Letting staff go then taking a VACATION?

[BelleWDW]

Insensitive ? Tacky?

Our neighbor was chatting with DH about the local economy and how bad it is for his relatively new small company & he has trouble paying the rent each month for the company.

He has to let 2 employees go on Friday.

Then he goes on to say he & wife are going Saturday to Las Vegas for a week!!

Edited-staff was let go, not fired

 

[wvjules]

Insensitive ? Tacky?

Our neighbor was chatting with DH about the local economy and how bad it is for his relatively new small company & he has trouble paying the rent each month for the company.

He has to let 2 employees go on Friday.

Then he goes on to say he & wife are going Saturday to Las Vegas for a week!!

Maybe they are using money from his wife's income to go on vacation? Maybe it was planned prior to the economy troubles? Taking a vacation for a week to Vegas is a drop in the bucket compared to paying 2 employees salaries, taxes, and benefits.

 

[mickeyboat]

I worked for someone who did this, too - vacations, new vehicles for himself and his kids who worked there.

It was irritating. But on the other hand, should owners take funds out of their own pockets to sustain a losing business? That's just bad business.

 

[KAMKIM]

A weeks vacation doesn't compare to paying someone's salary. It's one of the disadvantages of working for someone else - you are at their mercy.

 

[FireDancer]

A good example of why it is good to be the boss. There is a difference between the personal funds, which should be used for the vacation, and the company funds that are used to pay employees.

 

[cabanafrau]

IMO it's insensitive or tacky if they've been draining their business to fund a lavish lifestyle, necessitating the need to deprive others of their livelihoods derived from working for that business.

What burns me up is hearing people who are living lavish lifestyles funded on credit they cannot pay back and have no intention of ever doing so. You even see it on these boards on a pretty regular basis. Yearly Disney trips, cruises and the like, yet in other posts they reveal they can't pay this or that bill. Sometimes it's all I can do to avoid chiming in to question someone, but realize it's pointless because I'm sure I'll hear how they did pay up on such and such after all, or it's a gift trip or some nonsense like that. What about the people who work for the businesses who aren't getting paid while the debtors go do Disney? Maybe they deserve a vacation too.

 

[Pakey]

His business, his money. And like PP mentioned, perhaps he has other family income. My husband's business has suffered a great deal this year and he has had to lay off employees in order to keep his business income from totally disappearing. However, my income has increased since the company I work for has seen an increase in business.

We are going to Las Vegas in 3 weeks, paying for it out of our household income, not the business income. I do not consider my husband insensitive or tacky for going with me (I was going anyway).

 

[lillygator]

his company, he can do what he wants.

 

[Missy1961]

his company, he can do what he wants.

 

[Silent1CB]

Firing means the employees were let go because of something they did wrong or didn't do at all.

Laid off is because of economic troubles. You could be the absolute best model employee and still be laid off. Also means, you MIGHT get your position back when economy starts picking up again. Some people are seasonally laid off every year.

Using the correct term is helpful to the employee for future job seeking and collecting of unemployment benefits.

 

[edandcolleen1995]

For the OP you don't have the full picture..

You don't know if the trip was planned for year(s) and been paid in full for a long time.

Plus you don't know anything about the business. So what if he let go two employees and went on vaction? New company and maybe he had extra staff for start up. He is allowed to trim staff as he see's fit. Heck the "struggling to pay rent" could just because the boss is being nice and not wacking the employees because they are lousy workers..

Either way, like others have said, his business, his way of doing things.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Insensitive ? Tacky?

Our neighbor was chatting with DH about the local economy and how bad it is for his relatively new small company & he has trouble paying the rent each month for the company.

He has to let 2 employees go on Friday.

Then he goes on to say he & wife are going Saturday to Las Vegas for a week!!

Gotta love those priorities!

Nice that while he's in Vegas having fun and spending money he supposedly doesn't have, his former employees are wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage.

I pray this economy gets better soon!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I don't know which is more disturbing, the fact this person is doing this at all or the fact he is so clueless about how this makes him look that he is telling other people about it? It's his business which means he has the power to change people's lives and is simply choosing not to do so, not out of necessity but 'just because' it's a bother. For what it's worth, I think the guy is a low-life.

 

[KAMKIM]

Gotta love those priorities!

Nice that while he's in Vegas having fun and spending money he supposedly doesn't have, his former employees are wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage.

I pray this economy gets better soon!

Why is it his responsibility to make sure their needs are met before his? Not that a vacation is a need but what difference would it have made if he didnt go?

He may have money, his business does not....big difference.

 

[KAMKIM]

Being an at will employee is risky, you are not promised a life time position at any company.

 

[lillygator]

Gotta love those priorities!

Nice that while he's in Vegas having fun and spending money he supposedly doesn't have, his former employees are wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage.

I pray this economy gets better soon!

um, "money he supposedly doesn't have"....does he have to use every cent for his business and to ensure two people have a job? Maybe he has money from other things....

 

[wvjules]

I don't know which is more disturbing, the fact this person is doing this at all or the fact he is so clueless about how this makes him look that he is telling other people about it? It's his business which means he has the power to change people's lives and is simply choosing not to do so, not out of necessity but 'just because' it's a bother. For what it's worth, I think the guy is a low-life.

I doubt the conversation went likle this:

"Hey joe, guess what? My busines is doing so bad I had to lay off 2 employees last week. But on the bright side I'm taking my wife to Vegas for the week."

It was probably all told during the progression of a normal conversation.


Do you suggest that small business owners keep employees at the sacrafice of their own lives and well-being?

 

[allison443]

Insensitive ? Tacky?

Our neighbor was chatting with DH about the local economy and how bad it is for his relatively new small company & he has trouble paying the rent each month for the company.

He has to let 2 employees go on Friday.

Then he goes on to say he & wife are going Saturday to Las Vegas for a week!!

Maybe the trip was a gift!!!

 

[Jennasis]

I am firing one of my employees this week. I'm giddy about it, actually. I'm going on vacation next year to WDW (which actually IS a gift. Dad's picking up the tab).

My "bidness". My life.

Seriously though, the cost of two employees doesn't come CLOSE to th cost of a week in Vegas. He is STILL going to save a ton even with the vacation.

Owning a business is rough. Walk a mile.

 

[FireDancer]

Nice that while he's in Vegas having fun and spending money he supposedly doesn't have, his former employees are wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage.

He may have plenty of money but doesn't want to put it into the company. Private funds are different than company funds. The owner could have a billion sitting in the bank but if the company is loosing money and the owner wants it to be self sustaining he would have to balance the books. I would not expect him to just throw more money at the problem. Sometimes the answer is cutting the cost as opposed to subsidizing it. Many people set aside a set amount of money to start a business and are not going to put in any more.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis sold Skype to Ebay for about 2.6 Billion dollars, so each of them are now billionaires. They started Joost with some of the proceeds. Now, Joost is a company completely separate from the private fortunes of the founders. In the last year Joost has had to lay off employees because the company isn't meeting all of their revenue targets.

Google has had to lay off employees but Larry and Sergey are still worth 12 billion each, do you think they all canceled vacations because they had to lay employees off?

Dell has had some rough quarters lately but Michael still goes where he wants when he wants.

The private fortune of a business owner is separate from the company. Perhaps the owner in the OP's description is done putting private money into the business and since it was not able to sustain the previous level of employment on its own some people were let go. We don't know. <This is where I would put something witty addressing that at least the owner isn't asking for congress to tax me to bail him out, but since that is not allowed I have redacted it>

The bottom line is that a business owner should not be expected to feed funds into a business forever. At some point that business has to be self sustaining. If the owner wants to keep his money out of the company and let it survive or die on its own that is fine with me.