'We were all shocked': New Owners Lay Off All Employees and Force Them to Re-Apply For Their Jobs, Nobody Does

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Nov 11, 2022 12:00 PM EST

This company and its new owners experienced an important lesson when they laid off all of their employees in a cruel and misguided power play. The issue was… When the time came to decide which employees they wanted to keep, no one had reapplied.  

Reddit user u/alldogzzarebeautiful posted this topic to the r/antiwork subreddit. The thread is full of vigor and fury at the injustice that they suffered at the hands of the company's new owners. This is a tactic that companies loved to use when they had more leverage over employees during the long period following the 2008 financial crisis. Now, however, with unemployment low, there is no need for these employees to even reapply. This manipulative tactic has now turned into a gross miscalculation for the company. 

Commenters are irate and letting their disdain for the company and their terrible practices be well known. 

Have you ever experienced something like this during your working life?
 

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  • 01

    My Employer Was Sold. We were all laid off and told we could re-apply for our jobs. Nobody Applied.

    Font - Posted by u/alldogzzarebeautiful 9 hours ago 2 My Employer Was Sold. We were all laid off and told we could re-apply for our jobs. Nobody Applied. I work for a small family owned manufacturing business that is very profitable. We were called into a meeting on Monday and told effective today we were all being laid off as our company was sold to a private equity fund. The owners apparently structured the sale as an "asset sale" so all the employees were considered a liability. We were invit
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 02
    Font - Our average employee has been here 18 years and many over 25 years so many are simply opting to retire. The challenge for the new owner is we make a niche product using machines that were built and maintained by our shop and that specialized knowledge just walked out the door. Moving the plant or outsourcing isn't really an option. Even our senior managers who ran sales and finance are leaving. I'm going to expand my side gig business which is taking off so I can spend more time with the
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 03
    votedog 1 hr. ago at work "Working" A grocery store near me was bought out and they made all employees reapply for their jobs. Not only did most of the employees not reapply but locals stopped shopping there to protest how they treated employees. It's bulls to make people who have been working somewhere reapply for their jobs, what is wrong with these people that they have to be like that? Vote Reply Share ... WhydIJoinRedditAgain 26 min. ago The truth is that business is used to have MUCH more
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  • 04
    zoltar-wisdom · 38 min. ago 18-25 years & they didn't even give a heads up. Secrets & scheming to the bitter end. Company in my city did the same thing. This is why I'll never trust any company I ever work for again. They scheme & use you, but expect perfection & will fill your head with bulls about family & purpose. It's a game & they only care about winning & getting one over on you. If anything, they hate you. You're a drain on the bottom line. If you're not part of the core founders group th
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 05
    Font - DriedUpSquid. 1 hr. ago Come back as "consultants" when they get desperate and start calling the old employees. Charge them through the teeth. Vote pschmid61 40 min. ago I hope the deal blows up for the greedy former owners. If the equity fund didn't anticipate this possibility, they have failed as well. Vote Reply Share Vote Reply Share d4rkwing 24 min. ago Nah. Get together and start a competing business. Reply Share
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 06
    Font - nickis84 40 min. ago So much for the former employees being liabilities. The new owners are finding out that the former employees were the true assets of the company and that they should have highly valued. But they didn't and discarded them. The new owners even expected that they would return for more mistreatment. But, they were so overcome by greed they didn't pay attention to what was going on. Great resignation, low unemployment, older workforce: their plan is doomed and since the em
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 07
    Font - d4rkwing 27 min. ago Sounds like a very good opportunity for the former employees to get together and start their own company. Vote Reply Share OneTime MadeAGif just now Or for some machines to accidentally break on their last day. Vote Reply Share
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 08
    BigSpoon89 24 min. ago You should grab some coffee and donuts anyway. Vote Reply Share audiodude9 15 min. ago Exactly. Get coffee, donuts, and on the application simply write "thanks for the coffee and donuts" Vote Reply Share ghl17 15 min. ago right. I'm bringing a rucksack and filling it on their dime. Vote Reply Share
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 09
    LaughableIKR. 29 min. ago Scumbag move. A very profitable company could have sold it as is and still made a killing. Now they can eat sh. If the old owner had done the responsible thing they would still have people who knew what they were doing. Vote Reply Share
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful
  • 10
    Font - Donald Key 1 hr. ago at work Owners don't care. They cashed out. Typical boomer mentality. "I got mine, fick you" Reply Share Vote Adventurous_Wear681 just now Typical millennial attitude. Jump to conclusions and blame the Boomers. You go Millie and continue to clutch your pearls. Reply Share Vote
    via u/alldogzzarebeautiful

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