3 day week and strange goings on!

timmy89

Hey, I hope someone can give me some advice here.

I will be working with the same small architecture/engineering consultancy for 5 years next month and have been put on 3 day week since the beginning of feb along with my only remaining work mate who is working for the company for almost 6 years now. I am an engineer and he is an architect.

There isnt much wrong with all I have said, its a bit of a hit to try and come to terms with but is managable seeing that interest rates have come down so much and with a tightening of the belt it ok.

My problem is that, we are kept in the dark all the time, in relation to what is happening with the company. Our boss told us there is very little work, and that he is trying to find work in dublin. (We are in the west) I understand that the country is gone down the chute but he spends almost 2 days a week in dublin, or othere places unknown since the beginning of the year, we never know if he is gone because he doesnt tell us. He might say "I'll be back in five minutes" and we might not see him for 3 days. He might ring alright, but never says where he is.

I have also had to ring him almost every end of week since feb to get my cheque. He wont pay directly into the bank and insists on paying by cheque. Twice he has said "I cant make it back this evening, can you call for your cheque tomorrow?" The thing is I live 30km away in another town, so its over an hours drive to get my measely cheque. Sometimes he leaves the cheque with his wife, but I dont know she has it because I dont know he is away, and she more often than not forgets to give it to me and I have to go 20mins out of my way after work to collect it.

Some days we have nothing to doing, other days we have just enough work to keep us going. Its getting very frustrating. We have knowledge that he has purposely missed out on local work for reasons unknown to us. He never advertises locally, and actively fobs people off until they find someone else to do the work for them.

My employers brother has a building company which we have done work for in the past, and my employers sister works for this company in managment and rang our office last week looking to speak to me and looking for my mobile number. I asked what she want with my number and she said "I'll tell you again". I said "what" and she replied, "your work mate is in the office with you and I dont want him to know, so I will ring you on your mobile tomorrow" I gave her my number in fear that my boss might be angry if I didnt and I havent heard anything about it since. That was five days ago.

I figure that my office/company is closing sometime soon, and I might be offered work with the other company, but its work that Im not trained to do, and have no interest in doing (it would be like a social worker being asked to work in a creche and the boss for that company is a complete ego maniac. If I refuse work with that company, what will happen to my 2 days of social welfare I get, that is depending on what hours they offer me, if indeed that is the reason they want ring me at all.

Things are in a right mess. Our suspisions arew running away with us in the office here. It probably wouldnt be a surprise if my boss changed into an alien and sped off in his flying saucer. He is the strangest human being I have ever come across. Some days he wont answer you if asked a question, othere days, he will say "remind me of that later" but when you do he ignores you. We never got big salaries even during the big years of the celtic tiger. My largest take home pay per week was 550euro, and we worked damn hard for that much. We got no expenses of any sort, were always begging for a cheque off him to buy suplies for the office, and working with defective equipment and pirate software, we use our own cars for work and never got a penny towards them of towards petrol and had to fight to take time off for holidays.

I know what you are gona say! "Leave as soon as you find another job". I think he might be trying to piss us off gradually so that we will just leave and he wont have to pay redundancy. I need some advice please,

Thanks in anticipation,

Timmy89

104494431

Leave and also report the software piracy

leeroybrown

OP, whatever you do, don't just hand in your notice and leave. As you've pointed out, if you do this you'll be robbing yourself of a reasonable redundancy payment. If you do actually decide to leave you can give your employer notice of your intent to claim redundancy. You should qualify as you've been on Short Time for so long. Your employer would then have to accept your redundancy or come up with full time work for a number of months in order to contest it.

Also, make sure that you don't just sit back on Short Time until next February. If you just accept it and don't put sufficient effort into getting back on full hours, then after 12 months your redundancy payment would be based on the three day week.

I can't really think of any advice other than that given how strange the situation sounds...

biblio

That sounds exactly like where I work!! Short time, disappearing boss( playing golf on the costa blanca!!), work slack, struggle to get paid and struggle to take holidays , nobody knows whats going on and general weirdness you are not alone!

deeper

This sounds very like the going on a place i used to work in a good few years ago. Boss out all the time. no new jobs comming in....I stuck it out when i had nothing to do all day until one friday afternoon the boss came in after being out all week and asked what i was doing? I replied " just filing & looking at old projects on computers" he flipped & said i should have came to him if i had nothing to do. In his secound breath he said" look its got really quiet and i dont think i can keep you on" He gave me the rest of the afternoon off and said i didnt have to leave straight away. I left the following friday as i didnt want to stay in a place i wasnt wanted. Hopefully this wnt happen you. i think he knew what he had to do and was just avoiding the office as a result.

Buffman

OP, don't leave. Sounds like the company is almost finished. If you leave you'll lose your statutory redundancy and social welfare. (for a few weeks)

For the moment, stick it out. As long as his cheques are good that is.

timmy89

Thanks for all your replies. It nice to know I am not the only gobsh1te out there. Thing is since my last post our working week has been cut further. We are now working 3 days per week every other week. So this week I have 3 days work, next week nothing. He still maintains that as soon as the work starts comming in he will put us back on a full work schedule. But I cant see that happening anytime soon. He maintains that he cant get jobs because we cant do them cheaply enough. The mind boggles. Anyway, what do you reckon about applying for redundancy? Can that be done? I am currently contemplating doing a TEFL course and heading off to Korea until the storm blows over. Possibly 3 years! Im 34 though so Im no spring chicken, and really and truly am happy with my life here, but I cant put up with this kind of abuse much longer, and the thoughts of being stuck in this or a similar job for the rest of my life are unbearable..........

L_gaucho

leeroybrown wrote: »

Also, make sure that you don't just sit back on Short Time until next February. If you just accept it and don't put sufficient effort into getting back on full hours, then after 12 months your redundancy payment would be based on the three day week.

..

Are you sure they can do this Leeroybrown? I'v a friend gone on a 3 day week till Christmas, then its to be reviewed. Where she works, I wouldn't put it past them to pull a stunt like this..

leeroybrown

L_gaucho wrote: »

Are you sure they can do this Leeroybrown?

There's a fairly clear description of how it works here (Citizens Information). See the "Reduced hours and short-time work" section.

timmy89

L_gaucho wrote: »

Are you sure they can do this Leeroybrown? I'v a friend gone on a 3 day week till Christmas, then its to be reviewed. Where she works, I wouldn't put it past them to pull a stunt like this..

Im 95% positive they can do this. Although I would think that if you made a sustained effort in asking your employer to go back to full time then they couldnt do it. I was thinking of firstly asking my employer to go back on full time. maybe asking once a month for the next couple of months and then sending him a letter through the post.... and so on.....or a registered letter.....Just to create a paper trail so he cant back out and say that I didnt express a wish to get back to full time.

the_syco

timmy89 wrote: »

I cant put up with this kind of abuse much longer, and the thoughts of being stuck in this or a similar job for the rest of my life are unbearable..........

What would happen if the OP "suddenly found out" that the software that he was using is pirate, and reported his boss?

timmy89

Whats OP?

the_syco

timmy89 wrote: »

Whats OP?

OP, original poster.

=-=

Wondering if you reported the software as pirate, the company goes down the drain, would you get redundancy?

L_gaucho

leeroybrown wrote: »

There's a fairly clear description of how it works here (Citizens Information). See the "Reduced hours and short-time work" section.

Thanks for that, very useful information, needless to say I'll be passing it on...

timmy89

the_syco wrote: »

OP, original poster.

=-=

Wondering if you reported the software as pirate, the company goes down the drain, would you get redundancy?

of course op=original poster. Cheers.

Dont know about reporting the piracy. It would mean no reference, would I get a reward? Would it be worth it in the long term. Somehow I doubt it. Anyone know anybody who has reported a boss for piracy. As the guy above said. Leave / get redundancy and then report the pirate software.

Acoustic

dude im in the same boat , 3 day week , although i get paid every friday cash ( all legit )

but my problem is were a construction company and people ringing all the time looking for prices for us to so their jobs etc , my boss sits on his hole and doesn't do a tap ( he's entitled to he owns the place ) but doesnt price these jobs and then they go elsewhere because we were slow in reply

then the boss rings them 2 weeks after the price was due and asks about the job and is surprised when he doesnt get it

or

he'd rather pay €30k a month on wages and have nothing comming in , rather than take a hit in price

he wont take a loss on any job , surely taking a 30K job and only getting 20-25k is better than losing a straight 30k ??

doesnt make sense

then they ( bosses ) never come in till 12 everyday or later and wonder why were in a bad way

timmy89

Acoustic wrote: »

dude im in the same boat , 3 day week , although i get paid every friday cash ( all legit )

but my problem is were a construction company and people ringing all the time looking for prices for us to so their jobs etc , my boss sits on his hole and doesn't do a tap ( he's entitled to he owns the place ) but doesnt price these jobs and then they go elsewhere because we were slow in reply

then the boss rings them 2 weeks after the price was due and asks about the job and is surprised when he doesnt get it

or

he'd rather pay €30k a month on wages and have nothing comming in , rather than take a hit in price

he wont take a loss on any job , surely taking a 30K job and only getting 20-25k is better than losing a straight 30k ??

doesnt make sense

then they ( bosses ) never come in till 12 everyday or later and wonder why were in a bad way

I agree totally with ya. Doesnt make sense. Whats a guy to do? I think the only answer is to get my redundancy / report the piracy / do that TEFL course / and head to South Korea for a few years.

ThePlank

You can claim redundancy pay while you are working, if your hours have been cut by 50% or more.