Another Nail in GC's Coffin

bluesypicky

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Who does not have access to the internet on weekends, IIRC.

Hence my concern when I mistakenly thought he had posted on a Saturday.... I thought he had gotten incarcerated or even worse, forced into a Mac Donald, gaining internet access in the process....
 

Neal

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After a career working in state government, I retired to accept a job in the private sector.

I spent the last three years watching a good company slowly get eaten alive by the giant multinational conglomerate that acquired it. Faceless owners were at the helm who had no earthly clue about the business they purchased, nor their customers. I left in disgust about a year ago, with absolutely no regrets.
 

fronobulax

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After a career working in state government, I retired to accept a job in the private sector.

I spent the last three years watching a good company slowly get eaten alive by the giant multinational conglomerate that acquired it. Faceless owners were at the helm who had no earthly clue about the business they purchased, nor their customers. I left in disgust about a year ago, with absolutely no regrets.

Publicly traded companies often feel they have to meet specific financial targets by specific times and as a consequence almost everything takes second place to "making the numbers". I have no intention of working for one again unless the alternative is not working at all :)
 

rampside

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Sounds like a lame attempt by corporate management to protect themselves from themselves.

If you have inept management at every level, well then you should be worried, but taking a ridiculous action like this to keep your ground floor employees from calling you out, is ludicrous.
 

adorshki

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Who does not have access to the internet on weekends, IIRC.
Strictly speaking you recall correctly, and let me add that it's completely voluntary.
It's the only time I play my guitars anymore, either.
Also serves as an automatic post-count limiter.
Now, on to further muck-raking:
Anybody read their Volkswagen warranty recently?
 

adorshki

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Hence my concern when I mistakenly thought he had posted on a Saturday.... I thought he had gotten incarcerated or even worse, forced into a Mac Donald, gaining internet access in the process....
You mean I could get internet in jail?
AND 3 hots and a cot?
Well I'll stop stressing about becoming homeless and just become a petty crook.
 

adorshki

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Al is a creature of habit. When he deviates from his normal routine.... I worry.


keenan-wynn-04.jpg


Hey....whaddaya mean, "deviates"?
 

jcwu

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You mean I could get internet in jail?
AND 3 hots and a cot?
Well I'll stop stressing about becoming homeless and just become a petty crook.

I tried that once, didn't read directions carefully, became a pretty cook.
 

JohnW63

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I can't imagine that GC would send out these notices if they had NOT already run it by their lawyers. So, I have to assume they CAN do this. My next thought it , "Why? " What would cause them to feel the need to do this ? Have they been hammered with law suits from employees or ex-employees ? Do they know about something coming down the pike that this will protect them from ? If someone didn't see a need for this, it wouldn't happen.

I see two most likely possibilities.

1) They ARE getting hammered by employee lawsuits and feel the need to stop this. Has it be frivolous suits by employees trying to win the legal lottery or work place "accidents" or claims of work place discrimination ? Or, have they been taken to task for unjust firing of people ? In California, you CAN fire people for just about ANY non discriminatory reason.

2) Things are about to hit the fan and they need to proactively reduce the loses before it happens to make some chapter 11 reorganization work. " Don't sue us, when we lay a bunch of you off on short notice "

There are quite a few employee groups that have binding arbitration rather than a fast lane to a court case.
 

fronobulax

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I can't imagine that GC would send out these notices if they had NOT already run it by their lawyers. So, I have to assume they CAN do this. My next thought it , "Why? " What would cause them to feel the need to do this ? Have they been hammered with law suits from employees or ex-employees ? Do they know about something coming down the pike that this will protect them from ? If someone didn't see a need for this, it wouldn't happen.

I see two most likely possibilities.

1) They ARE getting hammered by employee lawsuits and feel the need to stop this. Has it be frivolous suits by employees trying to win the legal lottery or work place "accidents" or claims of work place discrimination ? Or, have they been taken to task for unjust firing of people ? In California, you CAN fire people for just about ANY non discriminatory reason.

2) Things are about to hit the fan and they need to proactively reduce the loses before it happens to make some chapter 11 reorganization work. " Don't sue us, when we lay a bunch of you off on short notice "

There are quite a few employee groups that have binding arbitration rather than a fast lane to a court case.

I think you are over-analyzing. It has been a trend over the past ten years or so for entities to try and get other entities that might be involved in disputes with them to agree to binding arbitration instead of lawsuits. The driver seems to be cost and risk reduction - if there is a problem it will cost much less to resolve and arbitration often leads to a more balanced resolution. So, in the context of GC, just the fact that they are under investor pressure is enough to explain to me why they are imposing binding arbitration now. You don't really need to postulate "something bad's gonna happen and we need to protect ourselves from the employees before it hits" to explain it, nor does there have to be a history of lawsuits for this to make sense.

That said, whether imposing an agreement like that is actually legal depends upon a lot of factors, including state (and not just federal) employment law. There have been some situations where one side was deemed to have coerced the other into agreeing to binding arbitration with no lawsuits and a court decided the agreement to arbitration was not valid and allowed lawsuits to move forward.

Regardless, I am glad I am not depending on GC for my income :)
 

adorshki

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That said, whether imposing an agreement like that is actually legal depends upon a lot of factors, including state (and not just federal) employment law. There have been some situations where one side was deemed to have coerced the other into agreeing to binding arbitration with no lawsuits and a court decided the agreement to arbitration was not valid and allowed lawsuits to move forward.
Right, corollary to the principle that "if it's not specifically illegal then it's legal but open to challenge".
So like John said, yes, they CAN do it, but whether they can make it stick, as Frono explains, is a different issue.
It all falls in the category of Tort or Statutory Tort law: Crimes are not necessarily being committed although consequential infringements of property or other rights are occurring. Wiki on Tort Law
I'd still like to see something explaining GC's side of the story before drawing any conclusions, but frankly I'm just not interested enough to search.
I think they're going down in any case, no snark intended.
 

mavuser

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if they are making them sign something "under duress" than most any good attorney could get that overturned in court.

However, the questions of is the avererage GC employee about to procure a good attorney, and would the legal fees be almost as much as thier annual salary...and exactly what are you fighting for if the company is so close to shuting it's doors anyway...are more pertinent than the initial legality question in the first place. they are basically saying "quit now and go to sam ash before you are competing with the rest of all GC employees in getting those jobs," so in a way with writing on the wall, this is better than a mass layoff without warning. you sign the document, keep your currennt employment, and for any one of many, many reasons...start job hunting!
 

mavuser

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as i posted previously my buddy recently was laid off from GC...he would have liked the option to stay and sign whatever ridiculous documents they could come up with
 

Westerly Wood

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as i posted previously my buddy recently was laid off from GC...he would have liked the option to stay and sign whatever ridiculous documents they could come up with

Exactly. I can imagine. Hope he found another gig doing something even better. I would have signed it too without complaint.
 

adorshki

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I thought of this thread when I heard about Walmart last night.
They're closing 269 stores worldwide stores but workers in remaining stores who have a certain amount of seniority are getting raises.
(Insert head-scratching emoticon here.)
Didn't Walmart have its own little labor probs over the last few years?
Makes me wonder if GC's thinking it can head off similar probs.
And yes if you're being "asked" to sign this new document as a condition of continued employment that's definitive "coercion" There are plenty of lawyers who will take cases like this "pro bono".
It's part of their code of ethics (don't laugh).
Looking at it from the cynical viewpoint it's a great way for 'em to make a name and start making the big bucks.
 
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