Work: Would you be concerned? - updated

[noodleoo]

There is huge turnover happening on my team at my company.  In the past 2 months, 3 employees have left our group from our remote office. (note our total team size is about 10 so this is a large percentage)  Their leaving is very mysterious, management just sends out an email that so-and-so has left the company, we wish them the best, if you were working on anything with them contact their manager.  No last day will be or 2 weeks notice or anything, they just appear to be gone.  Since they aren't local, I have no way of getting more information about what is going on.

This sucks because we are super short staffed already, so their work just keeps getting redistributed to us and I'm already drowning.  They need to hire, but instead of hiring, they seem to be firing.  There has also been several employees on a related team (same dept) that are leaving after 5-10 years at the company with no other jobs lined up.  It is starting ot freak me out and I really want ot know what is going on.

Would you be concerned?  Would you ask your manager about it?  Management hasn't volunteered any information and they tend to be pretty secretive about this type of stuff, so I'm not sure if asking is a bad idea.

UPDATE - we had a team meeting today and they have decided to shut down the team in the remote office.  This sucks, we have 2 employees up there that will be moved into other roles.  The thing that sucks is the team is already hugely understaffed, so this means our workload is about to double, including the crappy night and weekend work requirements.  They plan to hire, but we've had open roles to backfill for months and they haven't hired yet.  Even if they do, their training sucks so it will take months for new people to actually be useful.  Ugh, this job just keeps getting worse and worse.  5.5 weeks until maternity leave.... 

[v]

Yes, I would be concerned. I do hope that all works out well for you and it very well may, but it can't hurt to start looking aggressively. You always want to be a few steps ahead of bad stuff.

I would ask a manager I trusted and had a good relationship with about it, but I wouldn't expect much in response (and I wouldn't trust a response). Sometimes people can't share the information they have, and sometimes people don't have information, period.

[noodleoo]

Ugh, I'm just trying to make it 7 weeks to my maternity leave! Now I'm worried they are going to fire me right before my leave.

[mrsfarmer]

Is it standard in your industry that the day you turn in your notice also becomes your last day? My previous employer did that with people in IT, etc. My current employer does it for possibility of sloppy work and liability.

[noodleoo]

Mar 31, 2015 14:46:45 GMT -5 mrsfarmer said:

Is it standard in your industry that the day you turn in your notice also becomes your last day? My previous employer did that with people in IT, etc. My current employer does it for possibility of sloppy work and liability.

No, other employees have definitely had 2 weeks notice.  The emails that are sent out in that case are very different and often we do a "send off" happy hour or something.  These last few have been so sudden.  I think it is so weird for management to just pretend it didn't happen.  I think it is started to really affect morale, not that it was good to begin with.  

[mrsfarmer]

Mar 31, 2015 13:51:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Ugh, I'm just trying to make it 7 weeks to my maternity leave! Now I'm worried they are going to fire me right before my leave.

Have you already filed for FMLA?  Document, document, document!  They would have to have a very hard case to fire someone who is pregnant and going out on FMLA.  There would be a lot of discrimination red flags.

[pamela]

Did those people work together in a way they could have been conspiring to commit fraud or something?

[noodleoo]

Mar 31, 2015 15:06:23 GMT -5 mrsfarmer said:

Mar 31, 2015 13:51:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Ugh, I'm just trying to make it 7 weeks to my maternity leave! Now I'm worried they are going to fire me right before my leave.

Have you already filed for FMLA?  Document, document, document!  They would have to have a very hard case to fire someone who is pregnant and going out on FMLA.  There would be a lot of discrimination red flags.

Benefits told me not to contact the STD company until 30 days before my due date, which is 4/16.  I have sent emails to both my boss and my bosses boss about my pregnancy though.  I guess I should print those.

I don't really think they'd do that, but I don't know anymore.  I find this place extremely untrustworthy.

[illgetthere]

Mar 31, 2015 15:43:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Mar 31, 2015 15:06:23 GMT -5 mrsfarmer said:

Have you already filed for FMLA?  Document, document, document!  They would have to have a very hard case to fire someone who is pregnant and going out on FMLA.  There would be a lot of discrimination red flags.

Benefits told me not to contact the STD company until 30 days before my due date, which is 4/16.  I have sent emails to both my boss and my bosses boss about my pregnancy though.  I guess I should print those.

I don't really think they'd do that, but I don't know anymore.  I find this place extremely untrustworthy.

Short term disability is not the same as FMLA. Start your FMLA claim

[mrsfarmer]

Mar 31, 2015 15:43:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Mar 31, 2015 15:06:23 GMT -5 mrsfarmer said:

Have you already filed for FMLA?  Document, document, document!  They would have to have a very hard case to fire someone who is pregnant and going out on FMLA.  There would be a lot of discrimination red flags.

Benefits told me not to contact the STD company until 30 days before my due date, which is 4/16.  I have sent emails to both my boss and my bosses boss about my pregnancy though.  I guess I should print those.

I don't really think they'd do that, but I don't know anymore.  I find this place extremely untrustworthy.

FMLA is job protection, not STD.  Your HR department MUST provide the documents almost as soon as they are made aware.

[noodleoo]

Mar 31, 2015 15:53:48 GMT -5 mrsfarmer said:

Mar 31, 2015 15:43:04 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Benefits told me not to contact the STD company until 30 days before my due date, which is 4/16.  I have sent emails to both my boss and my bosses boss about my pregnancy though.  I guess I should print those.

I don't really think they'd do that, but I don't know anymore.  I find this place extremely untrustworthy.

FMLA is job protection, not STD.  Your HR department MUST provide the documents almost as soon as they are made aware.

Hmmm, benefits did not say anything about this.  How do I find out what I need to do?

[noodleoo]

Update in the OP.

[LoveTrains]

It is just so interesting to hear about your experience and contrast that with preppy.

[mbcdefg]

Apr 1, 2015 10:52:20 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Update in the OP.

Sorry, that really sucks

I had something similar happen at work ... big layoffs in our home office (and their work was outsourced overseas), and a small satellite office was completely shut down and everyone there was terminated. 

I think I'm OK right now, but as a habit I always keep my eyes open for other jobs. I'm a firm believer in having a back-up plan for every aspect of your life, wherever possible. 

GL! 

[noodleoo]

Apr 1, 2015 11:08:33 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

It is just so interesting to hear about your experience and contrast that with preppy.

Yeah, no kidding.  Just goes to show you how different the same company can be in different departments.  I actually had a bunch of people tell me how awesome this place is and my experience has been *very* different.

[LoveTrains]

My H used to work for a software company with an office in Fort Point (Boston) that is consistently rated as one of the best places to work. His experience there was miserable but it was truly just his team.

noodleoo, did you get any more info about possibly interviewing for a different role on a different team?

[noodleoo]

Apr 1, 2015 11:42:23 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

My H used to work for a software company with an office in Fort Point (Boston) that is consistently rated as one of the best places to work. His experience there was miserable but it was truly just his team.

noodleoo, did you get any more info about possibly interviewing for a different role on a different team?

I decided to hold off on trying to move teams.  One because I am just so exhuasted and it felt like too much to try to take on at the end of pregnancy.  I was also worried about how receptive other teams would be to taking me knowing I was going out for 3 months, it just seemed like a hard sell.  I've gotten better in my actual role, so it is okay for now.  And then there was the whole incident with HR telling my boss I was thinking of moving, which just sucked.  i've been talking informally to coworkers on other teams to try to get an idea of where I might like to move to.  The advice I have gotten is that if I really want things to be different, I need to move out of this branch of the organization.  This group just seems really dysfunctional.  So I've decided to wait until after my leave and then see how things are going when I come back.

[rosebud]

Does your employer have at least 50 employees? If so I'd get my FMLA paperwork in ASAP. I turned mine in 2 months before I was due to make sure everything was in order.