“I'm being fired” or manipulations of HR and managers to force you to quit in one day. For example, Rolf

Introduction

In short, for those who haven’t heard about the new scandal in the IT market: Largest car dealer Rolf fires IT workers without compensation.

Several employees from the company contacted the union and described what was happening: +- 50 people decided to fire because there was no work for them. Employees were called one by one into the office where 4 colleagues were sitting and told about life, concepts and relationships: “well, we are like a family.” All for the sake of getting a signature on the agreement to terminate the employment contract in one day. Without any payments. Spoiler – almost all employees fell for the manipulation and have already been fired.

In a few days, the news spread across the Internet via telegram channels with millions of subscribers. Newspapers wrote about it and even deputies paid attention – Khinshtein took control of the mass layoffs of IT specialists at Rolf Tech.

But what's the point if 95% of those fired succumbed to manipulation and signed a piece of paper? Now it will be difficult to prove that there was moral pressure. You'll have to sue with a far from 100% chance of winning.

HireHack

I write about careers in IT: interviews, growth, dismissals, legislation. And memes, of course, where would we be without them)
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How should dismissal and layoffs take place – a brief excursion into labor legislation

Let's run through briefly how the analysis of all aspects of dismissal affects a bunch of articles of the Labor Code and requires a separate article, or even several. The most interesting for us is written in:

• Article 77. General grounds for termination of an employment contract

• Article 80. Termination of an employment contract at the initiative of the employee (at his own request)

• Article 81. Termination of an employment contract at the initiative of the employer

To summarize and without nuances:

• You can resign yourself if you want (at your own request)

• You can agree with your employer to part ways (by agreement)

• You screw up really badly and you get fired (under the article)

• The employer decided to lay off some of the employees (due to layoffs)

Rolf, like many HR/employers on the market, uses the clause by agreement of the parties. It is difficult to challenge in court, it cannot be revoked the next day, and you can write almost anything you want in it. In theory, you can remain indebted to the employer, but I have not yet encountered this)

How do they use it? It would seem that everything is fair – adults sat down at the negotiating table, discussed the terms of termination of the employment contract and found a compromise. In practice, until you encounter such a conversation at least once in your life, you will not even understand how harshly you are being tricked. Standard manipulations are used by all HR and managers. We will analyze them using the example of the same Rolf.

How to understand that you are being manipulated when you are fired

Thanks to my colleagues who showed me this wonderful presentation: How to fire ethically and without stress. ROLF's experience. Next there will be a bit of trolling and analysis of those same manipulations so that we can identify them ourselves in conversation.

Ethical and stress-free for whom? For HR? For a person, changing jobs is always stressful. According to one psychological test, dismissal is the 5th most stressful. Worse is losing a loved one or breaking up with a spouse.

Let's skip 3 slides of crap about how Rolf is fucking awesome, big, and what professionals work there. Let's stop at the slide with statistics. Over 6 years, the number of complaints in their company has increased 4 times and lawsuits 2 times. And they began to win 0 cases. Therefore, now these mega-professionals will tell other HRs how to “ethically and without stress” part with employees. It seems that something is not working out) Let's move on.

Here we are interested in the last point. Remember: as soon as they decided to fire you, you become for HR just one of a thousand employees that he will fire during his career. He will always be on the employer's side. When a doctor treats us, he is just doing his job. When HR fires us, he is just doing his job.

Beautiful, just like Statham. But another lie, since the former employee mentioned that his manager promised him a new project. It turns out he was unlucky. Next, we'll skip a couple of slides with thoughts like “hire good people and don't hire bad ones” and “look at how beautiful excel we draw, as if we work.”

No one extra

Hmm. If I haven't forgotten how to count, there should be three on the list. And Rolf's co-workers said that there were four of them at the dismissal meeting. Someone snuck in EXTRA.

Employee – internal client

Manipulation and substitution of concepts. An employee is an employee.

HR is a neutral party

No, and it can't be. We've already established this above. When HR gets an assignment from the manager to fire 50 people, he won't even try to defend them somehow. He will fire 50 people. The only question is how.

We prepare arguments, documents on unfulfilled goals

I wonder what arguments and documents those 50 dismissed people who were promised a new project had? What goals did they fail to achieve?

We prepare formal documents

This is to get you to sign documents right at the meeting. More on this below)

We set a meeting in the employee's calendar (in hidden HR)

And Rolf's employees say that the meeting was sudden and without explanation. Do you know why? To make it easier to manipulate and sign the papers they prepared. Unprepared people experience enormous stress and fear from such a situation. At the meeting, the only thoughts will be about how to make it end faster.

I still don't understand what “hidden HR” means)

Minimizing stop words…

Manipulations: substitution of concepts, use of softer and/or more streamlined formulations. Not dismissal, but personnel optimization.

Again manipulation:

• They must offer vacancies and compensation in the order of reduction.

• Why postpone the last day of work? You are already required to give 2 months' notice before layoffs.

• Flexible schedule for interviews is ridiculous. You invented the problem yourself and offered to solve it yourself.

• A positive recommendation is a very dubious alternative to 3 months' salary.

• Promise a refund – do you seriously think that the fired IT specialist will come back to you?

What does HR do? Try to seem like a friend, as if he will somehow help after you are fired. Convince that you will not be forgotten – they will give you a recommendation and you will quickly find a new job. But this is not true. Finding a job can take months in the current market. And the company and HR will not even remember you after you pick up your work record.

The purpose of the meeting is announced and that a decision has been made (“the decision has been made, we are here to agree on the terms”)

You should be prepared for this formulation. Everything that happens in the square under number 1 is the path to the goal under number 2. Once again, the task of HR is to bend you here and now and not give you time to come to your senses. It's like gypsies at the train station: they run up in a crowd, start yelling, spinning around you to distract you while the most dexterous ones sort out the contents of your pockets.

What to do? Repeat these words until the meeting is over.

• “I need 2 days to think and consult”

• “I can't quit right now. I have a wife, kids, dogs and a mortgage.”

We inform you that we will continue to live in a formalized mode of “goals and objectives” with subsequent paperwork

I translate into human language: “We will fuck your brains and give you impossible tasks every day under signature. And then we will fire you for cause”

Don't be afraid of this. 99% that they will seriously screw up because according to the Labor Code these procedures are very difficult to carry out correctly. And considering that they have already voiced the goals, this is coercion to dismiss and moral pressure. Which can be classified by the court not only as a violation of the Labor Code, but also as an administrative offense for the persons participating in this.

How to work correctly in a situation where you are given written tasks every day is a topic for a separate article.

We say that we operate within the legal framework and have the support of lawyers.

We remember. 3 times more conflicts, 2 times more lawsuits and 0 of them won. Liar)

Pride! We fired only 4% of our employees as required, the remaining 96% were taken in like suckers at the market.

Why is mutual agreement the only beneficial way for a company to fire a person?

Let's say the average salary of an IT specialist at Rolf was 200 thousand rubles. + small taxes due to accreditation, it would be + 30%. About 50 people were fired. Simple math shows that the savings amount to tens of millions net. Not taking into account overhead costs from x1.2 to x1.5 and sometimes x2.

This is another argument why an employee is an employee, and HR is a representative of the employer. Not a friend, not a family. Purely business and money. Therefore, all this nonsense about ethics and friendship is manipulation.

What conclusions can we draw from this whole situation?

• You should have copies of all the documents you signed when you were hired. Anything missing? You have the right to request copies in writing

• You should at least have a general idea of ​​the rights and obligations of you and your employer. Review the Labor Code articles on dismissal.

• Sooner or later, everyone will face a similar situation. When you are called to an “ethical” conversation with colleagues, do not fall for manipulation and take a couple of days to think. Repeat “I need to think for a few days” like a ram to all arguments. And then go to a lawyer.

• Don't be afraid and record the conversation with your colleagues. This will make your life much easier if it comes to court. The main thing is to warn them about it: “Colleagues, wait a second, I'll turn on the recorder and record our conversation.” You have the right.

• HR is not your friend or assistant. It is the employer's representative whose job is to bend you and not let the company lose money.