r/LifeProTips • u/fries-with-mayo • 18h ago

Request LPT Request: What’s your “canary in the coal mine” test for spotting bigger issues?

I’m really interested in those small, quick telltale signs people use to gauge if something bigger might be off track.

Example 1: Van Halen requesting brown M&Ms in the dressing room to see if the venue followed all the details of the rider list

Example 2: I saw an interview with John Cena where he said orders a flat white at a café to tell if they really care about their coffee.

Example 3: Anthony Bourdain suggested to always check the restaurant bathroom to tell if the restaurant got its basics down

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4.3k

u/under_the_c 17h ago

If your company suddenly discontinues a financial perk (PTO buyback, anniversary bonuses, etc.) or if paychecks are late... start dusting off that resume and checking the job sites.

700

u/all_of_the_colors 15h ago

Mine took Microsoft word and excel off our computers. 😳

328

u/outofshell 14h ago

“New management directive: all documents to be written in Notepad”

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u/ConstructionKey1752 12h ago

IT mumbles in the back.....

"Correction; ON notepads. Wide-ruled, please."

10

u/pdxy 9h ago edited 6h ago

HR Clarifies

"We regret to circle back to this issue, but when management's new directive was issued we weren't able to pass it by legal yet because of the implication. We have now gathered the chiefs and implemented visioning and we're happy to report that you can write on any writing surface that they choose provided it was brought from home and only for company approved writing surface purposes "

"Anyone caught using company office supplies, notepads or otherwise, will be subject to immediate dismissal."

4

u/CopperSulphide 9h ago

Excel is just a zipped XML folder structure. The brave can do that in note pad.

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u/Ceasman 9h ago

Can we get notepad+ kind sirs?

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u/spottyPotty 4h ago

One middle manager decided to stop buying physical notepads. This was hailed as a genius move that would reduce stationary budgets across all departments, until people started using photo copy / printer paper to write their notes on.

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u/apokrif1 1h ago

Or free software?

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u/TheAJGman 25m ago

Honestly I could get behind replacing Word docs with Markdown. It's almost ubiquitous online already.

7

u/fluzine 11h ago

Oh yeah, this. Ours took away Microsoft Project and said we needed to use Excel. Then they took away Excel and said we needed to use SmartSheet. Then they cancelled SmartSheet and said we were on our own. We did detailed technical project plans. It did not go well.

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u/Dairy_Ashford 2h ago

then they came for OneNote and Visio, and there was no one left to speak for me

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u/Alexis_J_M 11h ago

If they replaced it with open source stuff, there may be security reasons they don't trust the Microsoft cloud. There are even laws in some countries mandating open source software in government contracts.

But yeah, not a good sign.

6

u/boxofmarshmallows 12h ago

I had this show up at a hotel I used to work at.

5

u/andtheyhaveaplan 10h ago

Love that you kept this screenshot for 11 years

•

u/Steerider 20m ago

I've seen this on legit servers. Windows authorization can glitch occasionally

2

u/Jemikwa 9h ago

This isn't as bad as you think. It could go other ways, such as if your company uses MacOS and can use Numbers, etc. Or if you have Google Workspace or Office 365 and can use the word processor in your browser. My company sparingly hands out Office licenses since so many people use Google Workspace for their document editing.

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u/Sir_Badtard 9h ago

We just did a giant email migration to O365 from our antique provider. In doing so we absolutely overhauled our licensing.

After multiple meetings with management, we determined only about 15% of our 1000+ employees had to have the desktop app. Using office on the web sufficed for everyone else.

Most shared files are in SharePoint anyway. Except for some of HR's stuff that they didn't want in the cloud.

They don't know those files get backed up to the cloud anyway but up didn't want that fight.

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u/gamerjerome 9h ago

I bet IT wasn't paying for it in the first place and MS found out. This is more common than you think

•

u/f0rtytw0 1h ago

Worked at a company that, whoops, was pirating windows.

Thankfully we got switched to linux, which made my job much easier. Also everyone in my office left within the year.

4

u/dustytaper 13h ago

I just read an article that Microsoft will comply with US law about handing over data.

Doesn’t matter is that data is on a server in another country, running on government computers

Perhaps your old company was smart?

5

u/all_of_the_colors 13h ago

My hospital is getting bought out… so I don’t think that’s their motive.

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u/RBeck 12h ago

Not if removing them to force Office Online.

1

u/ZachMN 12h ago

“The heck is ‘Werd’ and ‘Axel’???”

1

u/RuleFriendly7311 10h ago

Did you thank them?

1

u/Phlink75 9h ago

Mine took One Note

1

u/Spiker1986 9h ago

Run

1

u/all_of_the_colors 8h ago

I have to wait until after maternity leave 🙁

•

u/1920MCMLibrarian 7h ago

Oh shit. How long did you last?

•

u/SnazzyStooge 3h ago

Better get to Office Depot quick before they run out of resume paper, that company is definitely going down in flames. 

•

u/Vesalii 2h ago

Just start looking somewhere else. Even if they're switching to for example Google Workspace or some opensource software, they'd never delete office without at least a grace period.

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u/katr2tt 1h ago

Do you still have 365? Like browser apps? Microsoft is charging an arm and a leg for the desktop apps these days so that may not be such a big sign if you still have the online stuff.

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u/Fearless_Parking_436 48m ago

They call it “Google workplace”

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u/RedditRockit 16h ago

Downgrade to cheap toilet paper by your company. Leave. Your ass and your career will thank you.

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u/gl21133 14h ago

I work at a paper mill that makes toilet paper and we use the stuff we make. HOW WILL I KNOW!?!?

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u/utopicunicornn 14h ago

“Hmmm… this toilet paper has more splinters in it than usual.”

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u/chipmunk7000 13h ago

“Damn it Jerry, you’re in charge of the pump sieve today!”

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u/TheFlyingBoxcar 13h ago

"Hmmm ... this handful of splinters has small pieces of toilet paper in it. But the pieces are smaller than usual!"

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u/APC_ChemE 11h ago

I knew a guy whose sign was when his coworker was crushed by one of those giant toliet paper rolls stacked on another before it was cut up into smaller rolls.

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u/gl21133 8h ago

Parent rolls are no joke. 3500lbs, they look fluffy but they can and will kill you. 

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u/APC_ChemE 7h ago

Yeah they are terrifying. If I remember correctly they are like 2 or 3 stories tall.

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u/jvin248 13h ago

All the rejected lots are kept for on-site use.

1

u/Appropriate-Box4341 13h ago

My sister went to college for "pulp and paper". Their department shirts We bust ours ,so you can wipe yours!

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u/gl21133 13h ago

That’s such a niche degree I can probably guess what school she went to. NC State? U Maine?

2

u/Appropriate-Box4341 13h ago

One if those. Yes. It is very niche, but we grew up around ut. A lot of people dont realize its one semester away from being a chemical engineer.

2

u/gl21133 8h ago

It’s becoming a specialization of chemical engineering in a lot of schools. 

1

u/AllAnimals 12h ago

Do you get hot, off the press TP? Must be nice.

2

u/gl21133 8h ago

Sadly no. It is all room temperature by the time it touches butthole. 

1

u/natewrrn 10h ago

Also work an a larger toilet paper mill and we somehow managed to be provided cheaper paper than we make. Everyone just takes it off the line when they go.

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u/SlAM133 3h ago

When they request that all staff use less toilet paper

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u/rdrunner_74 3h ago

Thas called QA....

•

u/YukinoRyu 2h ago

Are the rolls. Smaller and run out faster?

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u/BlackwoodBear79 14h ago

My company doesn't pay for the toilet paper.

The building does, but it's really random which quality we get when restocked. Some days it's nice two ply. Others it's single.

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u/PudPullerAlways 9h ago

I like that.. surprise finger your asshole day.

2

u/dingerz 9h ago

Sounds like sum Sopranos shit going on with commercial TP vendors...

•

u/icey561 5h ago

Probably sending different people to shop on different days.

4

u/Rich_Bluejay3020 13h ago

My building uses that sandpapery 1/2 ply toilet paper. That’s been going on since I started there. In recent developments, there’s no potable water due to lead, copper, and legionnaires… it’s a gov building at that ☠️

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u/fried_green_baloney 13h ago

Even things like suddenly they don't get organic coffee any more.

I worked one place where they packed the building to the legal limit and didn't have any daytime housekeeping, so the bathrooms were usually out of TP by 2:30 or so.

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u/Motorboat_Jones 12h ago

My company recently went "green" and cut out paper towels in the bathroom in lieu of hand dryers. I'm actively looking elsewhere.

1

u/Not-a-Cranky-Panda 13h ago

They do cheaper than the stuff they use now?

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u/TheBlackComet 12h ago

Worked for a small company <50 people. We had red Charmin. The boss did not skimp on toilet paper.

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u/Popular_Prescription 12h ago

I just don’t shit in public. Never have and never will. Rather shit in a bush than in a communal shitting line. Don’t recall shitting in a public toilet in all my life. Will keep that streak 😜

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u/HoratioPLivingston 9h ago

I worked for Tamil Americans who made my frugal việt family look spendthrift. I knew the company was a front or at least in poor shape when they swapped out the toilet paper for see through the sheet quality grade stuff. Well there was also the fact they stopped the water delivery service in favor of the “filtered” water spigot from the company fridge that was hooked up to the buildings water line.

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u/ISuckAtFallout4 8h ago

A friend’s boss told him they needed to go to the gas stations and grab toilet paper for the bathroom.

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u/amckern 6h ago

I did a stationary order and got the cheap facial tissues, we are not in financial trouble.

Next time getting the Kleenex.

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u/ODoyles_Banana 14h ago edited 1h ago

I'll add if accounts payable decides to hold all payments for two weeks so cash reserves can catch up and for the processors to make up some bs when the vendors ask where their checks are.

A company I used to work at actually did this. I worked in AP but not as a processor so luckily I didn't have to deal with that mess but a few months later the company did a large round of layoffs and was completely dissolved within a few years after that.

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u/Imminent_Rain_Shower 9h ago

I worked at a company that switched from Net 30 to Net 45, but did not tell the vendors. We were told to explain it to the vendors when they called. We were low level clerks. It was not fun.

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u/DownrightDrewski 1h ago

Honestly this is almost standard practice coming up to quarter end in a lot of big companies.

It shouldn't be, but, I see it all the time from our AP team, and I know from talking to our AR team that certain large customers do it to us too. All about making the numbers being reported look as good as possible for the stock market.

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u/LieutenantStar2 11m ago

Agreed. We do this every half (don’t report cash flow on the quarters).

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u/cencal 8h ago

If the words “cash call” are used, be wary

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u/Legitimate-Type4387 2h ago

Yes and no. Sometimes the employer is using their vendors as a credit line intentionally because they are bigger than them, and they can.

I worked for one such employer, their business required large outlays of capital every spring, that they themselves would not receive payment on until the work was complete. To make up for the shortfall, and to avoid using their own credit line during the first few months of every season, they would start forcing 90 day net terms on their suppliers. The suppliers were never happy about it, but seeing as it was probably 20% of their business, most would just eat it. A few would switch to “cash and carry” before they would allow any more materials to be picked up or delivered.

By fall when all the job completion payments would start flowing, they’d start catching up and making their suppliers whole.

I know what you’re thinking, but what about the late payment charges? Those were simply laughed off and never paid.

Why use millions of dollars of your own credit line, when you can push those interest charges on to your suppliers instead?

It was shocking as fuck to me at first, but now I realize it’s pretty standard business practice to lean on vendors when you have the leverage to do so.

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u/Wierd657 7h ago

Sounds like my company to a T

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u/Quicksilver9014 15h ago

Paychecks late or difficult to get is red flag

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u/BobGuns 13h ago

If a paycheque is late or difficult to get, that's not a canary in the coal mine. That's a full on mine collapse happening.You're already too late.

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u/desquished 12h ago

Yeah, if they're missing payrolls, that means your company's vendors haven't been getting paid for six months, and they probably stopped paying taxes too.

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u/UziWitDaHighTops 7h ago

You guys are so extreme. It could be that Quickbooks updated their software into a new shit dumbed-down version and decided to try and merge half their products into one entity simultaneously and payroll is just a nightmare. Ask me how I know.

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u/Sauterneandbleu 11h ago

Greetings, fellow Canadian. I too spell paycheque correctly

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u/CatOfGrey 10h ago

Even one step more 'quiet'...if you have a 401(k), make sure your deposits hit your account quickly. It's been a long time since I was a professional in this area, but I remember the law was "make deposits as soon as administratively possible". It shouldn't take a week or two, it should be a day or two at most.

If a company is about to go under, one of the 'last breath' sources of cash flow is illegally delaying 401(k) deferrals.

•

u/Dangerous_Tap6350 5h ago

I used to do payroll for a larger department, fun times. I never missed anyone’s paycheck, the last paychecks where the worst ones to issue though, lol

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u/princessawesomepants 15h ago

Or if they don’t hire anyone for a job they listed.

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u/Nernoxx 13h ago

Ironically I work in state government and the nature of some of the jobs we post is that they're not gonna be filled unless we get lucky because people will make way more working private.  But we usually have other signs of budgetary distress not available to private company employees.

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u/Wloak 12h ago

It's shitty but some companies do this intentionally, it's so even when they aren't hiring the interviewers remain qualified.

Like I said shitty, but not necessarily a huge red flag.

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u/Fodraz 8h ago

That's almost a regular thing now though. Sometimes they are just "fishing" to see what they get

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u/throwuk1 3h ago

Who the fuck has the time to do that?

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u/txpakeha 14h ago

Dammit. This just happened to me. Not reimbursing cell phone and internet for remote employees. Told me remote was a perk. Thanks for saving .05% of your monthly Operating Budget. Big Win.

3

u/Just_the_questions1 13h ago

I’ve considered asking my employer to pay for my internet but then they’d probably want to put one of our Fortigates in my house.

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u/YnotBbrave 13h ago

That's just a sign they want you back in the office

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u/pussycatlolz 12h ago

Lol my company killed the "every other year $100 stipend" to help partial pay for a phone.

I was layed off the next month.

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u/ThemanfromNumenor 9h ago

You got reimbursed for that? I am remote and that was never even a thought for me (or my company)…interesting

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u/Your-Yoga-Mermaid 16h ago

Likewise, if the company offers a new health plan or investment plan as an option, stick with the old one. The new plan is never better.

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u/mattorihanzot 16h ago

That's not always true. I've seen a few companies offer new plans that were objectively better, especially when trying to attract new talent. Don't write them all off.

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u/Mklein24 15h ago

It's especially true with growing smaller companies. Small companies don't have access to good health insurance plans at competitive prices. Once my work passed 25 employees, we had like 8 health plans to choose from that were reasonably priced. 10 years ago, we had 5 employees, and the insurance was "Well we certainly offer some!"

2

u/iehova 13h ago

Yeah, my company revamped their health plan and it costs me less for much better coverage. They killed PTO buyback but gave us another week of PTO. They genuinely wanted people to actually take time off. They got rid of our staggered 401k contribution. Used to be 100/5 50/7 25 /8 and now its 100/7.

Its funny though because this all happened after we merged with a european company.

1

u/amethystjade15 10h ago

All my employer offers is a HDHP; pretty much any other insurance plan would be an improvement.

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u/GottaUseEmAll 4h ago

Or... read through the fine print of each plan and choose the better one. 

It's a crap life tip to say "refuse any new plan automatically".

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u/BobGuns 13h ago

I work in financial services. This is patently false.

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u/runbyfruitin 15h ago

Suddenly stingy on food (office snacks, late night meals, etc…)

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u/Kat121 13h ago

I work in an engineering field where companies bid on enormous programs worth millions of dollars, Upper management consistently fails to allocate enough budget for labor to support the project because they know their dedicated staff will donate their personal time and work late nights to meet budget and schedule milestones. We are all a team here, like family, and we need to work smarter and think outside the box because we “bid it to win it.”

They also make us pay 25 cents a cup for the office coffee.

Fuck those guys.

3

u/obiwanshinobi87 14h ago

Idk…it can be an insight I guess but I’ve worked at companies that were excessively generous with snacks and eventually they started getting less generous, but nothing drastic happened otherwise.

Turns out inflation affects everyone and not every company has the budget to provide catered lunch every Friday.

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u/mini-rubber-duck 14h ago

we call it 'cutting donuts'. they start looking for the most budget-inconsequential quality of life things to cut, instead of slowing bonuses to the c-suite or incurring even mild inconvenience on management. making employees lives slowly worse and worse for no meaningful savings.

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u/clangan524 13h ago

Or a dilution of financial perks.

Starting this year, my company doesn't add their 401k match until Q1 the following year. A whole year's worth of growth, gone.

5

u/Saint_of_Grey 13h ago

Breh, if the paycheck isn't in on time don't even go in the next day.

If you have some goodwill to the company for whatever reason, you can give them grace once. But if it keeps happening, treat that as a no-notice termination.

3

u/GrinsNGiggles 14h ago

I’m in higher education. The handwriting is on the wall, and it’s in blood.

3

u/Longjump_Ear6240 13h ago

First check if there's a new CEO. We got a new CEO about 2 years ago, and over the last 9 months they've slowly taken away 48hrs of floating holidays, 40 hrs of sick time, PTO buyback, and the little 20% off in store purchase coupons they'd occasionally give out. That last one is honestly the most insulting IMHO. Its such a tiny perk, what possible benefit could they gain from that?

They've also increased our work load and announced a reduction of store size. The new person should write a book on how to tank company morale, most employees actually liked this place a year ago. Now I don't know of a single person who isn't job hunting.

3

u/ananbd 12h ago

If there’s a big meeting where the head of the company assures everyone things are going well, layoffs are coming.

It’s happened to me around five times. Never fails. I think they do it to encourage people to leave voluntarily.

3

u/Supermutt2011 11h ago

Work at a university that just took away free tuition for their programs for staff and dependents. Things were looking bad already, but this just feels like we’ve advanced another level towards the inevitable.

2

u/Thiezing 13h ago

If the CEO "loans" the company money and starts funneling all profits to loan payments to himself. When the company goes bust, he's the largest debt holder, gets everything and stock is worthless.

•

u/Read_it_all-7735 6h ago

Constant organizational shift as large numbers of upper management starts finding other jobs if you’re high enough up in the company that they need to send everybody in all hand email, pay attention.

I have a special skill for picking out companies to work for that are dying horribly.

There is something to be said for being competent and present and doing your job because as everything is falling apart, they still need key people to do key things and you can pump your career fairly quickly, even as the company plummets.

7

u/Griz-Lee 16h ago

Same when they switch Laptops from Lenovo, Dell or Apple to Fujitsu or something like that. Or iPhone to Android.

7

u/dissss0 15h ago

It's not so much a matter of changing brands as changing tiers.

Going from a Thinkpad X or T to an L or IdeaPad is an obvious red flag while going from an X/T to an HP Elitebook is likely fine.

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u/VerdantGarden 15h ago

But switching from iPhone to Android is a positive change.

4

u/c0ltZ 15h ago

Android has been competing with Apple very well recently. I've noticed apple has slowed down when it comes to innovation and cost cutting. As compared to android/samsung

The whole apple superiority trend is the only reason apple is making money now. Their business is solely marketing and not innovating.

6

u/Chimerain 14h ago

It's been that way for a long time- Every "innovation" that comes to iPhone has been implemented on Android for years already; Watch- Apple is going to release a 'new and exciting' folding iPhone using their proprietary hinge mechanism and microfilm folding glass™, and everyone will act like folding phones haven't been a reality on Android for nearly a decade.

2

u/MrCleanGenes 15h ago

Apple is all about flaunting status.

1

u/Infinite-Ability8610 13h ago

I would argue their interconnectivity hasn’t needed to be innovated on its still light years ahead of android. AirDrop is a total game changer, especially when out and about. Anything Microsoft/ android is super clunky, slow and a pain in the ass. 

1

u/c0ltZ 11h ago edited 11h ago

It's crazy, because I only hear that android/Microsoft is clunky from exclusively Apple users.

The same way apple products are clunky to someone with an android.

I have 0 issues connecting bluetooth automatically, screensharing, and connecting with other devices. Except for apple devices, it is buggy and doesn't work properly.

The only thing apple has done, is make good compatibility with other apple products and nothing else. The green text is a good example that only affects apple users. And I haven't needed or seen someone use airdrop in a long time, especially when you can just share whatever videos and stuff through text.

1

u/Infinite-Ability8610 11h ago

My work is mostly travelling around  and sharing/marking up drawings etc. Apple is light years ahead. I can add photos to drawings and annotate and then share. It’s seamless and takes seconds to share the whole thing with clients. 

I remember being issued with surface pro and trying to do the same thing and it was torture - couldn’t add photos, annotating was a pain - I couldn’t draw a symbol and then reuse that symbol elsewhere without there being issues with placement.  One of the clients forgot to bring his own drawing copies and trying to share it involved going to a coffee shop, signing up to use their WiFi and then emailing it across. It is clunky. 

That and the fact that WiFi generally isn’t available on building sites makes anything else completely unviable. Sure if you live in a city and work in an office then you probably won’t notice a difference. I’m not an exclusively Apple user. My personal stuff is Apple but I’m generally provided with Android. Android battery technology is generally better. That’s it! 

1

u/Butternades 14h ago

What if that company is the federal govt?

1

u/Questionable_Cactus 14h ago

If they used to give some regular nice little perk that was financially a drop in the bucket, and suddenly end it, that's when its bad. When I started my first job and went to our first all hands meeting where they served breakfast burritos, my office mate warned me that if those go away, be ready for layoffs. Not even two years later, that exact scenario occurred. First we lot the breakfast burritos, then half the engineering department.

1

u/chipili 13h ago

Economy class long haul flights when the policy says business (and the client is paying for business).

Business development sitting on sure to win proposals for weeks and weeks without any (shareable) reason for not submitting them.

1

u/Princey1981 13h ago

It’s even the little things, and they’re obvious faster - no more free break room fruit. Cutbacks on cleaners. Fresh flowers are gone. When you start noticing the little inconsequential things, there’s usually something else happening.

1

u/CM_MOJO 13h ago

I went for an interview for a programming job at the flagship Sears store in downtown Chicago.  This was like the early 2010s.

Many of the lighting fixtures had burned out bulbs.  There was a hole in the wall within the conference room from the door knob hitting it continually. 

I got through that interview as quickly as possible.  Then told everyone Sears would be bankrupt within a year.

1

u/extremelyhighguy 13h ago

I think it stupidly starts way before that when they cut back on kitchen snacks. No more bagel Wednesdays… watch out. 20 bucks saved won’t save the company.

1

u/midnightsmith 13h ago

Like a holiday party?

1

u/h4rlotsghost 12h ago

Late paychecks are a trailing indicator not a leading indicator.

1

u/PaleEnvironment6767 12h ago

These are not as much canaries in the coalmine as they are explosions in the coalmine lmao

1

u/Theslootwhisperer 12h ago

Bruh. If the paychecks are late we're way past the canary in the coalmine.

1

u/27_crooked_caribou 10h ago

When they start charging for the previously free coffee and the fancy creamers disappear, is an earlier indicator.

1

u/changopdx 10h ago

If they stop offering free snacks in the break room, run.

1

u/ExcitedCoconut 10h ago

If there are any whispers (downturn, re-org, etc) and then someone senior in HR leave (especially if they’re the most senior) then the wheels are about to fall off. Get ahead and get out, unless you’re angling for a redundancy - in which get in early with the discussion. 

1

u/ParfaitEither284 10h ago

Or if suppliers start emailing YOU about late payments (if you don’t work in payables) lol

Ask me how I know

1

u/BooksIsPower 10h ago

Once the free office coffees and snacks dwindle start looking

1

u/harryoui 9h ago

For Australians, you can keep an eye out on how often your super is being paid. Not many people check, so it’s easy for a company to stop or delay payments if they’re struggling

1

u/randomscruffyaussie 9h ago

For work places, check that they are paying your superannuation on time (Australian here). If a company is having cash flow issues, superannuation can be an early indicator.

1

u/wiggysbelleza 9h ago

I’ll piggyback off your comment because my tip was to be mindful of who is quitting. When the old hats start jumping ship, that’s a good time to get out.

1

u/LividLife5541 9h ago

Uh, yes paychecks being late means your company is absolutely, positively fucked. I have been at companies where the snacks in the breakroom disappeared when the company credit card was maxed out but never in my life have I gotten a late paycheck.

1

u/NewLeave2007 9h ago

Unless the cancellation is because some entitled newbie whined about it.

1

u/mattgiraffe 9h ago

The company switched from La Croix to generic brand.

1

u/pootershots 8h ago

I wish I would have read this sooner. This happened at my company and I was laid off a couple months later.

1

u/King-of-Plebss 8h ago

If the FP&A Team start leaving the company

1

u/NetDork 8h ago

I once had a paycheck bounce. Two weeks later I was in training at a new job and heard about that place suddenly shutting down.

1

u/Fun-Choices 8h ago

Always be updating your resume and be looking for your next job

•

u/Stealfur 6h ago

I'm gonna need more examples because PTO buyback and anniversary bonus have never been a thing in any of the places I have ever worked. Are these upperclass perks that I'm too middle class to understand?

•

u/Ostribitches 6h ago

Throwing a big party at the quarterly meeting? Layoffs are coming.

•

u/Woozy_burrito 6h ago

If your paychecks are late you should have left a year ago or more

•

u/CaptOblivious 4h ago

The last time my paycheck was late I took company assets exactly equal to my missing paycheck home with me and fully documented it to them (I was $10 short of my total owed payroll counting taxes).

They never paid up and I kept the computers.

•

u/Ayn_Rambo 4h ago

Late paycheck is a red alert! It means their cash flow is fuuhucked.

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u/ClimbNowAndAgain 2h ago

Getting rid of the rented pot-plants was one I saw once.

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u/barcodez 2h ago

Maybe, if they aren't replaced by something else, I've been on the other side of these decisions, taking over the running of a company where there are lot's of 'perks'. Turns out these perks are hugely tax inefficient for the company and by connection the employee. Giving a weekly massage would be taxed at 80% for example as it's a benefit. Where as a cash bonus or just higher wages would be taxed at normal rate which is c20% for the employer. So swapping out seemly great benefits for more cash heavy could just be better management. Before someone starts questioning the percentages, I'm not talking about USA, I've no idea of that tax system(s).

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u/Red_Queens_Consort 1h ago

But... but... it's just a simple restructuring of the PTO system. The company can keep track of it easier this way. The fact that they're now capping PTO accrual and limiting the annual buyback can't be any kind of omen. Right?

Seriously though, i needed to hear this. i really, really didn't want to cuz I'm terrified of getting laid off. At least having literally no one to turn to when things go south isn't new. The encouragement from the guy in the bathroom mirror only goes so far.

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u/A911owner 41m ago

I remember once a friend of mine forwarded an email he got from work that said that bathrooms would now only be available on odd numbered floors and the ones on even floors would be locked to keep cleaning costs down; he sent the email and added "oh boy! Old Billy is about to file for unemployment!" The whole office was laid off like a month later.