PSA: Answers are not the place to live out your fantasy to stick it to "the man"

Question

I'm looking at this question: Employer made me redundant, then retracted the notice after realising that I'm about to start on a new project

I can see the top two answers suggesting leveraging the situation to try to be re-employed with a pay raise.

I also note the OP has said:

What's the best course of action for me? I'm still early on in my career and while I have confidence in my ability to get another job, being so close to Christmas I'm unsure of my chances.

They are clearly unsure if they'll be able to get another job in the short term if they do become unemployed.

Regardless of this, the top answers propose a risky strategy without understanding the exact situation the OP finds themselves in, and without warning of consequences. It seems there was an assumption the OP was happy to lose their job. One answer even suggests trying to get an extortionate pay rise of 2x to 2.5x?! Upvoted 21 times, downvoted once...

An comment by the OP on the other top answer:

Given the result of my conversation with my manager it seems like i don't have massive leverage and management would rather have the rest of the team working at 125% to cover me then to give me a raise. That's at least the jist of what i got from the meeting.

Hopefully going forward we can be a bit more measured in our advice.

And let's hope the OP can find another job soon.

Answer 1

I answered this question, I also thought about suggesting that this is a good time for a Pay Rise.

If a company has made you redundant and then gone 'Oh dear, we didn't mean that, we need your skills' - then yes, you do have leverage.

The company of course will say they will increase everyone else's workload to cover it - that tends not to work out very well... And the company knows it.

For the record, I work in NZ and we have a lot of similarities both culturally and legally with Australia, rescinding a Redundancy notice is not a trivial thing.

In order to do so, the company has a high degree of desperation, whilst the OP is right to be concerned about finding a job before Christmas, the inverse is also true, not a lot of people job hunting before Christmas either.

I don't read these suggestions as 'Sticking it to the Man', I read them as setting clear boundaries with your employer.

It's a disagreeable approach to be sure, but disagreeability is a high predictor in successful negotiation on your behalf. A lot of things in the workplace are caused by Employees believing themselves to be subservient to their employers, without realizing that it is a negotiation. You need something and your employer needs something.

You have the power to advocate in your own interest and the posters here are reminding them of that fact. You can ask for a raise, you can also walk away. Now, the poster can read the suggestions and (knowing the full minutiae of their personal situation) decide on a course of action. We all have our own principles and values and can choose what we prioritize most for ourselves.

As an example, at one company I had been promoted to the T3 Team, at the insistence of my then-manager, I had wanted to get into the T3 team for career advancement. I also didn't see eye-to-eye with the GM of that company. My Manager left, then there was an organizational shuffle, everyone else in the T3 team had their roles automatically transferred... Except me. After I sat through that powerpoint presentation, I felt so insulted that I immediately typed up a resignation letter and handed it in. I didn't have a job lined up, had recently bought a house and become a Father - but I wasn't going to stand for that kind of Bull.

One of the best decisions I made.

So TL;DR - Yes, it's risky, but it is (in the long-term) effective.

Reminding people they have the power to negotiate on their own behalf is probably the most helpful thing we can do on this site. The people that are upvoting these answers recognize that being disagreeable and advocating for yourself is the most successful long-term strategy.