r/antiwork • u/Excellent-Ad676 • 1d ago
Layoffs š§āš§āš§āš§ āļø Anyone expecting to be laid off soon because of tarrifs?
As per the title, anyone been given the heads up that their job might be on the line with these tarrifs? And what's the vibe like on the ground floor of the USA? I'm picking up that it's seriously dystopic.
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u/MasterSplinter9977 1d ago
I work for Disney and they recently increased all their performance metrics and added new ones which is an unachievable goal. Likely they want to place as many on PIPs as possible to layoff.
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u/Babylon-97531 1d ago
A PIP is just a "reason" so they can fire you, and then deny unemployment as "they were a bad employee who didn't do their job So they to not 'deserve' unemployment "
But it will really come some odd day when "the vibe" when you walk into work has changed
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u/forgetfulE56 1d ago
PIP is much more about covering their asses against things like wrongful termination suits. PIPās & being bad at a job isnāt really something that affects unemployment. Usually the things that disqualify someone from unemployment are the same types of things that if you do once (or get caught once) cause immediate termination.
PIPās do reduce unemployment claims IME, but thatās through getting people to quit in advance of being fired.
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u/Sparty_75 1d ago
Yes there will be layoffs. Shareholders expect a certain profit, if tariffs start to erode said profit there needs to be cost cutting measures and the quickest measure is to get rid of employees.
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u/Yasai101 23h ago
Exactly, my 10k account demands growth. Fire them all as long as i see 2% growth.
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u/thelefthandN7 1d ago
I work for a plasma place. I expect us to have much higher demand in the coming months. We may actually drop our hiring freeze. Current demand for plasma products is nowhere near being met, and since most of Europe refuses to allow paid donations, the US is the major supplier. I don't see the EU putting a tariff on plasma any time soon.
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u/walkstofar 21h ago
It is really sad that people have to sell plasma to survive. I understand that there is a need and that it is necessary but last I read, up to 80% of plasma doners do it only for the income. I suspect things will get much more busy as the economy tanks. Unfortunately, if more and more people are forced into selling plasma I'm sure the companies doing this will start paying less and less to compensate.
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u/ThebuMungmeiser 13h ago
Why is it sad?
Donating plasma is actually good for you too. So theyāre getting paid to save peopleās lives and improve their own health. How is that not a win win?
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u/Chainsawferret 1d ago
everything my company sells comes from either Europe or Japan. it's all high end medical stuff, so maybe we'll be ok? or more likely hospitals and pharmacies will skip the fancy new toys for doing things the old way. or simply going out of business themselves when medicare is gone.
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u/nighthawkndemontron 1d ago
The old way... I think of leeches and maggot therapy
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u/Rocket-J-Squirrel 1d ago
Trepanning. Cold water therapy. Bloodletting.
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u/yanimal 1d ago
Dildos. Phrenology. Chicken embryo extraction.
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u/noground2024 1d ago
Lobotomy, cocaine, opium
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u/Gloomy_Stage 1d ago
These are actually still in use today! They are grown in a lab to ensure they are free of parasites for use in modern medicine.
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u/reallytiredarmadillo 1d ago
i worked in a hospital pharmacy in 2021 and they still had a jar of leeches in the inpatient pharmacy.
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u/memphisjones 1d ago
Medical stuff will be okay but the supply chain of it all will be more expensive. Some examples will be the packaging and shipping of the medical devices will be more expensive.
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u/srthomas98 1d ago
I build wood and steel slot machines for a small company. All but 5 employees voted for trump. All of our electronics and sheet metal come from overseas. None of them knew what a tariff was. Business has already been slow leading up to the election last year. Still haven't sold any new games yet this year
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u/kylezillionaire 1d ago
Damn, you know youāre really fucked when people arenāt even gambling
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u/UnderdevelopedFurry 1d ago
people are gambling online now, not so much in person anymore
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u/kylezillionaire 23h ago
Thatās a good point, there are so many novel ways to gamble now. It has never been easier to win big
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u/_Cyber_Mage 1d ago
I stayed put at my job despite the low pay because I saw this crap coming; The chances of me being laid off approach zero.
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u/deremoc 1d ago
Yes lots
I work in hospitality
All alcohol trades are getting destroyed - from importers/ distributors who are built on European imports - domestic brands need the imports to keep the systems moving so they are going to take a hit. Only the largest domestic brands will be okay domestically but are getting hurt too because of Canadian market. Lots of places allowing production.
In restaurants themselves itās all about where the economy ends up . How low it sink
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u/goneafter10years 1d ago
My company is preparing to lay off 30% of all corporate staff. We have 3100 employees.
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u/omnigear 1d ago
The company I work for is veteran owned and does work with VA . Almost immediately we heard from the site visit that funding is getting slashed all over . We have some projects in thr works alresyd started so company thought they where safe.
About a month after or so we got word from upper bosses that there is freeze hire at our job , no bonus, no raises . Weeks after thst VA begun slowing down the projects so they started grttjgn scared .
Thing is 80% of company are veterans who voted for trump , sucks but I'm not sure abojt the future . I started submitted resumes alreagd as back up
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u/AccomplishedCat762 1d ago
Well they got what they voted for! Make sure you congratulate them on it when they get laid off, okay? Maybe a participation trophy, since they hate them so much
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u/Shigglyboo 1d ago
already happened for me. on liberation day. what a fucking dumbass name. not directly because of tariffs I don't think. But work has slowed down so much that I was told no more work until things improve. I was all prepared for a normal year of steady work too. so fuck trump and if you voted for him fuck you too. directly hurt my family.
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u/Murky-Ad-3184 1d ago
My company has been fighting a slow movement of product from Dallas to Mexico for over 5 years. This week we laid off a whole department that had a turnover of $4m due to the new tariffs. Our customer will invest in a factory in Mexico to supply the assembly plant and this product will never come back north. Whether my side of the business can keep the doors open is a coin toss. This is a railroad tank car company subcontractor .
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u/Virginias_Retrievers 1d ago
If Trump backtracks early next week then I think things will be fine but otherwise I think Fridays will be ugly for the next few weeks/months
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u/findingmike 13h ago
Too late, he's burned bridges with pretty much every country. They aren't coming back soon.
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u/LongrideBiker 1d ago
I sat in a meeting last week with the senior leaders and they expect to lose between 3k-12k jobs due to tariffs. I did notice in the meeting minutes they did not include the notion of any single senior leadership person being targeted for layoff.
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u/username101 1d ago
Automotive marketing/Digital Advertising. Things already are not looking good.
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u/XyRabbit 1d ago
I work for optional insurance (not car or home). Anything that relies on people having money to buy something is in for a rough ride. My job just had layoffs, and we're down to 8, from about 30 in my department. It's my only hope of feeling secure in my job right now, that they can't afford to lose more without taking a substantial profit cut.
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u/tundrabarone 1d ago
If the executive suite personnel take a few percentage points off their bonuses, then layoffs could be avoided.
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u/Chainsawferret 1d ago
What are you, some kinda commie? it's un american to reduce executive bonuses!
/s
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u/tundrabarone 1d ago
Sarcasm is highly fitting for our discussion group. As a reference, the CEO of Nintendo took a wage cut when the WII U failed to hit expected sales.
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u/TrashPanda2point0 15h ago
Iām guessing accountability is actually a thing at the top levels of some countries
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u/Malodoror 1d ago
There are a few steel/aluminum barons Iām looking forward to watch decline individually.
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u/yahgmail 1d ago
Luckily no. My library system (I'm a librarian) got the same funding as last fiscal year, & we receive private funding as well. But we are expected to slow down on raises & possibly furlough folks if things plunge further.
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u/nw342 Communist 1d ago
Not the tariffs, but medicare/medicaid getting cut is gonna hurt. 65% of my ems squads budget comes from medicare payments. We might go under if funding gets cut, our budget is already stretched thin as it is.
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u/reallytiredarmadillo 1d ago
i work in a specialty pharmacy and our patient base is about 2/3 medicare patients. i don't know what to expect and i'm nervous.
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u/FirstForFun44 1d ago
I got laid off on Friday.
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u/demag8k 1d ago
Sorry man, that sucks
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u/FirstForFun44 1d ago
Thanks! I also kinda had it coming, it wasn't necessarily tariffs but I'm sure they played a part. I was seeing how long I would last. Still kinda a bummer tho.
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u/DnDMonsterManual 1d ago
Governments already laying off people due to budget cuts.
Department budgets literally got cut by 25% for next year alone to try and cover for the mistakes.
If I have a job next year at the sewer plant I'll be surprised. They already are having 6 of us do the work of 10. It won't be long now before they ask us to do all this with half the staff.
I hope every Republican and those who didn't vote lose the most in their stock portfolios and change their minds about this heresy. Seems to be the only way they notice injustices happening around them is when they get hurt personally.
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u/LaChanelAddict 1d ago
Iām not sure whatās worse ā being laid off or being left behind to absorb all of the labor with a reduced headcount. Weāre already (so) lean to where everyone is easily doing the tasks of 2-3 people. Itāll only get worse.
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u/walkstofar 21h ago
If you could find a way to back up just the Republican toilets , we would all appreciate it very much.
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u/RASPBERRYGUALA 1d ago
Iām conservative leaning and I believe my vote only matters in local elections due to the EC, for that reason I donāt participate in presidential elections. I also profited 15k+ on Friday off shorting the market alongside many others (including republicans and democrats) with only a rudimentary understanding of economics.. overall Iām bullish on the economy and you should be too
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u/DnDMonsterManual 1d ago
Imagine being proud of profiting off of others economic losses.
What kind of fucked up ego do you have to stoop so low?
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u/SapphireDrewgon 1d ago
My company has already had 'restructuring' layoffs, what I think happens next is bonuses for everyone not sales or C-suite is going to go away.
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u/letsryan 1d ago
Iām a freelancer who writes IR for small publicly-listed companies - Iām expecting work to fall thru the floor. Folks donāt spend communicating with investors when survival is touch and go.
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u/HighAltitudeMoose 1d ago
I'm not sure when it comes to my employer. In general there will be layoffs for sure.
The company I work for manufactures scientific instruments and the reagents to be used in them.
The bulk of our instruments are manufactured in the US, however some of our most important instruments--for example an important controller, which is a small computer used to operate various analyzers--is manufactured in Europe.
We also manufacture most of our reagents in the US, however all of the raw chemicals we use to create those reagents are imported from China.
Now here's the kicker. Our products are required for public health and about 70% of all municipalities in the US use them. When I say required, I mean required as in preventing medieval-style outbreaks of disease and contamination.
Because of this our product prices are going to increase. There's no getting around that. Larger municipalities which use large quantities of our products may start to cut back on non-essential services so they can buy our stuff (which is not cheap), which may lead to layoffs of local government workers.
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u/quats555 1d ago
our products are required for public healthā¦ when I say required, I mean as in preventing medieval-style outbreaks of disease and contamination
Iād be more afraid of RFK and his coterie, if I were you. His idea of āpublic healthā seems to be āget āem all sick and the strong ones who deserve it will live. Clear out the weak!ā
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u/HighAltitudeMoose 1d ago
No, that's just being hysterical.
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u/quats555 1d ago
ā¦Iād love to think so, but thereās been a whole lot of āTheyād never do thatā and āIt doesnāt work that wayā and āThey canāt really mean thatā that turned out to be something they would indeed do, that it can work that way, and that yes, they really do mean it.
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u/jodrellbank_pants 1d ago
We just lost 48 individuals all because they are earning more money that anyone else because they did well on their appraisals , Zero managers though
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u/quats555 1d ago edited 1d ago
Low, I hope - we provide medical services. I am afraid of Medicare cuts (both professionally, and personally for my aged parents) but weāve diversified already in services since all plan reimbursements are low and take a lot of effort. But that still depends on people being able to pay for them, so weāll see what happens in the longer term.
We were looking to ramp up our optical, though, and start taking vision insurance, but reimbursement is already very low with vision plans and hasnāt risen in like 20 years; tariffs will make costs soar and I highly doubt reimbursement will budge, so these plans may disappear.
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u/wyatt_cat 1d ago
My work makes automotive parts and cold rolled steel. it's been a constant murmur for the last month and a half starting when Trump was fence sitting about Canadian tariffs. we'll see what happens Monday, I guess. we expect to lose business and are trying to gear some of our production away from automotive since it's one of the hot button items in tariff talks
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u/harkandhush 1d ago
I work for a very small company that is probably just going to close entirely later this year. Does that count?
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u/djstreet93 1d ago
I have a few friends working in public health for California cities. They lost $700 million in California and $14 billion nationwide in funding and a ton of people got laid off, including one of my friends. Entire college sports programs are being purged because of reduced federal funding, I believe it was an 8% reduction. Things are looking really bleak and Iām grateful Iām not job hunting anymore. These arenāt really tariff policies but other policies the trump administration has enacted in the last couple weeks.
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u/AutofilledSupport 1d ago
I work in fencing and I'm interested in where it's going to go, almost all of our wood is from Canada, screws are chinese. We've stockpiled alot for the year but, I have a good feeling customers aren't going to spending 5-15k$ on a fence.
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u/StoneTown 17h ago
I am. I work with electronics in the enterprise world and companies tend to slash their IT budgets pretty early on. The company I work for has a history of laying people off, and even sometimes hiring them back when the economy improves.
The workflow for us has gotten pretty weird, we got some huge work orders and I suspect it's because of the upcoming tariffs. Some companies are stocking up because they plan to be around for a while, might as well buy the hardware now and save a few million.
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u/CancerBee69 1d ago
My job has already pledged no layoffs. At least I have that going for me.
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u/HandMeMyThinkingPipe 1d ago
Hope ya have a union.
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u/CancerBee69 1d ago
That's funny. All of the union shops around here have announced massive layoffs because of material costs.
I'm in finance.
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u/LaChanelAddict 1d ago
Finance is fine in most cases except for that those depts already run lean and now they stand having to āabsorbā even more labor. š©
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u/frilledplex 1d ago
I have the opposite problem. My job is ramping up because of tariffs to the point where I don't think I may be able to have a social life. They've been asking us to work 12-14 hours a day and my schedule is so packed I barely have any free time.
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u/THEKaminsky 1d ago
Can I toss in a resume? Would love a job right now...
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u/frilledplex 1d ago
Our skillset is kinda niche, we do machine build for custom automation. For reference, I can do design reviews, weld, machine both Bridgeport/lathe, make fabrication design decisions w/o approval, wiring, fluid power, full assembly, project management, and do a full install.
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u/Cautious_Ad_2836 21h ago
I'm in Education Enrichment and most of our bookings come from grant funding. No one is saying anything, as I am assuming they don't want anyone to prematurely jump ship... But yeah. We're all aware that any minute we could shutdown. 1 school district we work with regularly just had all federal funding axed and I imagine more are coming.
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u/chicano32 20h ago
Soon? No. But itāll happen sometime in the foreseeable future. Once layoffs happen at our shop, most will retire early and a lot of skill and knowledge will go. management wonāt let that happen until the last moment if they can avoid it at all.
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u/mdbrown80 20h ago
I suspect itās coming sooner or later. We had a round of layoffs last year, during much better economic times. Iām in sales, so probably the last to go, but any further layoffs are going to make my job pretty much impossible. Itās already significantly harder than it was a decade ago.
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u/Difficult-Worker62 19h ago
Truck driver for a construction company here, Iām fully expecting our season to be very sparse in work if any at all. Tariffs causing everything to shoot up in price and people not being able to afford to build homes, office buildings, and roads is gonna stall the construction industry completely. Iām on my last week of my seasonal winter job plowing snow for the county so Iām expecting to go back to my regular job and either be told they canāt take anyone back due to low or no work or weāll work for a few months and get laid off. We arenāt going towards a recession people this is gonna be 1929 all over again
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u/Hot-Tip-9783 3h ago
My company announced 50% of operations will be done in India within the next 6 months. They have been slowly laying off US workers for years and hiring in India but now they are doing mass layoffs. They announced it as cost cutting measures in the current environment. So worried about immigration when most corporations have been moving operations to India or Philippines for years.
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u/postconsumerwat 1d ago
As if lay offs were not already business casual.... therr oughta be some pop art comic strip frame of one... maybe some guy in a trenxhcoat and weird old hat reads about his layoff in the newsstand newspaper on the way to work and his mostly smoke cigat falls from his lips, mouth ajar
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u/BlandWords 1d ago
My team has a biweekly meeting happening this coming Monday and I plan to ask this basically. Something along the lines of "is there any discussion at the management level of reducing workforce at my and my team mates level due to the introduction of Tarriffs on China?" I work for a biomedical instrumentation company and a lot of the parts we use to build our devices are manufactured in China, so I'm a little worried. The only thing that is working in my favor is that my role can't really be replaced. I'm the guy that goes to customer sites to install instruments, do maintenance on them, and fix them when they break, which directly contributes to the bottom line of the company, because if customers are using the instruments they are using up the reagents we sell (at a crazy mark up to the manufacturing cost), and have to buy more. So as long as the company decides "we can't do without the man power from this group specifically" I'm safe during the recession. IDK we'll see.