6 Tricks for Staying Out of the Layoff Firing Zone

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6 Volvo Drive? Yeah, I worked for Crestron for about 5 years until the sleazy bastards fired me on trumped up charges I still to this day can't believe. Basically working as a tester I was not getting along with some higher-ups because I complained about the faulty (and often missing or non-existent) test fixtures which were instrumental in doing my job. Everyone pointed fingers at everyone else for this and nothing was ever settled. I tried to cope the best I could but was considered a "troublemaker" apparently to certain persons there (blow-hard overpaid types with no real education for that matter--but they got into the company when it was very small and consolidated their positions). Furthermore, being essentially a loner during breaks and lunch (I went to my car and read books!), I wasn't particularly liked. Word got around, I guess, that I was an Atheist (I do read science journals and SF novels!) my lovely ignorant co-workers (Muslims and Christian fundies) began to back away from me and circulate BS stories, piling BS on BS. One day I went to work, put my headphones on like any other ordinary day and I was tapped on the shoulder. I took my headset off, turned around and standing there were three armed policemen. My rarely-seen-or-spoken-to senior boss (and Engineer named Glen Iopolo or something like that) stood there with them, took my coat, started going through my pockets. Took my baseball cap off and started "searching" through the flaps. The idea was to give the impression that I had a dope cache on me or something! I was escorted off the premises (flanked by front of row upon row of my fellow employess like watching a circus freak!). They took my car keys to search my car! And I was driven to the local police station. The story I got was that Someone said I Said that I was going to get a gun and shoot the place up! I never said such a thing of course and nothing was every proven but I was fired on the spot. The previous month I received an excellent job evaluation report, no less! Over the next year or two I paid over a thousand dollars to a sleazebag lawyer to help me to at least collect my unemployement which I eventually got after a hearing in some ghetto town hundreds of miles distant in a sleazy office. There Crestron's stooge, a young HR manager fallguy was called in and said he took these actions for fear of the company employees, blah blah blah (but Never was the real man, Iopolo, ever mentioned). No "witnesses" were present at the hearing but three papers signed by "witnesses" were presented: all three supposedly heard me say something irrational, all three were Hispanics who spoke English as a second language and the papers were "translations"--and all three were coincidentally "Out of the country" at the same time so they naturally couldln't make this meeting. The papers looked like they were typed by 5-year olds "He said gun and scared me. I scared, was." This whole affair was like some Twilight Zone episode to me!

Captain of NJ 12:17PM January 04, 2013

Interesting, I was just taken to this link from another page - here is the sentence that got me here: Your company conducts a massive layoff without giving 60 days' notice (see the W.A.R.N Act).
I worked for a horrible company called Crestron Electronics in Rockleigh NJ several years ago. They had a massive layoff but gave no one notice. I don't know if the W.A.R.N Act was in effect then and if it was, if the statute of limitations is up, but each one of those people that were laid off (all over 50, by the way) should sue the pants off Crestron.
I was not laid off then, my boss liked me. But my boss left a few months later. I was being harassed by two men at the company. One was a sleazy slimy consultant with alcohol and drug problems and the other was a bi-polar argumentative subordinate that shoved me in a fit of rage when I corrected him. He had "befriended" the wife of the owner's son and the consultant was on their good side as well so I got the ax about a month after my boss left. I think he knew they were going to let me go but never said a word. It was a nightmare. The subordinate got promoted and the consultant never had to take responsibility either. Yes, I tried using our corrupt justice system only to find it was more corrupt than I already knew.

Former Employee of Horrid Crestron Electronics of NJ 1:59PM May 11, 2012

this is good advice Anytimr.
Love, john

john caponong of NJ 1:44PM April 20, 2012

Here's another one: Always check your email in the evening and try to respond. The boss sometimes thinks up questions after work, and if you can provide an answer that's waiting when she or he logs on at midnight or 6am, you will stand out as someone who cares as much as he or she does. Is it terrible that this intrudes on your family time or free time? Yes, definitely, but 2012 is not the time to push back against the workaholic culture. Trust me, I have plenty of free time now, and you don't want to join me. So check that email.

Erik W. of MD 7:06AM April 20, 2012