Did honesty, integrity, and character mean so little?

The plant I work at is closing in a few weeks. Every since it was announced, people have been calling in like crazy, taking lots of vacation that they normally wouldn't, and refusing to work overtime. To get their severance they have to work until July 9th. We have seen a noticeable reduction in production as well. I tell them that they're paid to do a job and I expect them to do it just like any other day. I was told tonight that I need to change with the times.

They earned that vacation time / PTO. I'm assuming they will lose it if they don't use it. They have every right to use it. The company set the game up like that, not them. If they're working for an organization that is circling the drain, they're prolly looking for another job. What factory announces that it's closing and expects to see production go up?

Sorry to hear that your plant is shutting down. What type of plant and what do you do for them?

The days when businesses were loyal to their employees are long gone.

Sorry to hear about your plant shutting down. Employees have feelings and they are sure to be upset and have to make a huge change in their lives. As already mentioned above employees will take their earned time before they loose it and yes their moral will be low. The employees that will maintain a good attitude under some trying times, smart, and with good work ethics will go on to equal if not better employment. Life is full of up's and downs. A good positive attitude goes a long way! Hang in there!

In most cases, yes, but not all.

If I were working for a company and they announced a shutdown in a few weeks, I'd be on a hard search for new employment and I'd make sure I receive everything that I am entitled to as their employee. Going the extra mile would be out the window. It would be finding the best measure to take care of me, not the company that's closing its doors.

GL to you and your company's last few weeks.

And you are continuing to slave away, working overtime to save a dead company? Leading from the front? Setting the example?

My friend, you need to do what they are doing, and that is searching for a new way to support yourself and family.

If the company really cared, they would have asked the employees to continue working and that all accumulated CTO, PTO or whatever would be paid out with the final paycheck.

Employees have 401Ks now. you Can take that with you from one job to the next.

Retirement income from a Company is a thing of the past.

That brought an end to loyalty to an employer.

Face it You are a Contractor and most jobs will last 7-10 years.

Every situation can be different. Went through it twice. Once when most of the staff's jobs were being outsourced. The current staff that lost jobs and didn't get job offers by the group taking over the outsourcing (they hired about 25% of our staff) lost all interest in doing any of the work and just punched the clock to the end. The other scenario, the whole department was shutting down and the company had announced they would not be hiring. I was lucky that it was a small department of good people. We had to move our jobs to people that were in different departments. All but one of my staff were able to get jobs (despite the company saying they would not retain/hire) with the departments they were transferring the work too because they worked so hard to make sure the work was transferred over smoothly and those departments had an unfilled position or 2 the HR was willing to fill. The one where the department was shutting down did it right. They had it set up where they were going to pay the employees time and a half if they didn't take any of their vacation days between the announcement and the transfer/termination date. The outsource one didn't do that. As the manager of that team, even I went out and got a new job before the termination date. No loyalty to the workers, no loyalty to the company is required.

If they have vacation days then it's part of their pay and they should use it. Hopefully most of them are using those days to find another job. It seems to me the employees don't need to be local to a business that didn't do what it took to stay in business.
I'm with most of the others on here. Maybe you should be doing the same.

I can see your frustration. I am going through a similar situation w/ a merger. Those that are moving over transfer next week, those that are not moving are being less than accommodating.
Productivity loss is to be expected and they have to be thinking of their own well being over the companies or their co-workers.

Let's see, a year of Covid, record cold and power outages and now they are losing their jobs. You need to show a little empathy.

This is why in the restaurant industry, when a restaurant shuts down, you only learn about it when you show up for your shift, the doors are locked and there’s a note on the door informing you that the party is over.

Change with the times? Man you're decades late. I learned the phrase "short timing" at my first job out of college in the early 90s, and I'm sure it was common way before that.

At my job you could get 750 sick hours which I had. They decided that amount of sick time was unachievable. They dropped it to 480 hours and informed me I would be getting paid the difference but only 10% of my hours.
My boss let me use quite a bit of the sick time before the new hours took effect. I recently retired and used all of my sick time before I left which all my bosses agreed to. If you earned the time use it.

I’d be playin’ “Take this job and shove it!” On repeat...calling in sick on every day but payday, flipping the bird, you name it! They’d fire me and I’d collect unemployment. It’s the new American way!