Hello and welcome to my post, haven't done this before so would love to hear what you think of my first Blog.
I'm going to start by telling you about my life last year. For almost 2 years I worked for a a fantastic Enterprise Agency, all who worked there were like a little family and we would pride ourselves on given our clients all the support they needed (and we were very well know in the area for this), even if we didn't have the funding for such help we would always endeavour to help as best we could. Unfortunately in April of last year we were told that we had lost a major contract (this was the main source of our funding) and that we would have to find a way of trying to survive, (at this point our CEO had secured another position for herself with a different Enterprise Agency) so all the staff remaining decided that we would try to go it alone (we still had a couple of funded contracts we would run until Dec and March of next year), one afternoon we sat down and brainstormed as to how we could make the Organisation survive on it's own (we has some brilliant ideas and all felt extremely excited about the new possibility of running things ourselves). Just as we were putting our plans into action our Ex-CEO called a meeting with us all to inform us that (in her words) "Great news the Enterprise Agency I have moved to wants to take this Organisation over, I have gifted you, the building and all money over to them". Admittedly we were a little sad at the prospect of someone else coming in and possibly taking over all our ideas for the future, but in the end we decided that perhaps it was for the best (little did we know what was to come).
Individually we had meeting with our new CEO before the take over and he assured us that "nothing will change", he said we would keep our own branding for the next 2 years as this was very well know within the area (and they were not). He seemed extremely keen for us to go forward with our Commercial Ideas so that we could make our Organisation stand alone, he assured us that we would have full support from his Organisation and any help we were just to ask. Unfortunately after papers were signed and everything (including us) were gifted over things that had been promised were no more. We were not allowed a Marketing Budget to get our Commercial Ideas up and running, I created all Marketing materials in-house and had to advertise as best I could with zero budget (they made this task near on impossible), but I did not give up and refused to let them beat us (securing a few of the Commercial Ideas (but not all)). The branding of our Organisation was changed completely within 3 weeks of the new Organisation taking over, we had lost our identity within the area.
Of course we were not happy with all the disruption and false promises, so we had question which we then raised in a visit to their Head Offices, we later found out the te CEO does not like people who ask questions, he prefers his staff to say "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir", I found this out the hard way as in October, I was issued a letter informing me that I was up for possible redundancy. A few days after my colleagues and myself were to attend a staff meeting at another location, we attended this meeting with the hope that we would be told more about the possibility of redundancies within the company, all staff meeting I have attend in the past with other Organisation have been an opportunity for the Managers to tell the staff what's happening (good and bad) and also to allow the staff to raise any questions they may have, unfortunately this Staff Meeting was all about the CEO and didn't he love it, he stood in front of all the staff and said things like "the company is doing brilliantly", "we are very strong and secure going forward", I sat and listened to his jabbering all day with my friend and colleague comforting me and the breaks as I could not understand why I was up for possible redundancy yet the company was doing so well. It got to the end of the day and the close of the meeting, everything had been positive there had been no negative things said and how the company was doing and no mention of redundancies (I was beginning to thing I was the only one being made redundant), when the CEO then showed us some slide of what we could hope to expect for summer of next year, the Organisation was going to rent a hugely expensive Chateu in France for us all to stay in, I look over at the CEO's Secretary (who was on my table) and she looked at my with a big smile and nodded (as if to say "I know it's great isn't it"), my blood was boiling and I looked over the other side of the room for one of my colleague (she was looking at me the tears in her eyes, feeling the same anger as my), I looked to the other side of the room for another colleague, and his face was disbelief as slowly my arm raised in the air, I turned to face the front of the room and fixed my gaze on the CEO, my arm was almost half way up, at this point my mind is saying "what are you doing arm get down get down" my arm felt detached from the rest of myself, but then as though every part of me started to agree with that left arm it shot into the air and i found myself saying "I have a question" (cutting the CEO's chatter about how wonderful France will be mid-sentence), he looked at me "er yes Jo" he said, "I would like to know how you can justify the expense of this when there are possible redundancies?", I could see the steam pouring out of his ears (I'd made him very angry, and thus nailing my own coffin, I would definitely be made redundant know but I didn't care), "well I don't think this is the time or place to discuss this Jo" was his reply, "oh I think it is the perfect time and place, obviously the staff need to be aware if there are possible redundancies and they need to be told how this expense can be justified", after that he had to give some kind of answer, but it was just that "some jobs may become redundant due to no longer needed that person anymore", I left it at that I'd said what I wanted to say and felt proud that I stood up to him, I had a couple of people pat me on the back and say "well done, nobody has ever stood up to him before, you'll go down in history".
I had my first meeting with the HR Manager and my Direct Manager, I took a colleague in with me as I was told (in the letter) this is allowed, we were then told that my colleague was allowed to ask questions on my behalf. I had 3 other meetings like this and the last one I was told to leave the building right away (no warning or anything, I felt like a criminal). I also found out that I was the only person within my department to be up for redundancy (so there was nothing I could have done, it was me they wanted rid of), only one other person was made redundant (she was from a different department, and had also questioned the CEO).
I left in November and unfortunately haven't found another job, but I am now looking for part-time work as my old Colleague and myself are starting up her old (award winning) Events Company, we are also trying a few other venture together. Unfortunately the CEO is now out for her, but that's another story and not one of mine.
I just like to say to everyone, don't let people think they can walk all over you and make you feel like you're worthless, be strong and fight for your voice to be heard, if you have a question but are too scared to ask just think about it, is it worse to ask a question and maybe get an answer you didn't want to hear or is it worse to be silent for the rest of your life.
Be strong, love Jo xx
