My company laid off a bunch of people in March/April at the beginning of the pandemic. Then they hired several of them back several months later. They also hired several other people that were not previous employees. One of the guys that was laid off in the spring was finally rehired in early November, to a different department. That guy, along with a few other people just got laid off at the end of the day Friday, one week before christmas. Seems like shitty timing to lay people off a week before christmas, especially that one guy that was only back for like 6-7 weeks. One of the other people laid off was a fresh hire within the last 2 months as well. Why bother hiring someone just to lay them off less than 2 months later?
I also got an email from our finance department that they are not paying the invoices for some first aid training and AED rental units we have because they are too expensive and they think we can get those services cheaper from another provider. The training has already taken place, and we have a rental agreement with them for the AED units. Both were approved in advance by the plant manager. I don't really understand the finance department's argument that they aren't paying for it because they think it's too expensive, when it's already been approved by the plant manager, and the services have already been rendered.
Some of the decisions around here really leave me scratching me head. This is surely going to sour our relationship with this company (who provides a bunch of other services to us), and also make me look like an idiot. I'm unsure if I'm supposed to go back to the company and tell them despite me signing these contracts and agreeing to pay...we aren't going to pay. I also feel like fuck you (finance department), you are the one reneging on this after management previously approved, so I don't feel like it should be my problem to deal with. I feel frustrated about the situation so I haven't responded yet.
Does this sound like a company that is in financial trouble? Or are the finances just so poorly managed that they can't project out more than a couple of weeks? I know 2020 is a weird year, but it seems so bizarre to go from laying people off and restricting OT, to rehiring them plus new hires, back to laying people off all in a matter of like 8-9 months.
There have been a few other bizarre encounters with finance. We are required to do a set amount of wastewater testing (by an outside 3rd party lab) and file a report with the regulatory authority every 6 month period. I wanted to shift the testing from being done at the end of the six month period, to closer to the beginning of the period so I don't have to scramble and to get the report in by the deadline. It's so much easier to do it months ahead of time, and submit it months ahead of time. They freaked out about that because they didn't want the lab bills coming in again so soon after the last one. It's not even extra expenses, I'm just talking about moving the testing schedule up 3-4 months, so the invoices will come in 3-4 months earlier, and apparently that's a problem for some reason.
In addition to that I am also getting tired of people that don't do their job properly, and the entire company culture of not taking covid seriously. Tomorrow is my last day and then I'm on vacation until after new years, so hopefully I can decompress and come back not so frustrated.