Laid Off - but they keep calling!

[fac]

Have the calls tapered off at all? If not, call & speak to your old boss and tell them you don't want to burn bridges, but your time is valuable; and now that your job is looking for a job, your fee is $100/hour and you bill in 15 minute increments and each phone call will be an invoice for $25. Maybe even type up a quick contract and put a signature line on it and fax it to them. That should stop the calls.

I agree ...
I assume those calling you are your peers not your boss. I do not know your area and line of work, but I suggest not to burn any bridges either
a. scan the calls and ignore them, or
b. as jlima did, helped with a few questions and if the calls not tapered off, called your old boss.

 

[timzagain]

Hi !

Just venting...(I think) - maybe I am not looking at this correctly?

I was laid off over the holidays. Ok, I know , so many people have been affected by this bad economy and I am no different. I will just look for a new job. I have been giving myself a little time to feel sorry for myself but that is ending now for the most part.

Here is the problem - they keep calling me from work, almost daily, with problems, asking me about various situations and what I would be doing.

Hmmm....I THOUGHT a lay-off meant that I don't work for them any more. I don't see a pay check coming in with my name on it?? I am not exactly feeling charitable toward them right now..

I just want to move on. They closed the door, not me.

[/I]

I was faced with a similar situation a few years ago! It finally came to a halt when I told them that I would be sumbitting a bill for my consultancy fee, since I couldn't continue to work for them without being paid.

 

[Karenj2]

That happened to me years ago - I was nice enough to send a detailed note with where all the various files were on my laptop (I worked from home and had to ship back my laptop). PLUS, I gave general directions on how I did XYZ projects.

Two or three months later I get a call from someone asking where a particular file was. Uh, how the hell do you expect me to remember, and you have my laptop!

I agree with the others - politely but firmly say that if they'd like you to continue working with them that's one thing, but you're not going to offer your services for free.

 

[bettymae1121]

I should add, there is a difference between your boss calling constantly and asking for help, versus a co-worker that you're friendly with calling once or twice. A co-worker that I like I'd be more willing to help, especially if it's a quick question that can easily be answered. It's not the co-workers fault the company downsized, after all.

 

[SanFranciscan]

This does not shock me. Companies have been allowed to privatize their profits and socialize their costs for so long that their sense of entitlement has swelled beyond all reason.

 

[Planogirl]

Wow, they have a lot of nerve. I wouldn't be available.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

I wouldn't be available to anyone.

 

[SanFranciscan]

I should add, there is a difference between your boss calling constantly and asking for help, versus a co-worker that you're friendly with calling once or twice. A co-worker that I like I'd be more willing to help, especially if it's a quick question that can easily be answered. It's not the co-workers fault the company downsized, after all.

I would tell my old co-workers that they have to make the decision themselves because they will be the ones held responsible for it. I would say that I just wouldn't want for my advice to play any role in getting them fired. If the caller's response to my concern for them was to insist that I fix what is not my problem, either that caller is hiding incompetence, which might mean the caller kept his or her job by blaming me for his or her own mistakes, or else my former co-workers are calling because the boss is putting them up to it.

My question to the original poster would be who are the original poster's ex-co-workers. Even in workplaces that are not privately held, there is a lot of nepotism. In businesses owned by one person or a family, I have worked with people who were so obviously just there because they were related to the owner because they were kept on payroll while they did nothing but get in the way of productive workers. Are the people calling you by any chance dead weight whom you were expected to pick up the slack for because they were the boss's kid or something? This goes on all of the time.

 

[jlima]

Are the people calling you by any chance dead weight whom you were expected to pick up the slack for because they were the boss's kid or something? This goes on all of the time.

In my old office, the first person laid off had been with the department for 12 years and the amount of knowledge she left with was so huge that the company paid her to communicate that knowledge to the people left behind. There were some days I called her 2 - 3 times, because I was given some of her responsibilities and just had questions that only she could answer.

But for most companies, it's probably a lack of teamwork. If each person does just their job and never cross-trains or learns how to do someone else's work, then nobody knows how to get stuff done when people are laid off or quit. I worked with someone once who refused to learn how to use one particular database and her reasoning was if she never learned how to use that system, then she couldn't be asked to do that work. These are the people who can be left high and dry after a layoff.

 

[swilshire]

I would call the owner/manager and offer to set up a consulting schedule and fee. If they aren't willing to pay, tell them to stop calling.

Sheila

 

[brymolmom]

Depends on the type of work you do, but in my area, people frequently come BACK to our company/deptartment - maybe as a contractor, maybe hired back. So, if working in the same place again one day appeals to you at all - don't burn any bridges.

That said, every day is too much. I would assist a BIT, but not every day. But when I had enough I would put it delicately with the vision on keeping this as a prospective place of employment in the future. I would explain that I am busy job hunting or similar (maybe in an email so you can screen it and proof read it first) and can't help too much, but if they run into something very unique they can drop you a note and you will try to give them an idea or two.

Just my thoughts...

 

[Pixie Princess]

I agree with many of the other posters..its time to be paid as a consultant if they need to call you this much for help. I could understand a few calls if the lay offs at your former company were "unexpected" to most. We had that happen in my former company Decebmer of 08. (Thank goodness I was at Disney when it happened!) The vast majority of the executive managment team found out they had to provide a list of x number of employees to be laid off within a matter of days. People were let go without any sort of warning or prep. If I had been laid off then, I would have answered questions afterwards as my department was small and we are all pretty close. I wouldn't have let it go on forever though.

I was laid off in Oct. of last year after the company was sold. In this case the lay offs were planned out, and we were all kept "on the payroll" for 60 days after our the last day in the office and were expected to be available for questions and meetings if needed. Now that I'm officially laid off, I would not be keen at all on answering questions , and certainly would not go in. There was time to plan both while I was still going in to the office in during the 60 days afterwards. If I was getting calls multiple times a week, I would be nice but firm that my expertise comes to with a price. Either we work something out or the calls need to stop.

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Maybe you can turn this lemon into lemonaid. Next time, answer the phone and tell them if they are having so much trouble without you, they can either A) offer you your old job back or B) Offer to higher you as an outside consultant (at an inflated coster per hour! ).

If they are unwilling or unable to, then I'd tell them that due to all the stress the layoff has caused you, you've forgoten everything you know about your former position.

Honestly, the nerve of some people...

Honestly, this post gave me the first laugh that I have had since the layoff...when I read " forgotten everything you know about your former position"...I LOVE IT !!!! Thank you for a much needed moment of laughter in what is a very stressful time for me and my family ! God Bless!

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

I agree ...
I assume those calling you are your peers not your boss. I do not know your area and line of work, but I suggest not to burn any bridges either
a. scan the calls and ignore them, or
b. as jlima did, helped with a few questions and if the calls not tapered off, called your old boss.

Hi ! Sadly, it IS my boss who is making the calls as well as emails.

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Many thanks to you all for your helpful suggestions.

I forgot to mention that it is a large company who provides educational opps for sales trainers...