Every last time a company I worked for got bought out it was "hey train my son/son in law to do your job so we can fire you and deny your unemployment".

Every.

Goddammed.

Time.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
The people that I’m close to that have had the company they work for be sold or merged with a large conglomerate have always suffered. My experience is anecdotal though. Have any of you been happy that the company you work for has changed in such a way or is it generally just a total crap situation every time?

When a merger/takeover is planned, the very last people they care about are the employees of the company they are buying.

These people aren't Johnny Appleseed.

They aren't doing these actions to benefit you. Why would they? On the other hand, I've seen some execs, and sometimes some major stockholders (owners) walk away with nice packages. Just the way it is.

Got a promotion from a buyout but quit the job about 8 months later after getting fed up with the shenanigans of the incoming management team.

I remember this one from way back. Definitely the exception not the rule unfortunately.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.or...-gives-workers-128m/

Just left a company that changed ownership last year. This was my part time retirement job, I really enjoyed the work but not the changes that came with the corporation.

Nope. I worked for years in health/life insurance and software. Constantly getting sold. Layoffs on Friday, more Indians on Monday. That is why I am now a paralegal. I needed out of that cycle and constantly having layoffs hanging over my head.

 
The last 5 years I worked, my company changed hands 3 times. Each time, (since I was over 59.5 years of age), I was given the option of rolling my accumulated 401k into the new company's, or rolling it out to a self-directed IRA. I chose the IRA option each time, getting my money under my own direction. Since I was never laid off or demoted, I consider at least that I benefited in that small amount. I continued to turn down any promotion to Director of IT (as I had in the past), and continued as a happy worker bee sysadmin until retirement.

My father most definitely did. He worked for Shell Oil his whole career. In the '80s, Royal Dutch Shell bought all the stock of American Shell Oil. They paid all employees over some level of seniority a bonus after the merger. It was enough that my dad told me all his buddies were calling each other and asking, discreetly, "Is your check as big as mine?" Further many of them, Dad included, had been investing much or all of their company-matched savings in Shell stock, because if you bought Shell stock, they matched at an even higher rate. When the buyout happened, their American Shell Oil shares were bought at a large premium over market by the Dutch company (as were everyone's), and they all made a killing on their Shell stock. You could argue he simply made a good investment in Shell stock, but, still the merger was essentially a windfall for all stockholders.

I've got 2 examples, one from my wife and one from my father.

My wife works in corporate accounting. We live about 35 minutes (perfect conditions) from the 2 major white collar locations in the Denver metro area. Add in inclement weather and the commute could easily double or triple (quadruple or more if heavy snow). When she choses a job it's more based on proximy to our house than a particular industry. It's corporate accounting, pretty much all the same shit no matter where or who you work for. She worked for her last company starting in about 2015 or so. Worked her way up to an Accounting manager position. The company was owned by private equity. In Spring 2019 they announced they were putting the company up for sale. They found a buyer in Summer 2019 and paid a nice retention bonus to stay until the sale completed in Nov 2019. Shortly after the closing the buying company announced plans to close the corporate Denver office and consolidate the jobs to their existing corporate offices in California, which was not a surprise. They paid another nice retention bonus for some employees to stay until May 30, 2020.

Of course we all know what happened in March 2020. Had we known ahead of time she may have made a decision to take a different job and forego the second retention bonus, but such is life. It took her from June 2020 to Nov 2021 to find another Accounting manager job that was relatively close to our house. Her job is actually 100% remote now, so it worked out well.

I will say 1 important thing. When the company offered the retention bonus it was with the understanding that you would not be eligible for unemployment insurance (UI) after you were let go. UI is obviously state run, so it will vary from state to state. She found out from a corporate lawyer who worked for the same company, that, according to Colorado employment law, if you are required to stay at your job as a requirement of receiving the retention bonus, they cannot deny your UI benefit. She was able to collect the bonus, and still collect UI from June 2020 - Sept 2021, which worked out in the end.

Story #2.
My father worked for Standard Brands, which later became Nabisco in East Hanover, NJ, from about 1971 or so until 1989. Ever hear of the movie, "Barbarians at the Gate"? My dad worked from an entry level accounting position just out of college up to a division controller at Nabisco in 1989. At the time, the KKR leveraged buyout (LBO) was the largest LBO in history. My dad was only "middle management" at Nabisco at the time. All of the old Nabisco folks were eventually pushed out from the new company, RJR Nabisco. He did receive some type of severance package based on years of service. The whole deal left a very bad taste in his mouth and he left the corporate world shortly thereafter.

It seems the vast majority of the time no, but there are instances where it was; such as back around 1981 Harley Davidson, and it's employees, really benefited from the management buying the company back from AMF.

It benefitted me when I worked for a chem plant for company A then company B bought us. I had 9 years with company A and company B credited me with that time when I started. After 4.5 years with company B I quit and got 14 years credited toward a pension. At 55 I can start pulling it until I die. It’s not a lot monthly but if I can live for 30 years it will be a good chunk.

My pop worked for Tenneco when they were bought by Chevron. He managed to stay employed with Chevron the rest of his career. He was fortunate.

Started with a company in 1982. There were 4 buyouts over the next 30 years. My original hire date always carried through. The last one offered early retirement packages to tenured employees that were too good to pass up. I worked for 4 different companies without ever changing jobs and retired early so, I guess, sometimes it works out OK.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW: Why does anyone think a company owes it's employees more than paying them for the work they do?...

Valid question/point. My question in return would be why do companies think employees owe them anything more than doing work they're paid for? One would think there's a happy medium but it's my experience that companies expect every-damn-thing and it's a one-way street; worker gives and employer takes. My attitude is the company has paid for my time/skill and that's all they deserve.

Dan

No. I was at a Fortune 50 company, a household everyday name, for quite a few years.

They spun our division off into a new name and retained ownership, and denied we were going to be sold.

We were sold shortly after this mess. The buyer was a large hedge fund. They denied there would be any layoffs.

The vast majority of us were laid off.

At my age it was really difficult to find another job in my area. So, long story short, I was forced into retirement way before I was ready.

There is no company to employee loyalty anymore. None. Zero. Zilch. It's a fantasy. Understand and accept this and plan your future carefully. You will be swimming with the sharks.
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quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
That's outstanding.

It's amazing what happens when you take a minute and listen to input from the factory workers and truck drivers who do this all day, every day... Efficiency and profits increase. Who'd have thought?!

I'm glad they're now letting the workers benefit from the increased value.

Employee stock options benefit management and shareholders because they align interests. When the janitor feels he has an ownership interest, if he sees an opportunity to cut costs, improve profits, and make his stock more valuable, he’s likely to speak up.

The joke used to be that a consultant is someone who comes in, talks to your employees, gets all the great ideas they’ve been telling you for years but you’ve been ignoring, packages those ideas up in a pretty report and charges you a lot of money for what you’ve already heard. Since you paid the consultant a lot of money for it, you actually listen to what your employees have to say this time.

My company that I've been with for over 20 years has had 3 different names through merger/acquisition. Did not affect me one way or the other.

I think the answer to your question is another question, which is how much work are they paying for? This is especially true about salaried (vs hourly) employees. The employer and employee probably have different answers to this. The employer tries to work them (literally) for as much as they can get. Of course, if the employee gets sick of it, they walk away. But then the game starts anew with a new employer.

quote:

Originally posted by KBobAries:

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW: Why does anyone think a company owes it's employees more than paying them for the work they do?...

Valid question/point. My question in return would be why do companies think employees owe them anything more than doing work they're paid for? One would think there's a happy medium but it's my experience that companies expect every-damn-thing and it's a one-way street; worker gives and employer takes. My attitude is the company has paid for my time/skill and that's all they deserve.

Dan