans.



ps. if he cans u... fuck em, punch the bastard! haha

[MJZiggy]

One of the skills we learn in life is self editing. If they cut your hours, get a part timer to fill the gap, get over it and move on. Take people's advice, because your job here is to find out what he has to say (which if circumstances have changed could be nothing) and LISTEN to the advice and counsel of someone who has gotten to where you presumably want to be. Because his advice is something you want to seek out if the opportunity presents itself. There is exactly nothing to be irritated with him about. Learn to focus your irritation to the right places. Could be this guy is just a cool dude.

[Partial]

So, the dinner was interesting. Found out some things that were surprising to me.

The guy I was with said he would find me another 10 hours of work at a higher rate to compensate for one of his side jobs.

He was encouraging me to look into doing some startups and small companies while I am young. He said he has seen my drive, and he would gladly keep me at my company and replace one of the off-shore people with me at $30/hour when I graduate, but they need that full time person until that point. With that said, he seems to know of and be involved with a ton of non-competing small start-ups and is encouraging me to either find me own or work for his and his buddies.

Right now I'm not sure what to think because you have to take these things with a grain of salt when someone is essentially telling you how valuable you are and just cut your hours down.

Any thoughts?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Polish up the resume.

You aren't very good at picking up signals.

[Partial]

Well, considering he wants me to personally work for him... I'm not sure what that signal says. I can see it two ways: He's trying to be nice and knows the going rate for a good junior developer, and would pay me accordingly since he'd have to pay somebody to do the work, right?

Or, that he really does like me and wants to keep me around. This guy has had teams follow him from place to place. This guy defines self-made millionaire and entrepreneur.

From my end, I am overpaid for what I do these days. At least for what I bill, probably not for what I am paid in the end. I'm not at work enough during school to be given a big task (we have 2 week product cycle and have to meet a deadline, so it just doesn't really work well). When I was there for the 60-80 hour weeks, I was a steal for the company because of my price, the availability and the fact that I was delivering critical deliverables every two weeks on the dot.

With that said, the way it was explained to me is they want to keep me around in some sense and give me the opportunity to latch on full-time in May, thats why they didn't cut me loose completely, and they needed someone full time right now since we just launched our project. I was told they would gladly cut the 30 an hour offshore guy for me when I am available fulltime.

With that said, I'm not sure if they guy really likes me, is indifferent towards me, or has personally taken an interest in me and hoping to keep me in his close network of people. I'm not sure what to think, it could all very well be a load of corporate bs.

My boss keeps telling me how much he likes what I do. His boss' boss is the guy I went to dinner with, and he said as much. I wish I could get a written review so I have it in writing where I stand, as thats really the only BS proof way.

[SkinBasket]

I've got to take a dump.