The company told us they need to save a billion dollars to build out the spectrum so this is part of it. They are bleeding customers left and right from satellite and while having Sling helps it just isn’t as profitable. Just to think of all the work we put in for dish is sickening that there was no consideration. No heads up to give us time to plan ahead. They wouldn’t even allow me to take a lower position with the company when I begged. I worked so hard for that company. I did everything they told me, I was a huge advocate for dish constantly telling new employees all of the amazing opportunities available simply for being a good worker. I was excited to see where the future would take us. I worked my way up. I had a favorable review with a raise every single year for 8 years. I got a raise a week before they told me I was laid off. I have tons of awards for being at the top of my position. I was widely regarded as a model employee and I went out of my way to do so much extra for them. They gave no explanation, just that it was a reorganization of the cxo. They always say “reorganization” to get around saying layoffs. I honestly just wish I could have my job back because I loved the people that worked in my site like family and the products we had genuinely interested me. I honestly thought I’d retire from dish and never in a million years thought I’d be chosen for a layoff in any situation other than a full site closure. After talking to some others it seems like the ones who were let go from management positions in the sites without huge layoffs were simply the ones making the most money, which in turn means the most tenured. There was no consideration that was allowed from local management, apparently it was just a spreadsheet of high earners. I would have been one of the last to go from my position if choice was given because I was the workhorse, the most flexible with hours, and the one considered the expert in my position. The rest of the team would come to me with questions. I was also one of only two who had the ability to perform every function of the position so now they will have to train others, not to mention they just hired a new person to our team a few months ago who still is in the process of being onboarded. They should have just moved that person back. I’m honestly in shock and feel sick about the whole thing. On top of all that they only offered 28 days severance with no benefits and I’m seeing others being offered 60 days pay and benefits. I just don’t get it in the last month I was recognized as the top of my position for the entire company, got a good annual review and raise, got great feedback from my manager about how well I have been doing, and I was the one performing the most work this year on my team by far. I am going to pursue legal action. I will make it my life’s mission to let any perspective or current employee or customer know how heartless and terrible the people at dish corporate headquarters really are. They are so cheap and so egotistical that they really do think they are above the law, just look up how litigious they are and a few times that judges called out dish. I have a slam dunk case to get a high 5 figure, but hopefully 6 figure judgement against them for the breaking FLSA law in regard to my pay they also did not allow me proper breaks. I also have witnessed targeting against pregnant women and other EEOC violations that will all be brought to light. I may even have what’s needed for a class action, depending on wether arbitration agreements will block it or not, but we will see, if so I will post about it here.
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Don't feel bad you aren't the only one. I was a tech for 11 years, served as a dish coach, did samsung repair and assisted the qas team during the roll out of the MVDDS installations. I have never been written up, always on time and was a go too guy for my FSM. January 2019 I was put on a performance plan because my numbers were lacking, and they didn't take into account that I spent 3 months of the year assisting the qas team and that I spent another 6 week in samsung training. I was told I was being laid off on April 8th, but that they would pay me up until the 11th to finish out the pay period. The screwed up part is that when they laid me off they a new hire in the next room watching training video's. I was out of the Phoenix Az area.
They have done the same with WAH agents and we weren’t offered any severance pay they are making it look like we were fired/let go because of poor performance ect. But they told every single one of us it was because the company is downsizing and they needed to cut positions. I wonder why the deals they are giving everyone are so different. I’ve already been in touch with the labor board and other recourses since I am based out of cburg. They actually didn’t give any more notice then 24 hours Before they started letting people go. And the 60 severance and keeping them listed as active employees during those 60 days is how they are avoiding the WARN act for that site.
Texas is a WARN act state, so those sites would qualify if they indeed violated it. Of course calling public relations was no help as they were not givng any information to our local news paper, so it maybe that it is being violated and they will jot gice out the right info unless its being subpoenaed or something.
Unfortunately there’s not a lot of teeth to a lawsuit. I believe all dish sites are in at will states and as terrible as it sounds they are allowed to just let you go. I know that WARN was not a requirement for my site so I’m not stating that they were required to notify, just out of common decency that when you have people with families it would be nice to do something to allow them some settle time. I understand that a jaded employee can cause harm, but it would not have been hard to give a NDA and expectations to continue for 60 days or so and just term on the spot if violated. I know the people in my site who were let go would have continued to do honest work and appreciate the heads up. Now as far as why I think my lawsuit is different is because there are specific employment laws that were broken with me during my employment and these are things that other companies have lost cases on before and even Dish was told that it was an illegal thing to do in calculating how to pay out settlements with previous employees who won a lawsuit. I think I’m going to create a Reddit group for all of us to join and discuss, if nothing else we can get out there in numbers and bring to light the way dish treats it’s employees, just simply do like they always told us - share your story. We have to hold businesses accountable and this would be a great way to do so in a fair and truthful way. But if you were offered the hush money severance don’t sign it! You will eliminate your right to speak freely about dish if you do.
From everything I read, the mass layoff only warrants a warning through the WARN act if they're laying off more than 500 people at a site (They notified Christiansburg for sure) or if 50-499 people make up 33% of the site that's being laid off.
I found out by accident I was being let go and it was explained to me the day before I was fired that legal approved everything before firing or letting us go. If we were on active performance plans with a time frame, they voided it and cited performance as an issue (I had ONE bad performance period and I met goal the very next period). I was also given a raise and moved to another department when they fired me. There were people with worse numbers than me that period who weren't put on performance plans and still managed to stay. All I know is that if we were on the list of cuts, that was pretty much it.
They gave us impossible goals; new remote metrics (which I wasn't dishonest enough to get creative with), made handle time suddenly matter, call volume being lowered to 100 from 200, mandatory ATO, new attendance policies, etc...
Honestly, I'm more worried about trying to find a job and pay for rent, food and auto. I wish you all the best of luck with that lawsuit. It really s---s and I empathize with every one of you let go. :(
I too agree. The severance package offered was more of a hush offering. I am not signing that paper. We need to unite with one another and seek legal action if we can. These layoffs affected our family at home and at work. We were blindsided by this decision which surprised all of us. I too was a performing coach with stellar reviews and had recently been given a raise.
Just know, you aren't the only one feeling slighted in all of this. Down in El Paso (not sure what site you are in) we are considering legal action as well. Their severance agreements should mostly be considered hush money, and you should not accept it as it relinquishes your right to sue. In El Paso, we will keep an eye on this page to see if we can come up with some sort of class action lawsuit. We should be approaching this from every angle.