'Was it something I said?'
Slater and Gordon is making significant numbers of staff redundant and using non-disclosure agreements to keep them quiet, RollOnFriday understands.
Slaters was the first major law firm in the UK to signal its intention for staff to work remotely on a permanent basis, allowing it to jettison expensive office leases around the country.
But working from home has also siloed people, making it easier to secretly terminate them without their colleagues realising until they are just a mute black square on the next Zoom call.
"S&G are making huge amounts of redundancies but are doing it on the sly", a source told RollOnFriday. And to reinforce the silence, the firm is allegedly telling outgoing staff that their termination packages are time-limited offers which come with a gag.
Staff were being given three days to accept deals which incorporated an NDA "then they're gone. No announcements, just that emails bounce", said a source.
RollOnFriday attempted to get in touch with the firm's press team a couple of weeks ago to ask about this story, but received a slew of bouncebacks giving various reasons why each press officer was not at work.
The one press officer who did get in touch rubbished suggestions that his colleagues had been secretly booted, although he said RoF should contact him in future.
Unfortunately, this week RollOnFriday received a bounceback from his email address as well, stating that he had left the business. All the profiles of the (ex?) press officers have now been removed from the firm's website.
Probably for that reason, no-one at the Golden Turd 2021 responded to repeated requests for comment.
Comments
224
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S&G continue to be an embarrassment to the profession. As an ex Solicitor at the firm I can confirm it continues to be a shitshow from talking to the few colleagues I still know working there.
141
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Firms making secretive redundancies without being straight with their staff are making a mockery of their employer brands. They might as well throw all their D&I claims and good employer accolades in the bin. Certainly employees at places doing this should discard any misplaced residual loyalty they have because they could easily be next on the block.
145
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All started going down hill 12 months ago, head of PI left, head of family and the head of employment left domino effect has happened. Horrible place to work
150
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All started going downhill when S&G bought Quindell for over a billion Aussie dollars!
102
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During this uncertain period its ok to not to know not to know not know nothing.
160
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Discovered my own boss had been booted out when I received a bounce back email. We had only been speaking 30 minutes earlier. It really was that quick and brutal.
121
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Starting at Fentons was the second happiest day of my life. Leaving S&G was the happiest.
96
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Magic Circle and US firms were doing this too last year.
143
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A career at Slater and Gordon can be a rewarding and challenging adventure!
Over 50 jobs available at this firm, the HR team must be the most overworked department in the country...
112
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I don't feel so good Mr Stark...
106
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Good to see somethings never change
98
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Shoosmiths have been having "the quiet word" for years. This ain't new for the mid-tier quagmire.
108
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Why do people go to work for firms like this? Since also students are reading this site they should be well informed before applying for a job.
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125
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Can the last person out of the building please switch off the lights!
89
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That’s how NRF approached their 132 redundancies in January and nobody commented!!
127
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They don't even have buildings anymore, perhaps switch off the bedroom lights.
i bet the 'Chief People Officer' has still got her nose in the trough...
oink oink
94
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There is no doubt whatsoever Slaters deserved the Golden Turd award. Other firms will be hard pushed to beat them in next year! Go on try your worst!
101
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Tee hee hee.
89
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Not sure why S & G are getting singled out. There are other firms out there who have been busily reducing their costs through “redundancies”.
Their reputations are now so sullied they will never be able to scale back up.
You reap what you sow.
107
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Cutting costs constantly owned by a hedge fund, what is S&G worth? Maybe Irwin Mitchell are just waiting for the firm to go bust and take the WIP rather than buying.
107
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IM are bulk buying their files, wake up people
98
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Think S and G are buying IM files
103
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Many of those files went missing or were only partly uploaded to file mgmt system.
106
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Where are you now? Totally bought into the hype.
105
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What wip do they have that is actually of value. The fake profits promised by the ring road, garden city, industrial park, call centre garbage Quindell or whatever other name it traded under is the reason for this shambles in the first place is it not? Now Im aware they have a small amount of elite departments but the good people have jumped ship and taken the work with them surely.
113
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Work in pieces not progress.
105
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In all seriousness how are S&G still trading, this seems to have been ongoing for years.
98
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I left in late 2017 and even back then I half expected to turn up one day to the lights off and a shut up shop. The fact its still limping along is a minor miracle. If S&G was a dog you'd have long since put it out of its misery.