Salary Cuts due to Covid

Our company took a 25% salary hit across the board and furloughed 35 senior salary people.

Most of those furloughed have since been released, including me; but I kept my 1099 commission sales job.

Not being based in NYC has helped me personally but in dealing with co-workers still on reduced salary and working at home has been increasingly depressing.

The workload is tremendous now that business is showing some signs of life. People are working on their cell phones in their kitchens and the relief they had by not being furloughed has become anxiety due to over work and depression that they have stepped back, doing more work for less pay.

Every decision takes 5 times longer since itā€™s all remote and the twice weekly zoom calls devolve into pep talk bullshit and bad jokes.

No one is venturing even a guess as to when the offices (in two countries btw) will reopen. But this situation is intolerable. To ask more and reward less, with everyone in an untenable office situation is not a long term strategy but I fear senior management sees it that way

The new norm cannot be repression, fear and anxiety. We are a creative industry. Flawed certainly (see companies off the rails section) but anyone drawn to fashion goes into it out of desire and hopes for a living. Most people go into a career for the living and hope for desire.

As a side note, speaking as a man in his 60ā€™s and knowing most of you on here are much youngerā€¦stay the course if you can. Dinosaurs like me are finally retiring because of all this. Itā€™s too hard and though itā€™s not the way we wanted to go out, well sometimes life is a surprise party.

There is going to be a tremendous opportunity for younger people to thrive, retail platforms are again going to be creative. This business will get fun again. Donā€™t lose the spark that brought you here!

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Feel like need to revisit this section,
Considering the thread has been offline since Nov. Does that Eman our industry back to "normal"ish??

Also, I was wondering if anyone out there whoā€™s been survived with paycut or got a job back like me in ā€œCovid rateā€=severe paycut, has anyone went back to full rate as of 2021?

Iā€™ve starting to here from industry peeps the salary being reversed as new year or February or late last yearā€¦ my company obviously no news regarding going bk to salary/raiseā€¦
Which makes me upset, cause my entire team are newly hired with reduced salary, and we work so hard -most of us got laid off, and get a job back here.

Just want to hear some thoughts, appreciate it
Guess I have to update my resume/portfolio again soon.
Any thought @grandpoobah ?

I canā€™t really speak to those that were retained by their employers BUT who had to take salary cuts. I can tell you that we arenā€™t seeing salary increases for new hires; rather, the opposite. As you can imagine, the garmentos are going to take any advantage they have to keep wages low.

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Okay, guess at least itā€™s not the only company taking advantage of Covid salary cuts.
Howā€™s job market nowadays since new year?
Has it been any better picking up with new hires?
Thanks for your input, all the timeā€¦!

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LA here, Iā€™ve seen jobs offered up that the salaries are 2006 levels or EVEN ROLLED BACK FURTHER. Itā€™s truly insane. Plus you get the added bonus of doing 2-3 jobs and being compensated for ONE. At a horrifying level. Remember, the poverty line in Los Angeles for a SINGLE person is around 60K!!!

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In New York I feel the same! Salaries offers I have seen are 30/35% less than they used to be. I had to take a job after searching for a year that is the salary I made in 2005. Same kibd of job and responsibilities but at a much lower pay rate. My alternative was staying unemployed which I believe is worse. I am hoping it will change but it will take some time and unfortunately we are the one paying for it.

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Iā€™m in NYC, Iā€™ve had a freelance fob for a couple of months now. my rate is good, even better than I was expecting. The downside is that itā€™s also part time hours. I only work 20 to 25 hours a week, but itā€™s more than unemployment!

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My whole design team was furloughed LY and brought back at our previous salaries but with more responsibility in January. We were told it was due to Covid cutbacks, but are watching other teams get promotions and pay bumps. Realizing my company just doesnā€™t value design.

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