I hope there will be no new layoffs soon (?), but no one is ever safe around here. That's why I worry if I'll get notice while on vacation, and the situation is so tense that it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Of course it’s tense because we’re understaffed. It’s my subjective feeling, but I feel like I’ll be a special target if I exercise my right to a vacation.
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You are losing hard earned money by not taking your PTO. Don’t make that kind of donation to the company. Go! Enjoy!
"I think “we” are on “a list” long before the layoff actually happens. I doubt that going on vacation will trigger a layoff."
exactly right. sometimes the lists are months old before the hammer swings. as in, 130 people on a list, staggered across "layoff day" over a few months. if OP is on a list they're on a list, regardless of whether or not they take PTO - so take PTO.
in my experience watching layoffs here, it very rarely has anything to do with anything "bad" an employee has done. sure, if you're a 2 in your last review and a layoff list is created, you're not unlikely to find yourself on it (though even then it's not a given; plenty of 2s survive layoffs), but more often than not it's arbitrary cost-cutting based upon title/salary/how close one might be to retirement [i've seen SME 5s get the hammer] - and it's also not remotely uncommon for your direct manager to neither be the person who put you on the list nor to even know you're on it until the last minute (and in some cases, not even then - i've known of quite a few managers who found out their employees were riffed by said employees themselves).
so take PTO. don't log in unless you feel like it. there's literally nothing you can do to avoid being added to a list should the powers that be decide your position is no longer important (and it often is, and they're left scrambling after the fact because they do absolutely no due diligence prior to creating their lists).
You can take the time off but expect to work anyway or you will be on the layoff list. They routinely expect people to sign on and work during their scheduled vacation
If you don't use your PTO, you will lose it! So just use it and enjoy it!
I think “we” are on “a list” long before the layoff actually happens. I doubt that going on vacation will trigger a layoff. I was supposed to be notified when I was on PTO, they had to wait till I got back. And I ended up with an extra month of health insurance because of the way it happened.
Anthem sucks but they are bureaucratic and it takes time for anything to move through the archaic process.
Use your vacation to job search if you must! But enjoy PTO since we get so little of it! Eventually you will lose fear from your life and know whatever happens is meant to be. Any many won’t be sad if they get let go from here