My old firm went from about 75 to about 25 over the course of 1 year, starting in summer of '08, bottoming out about a year later. I lost my job midway through the carnage. I visited their website recently , and noticed the About page on the website had not been updated in all that time; there we all are, a photo from early 2008 showing all 70 shiny, freshly scrubbed faces, unsuspecting of the impending earthquakes in the months ahead.......so many lives about to change.
As the website has been updated off and on since, I concluded its not inattentiveness, but intentional, that despite the horrific hit the firm has taken, its trying to portray that it is a much larger office than it is. I am sure the firm is not alone in attempting to send out a business as usual message , but the disingenuousness of this is disgraceful.
I moved on long ago , and for me, my layoff has been the best thing that could happen, but I think this sucks and had to vent about it. Wondering if others have run across other examples.
File a complaint for false advertising, misrepresentation.
If they have done government work (RFP. RFQ), inform your state's accountability office. Many governments use websites to verify the information obtained from RFIs through websites. Defrauding the government is pursued a lot more aggressively that fraud between private individuals.
You could also claim that the firm no longer has a right of publicity over your persona (given if your state has "right to publicity" laws). It is well within your means to ask them to blur out your face or crop you out of the photo.
I'm aware of firms that have taken to very shady practices during the downturn, one in particular that had an employee leave on their own accord and then the reception was directed to say that they had "stepped out" or are "out of the office" when a client called for them. A very risky tactic that looks damaging to the firm and especially the individual in question, who can be interpreted as being inattentive or slacking.
Another firm has lost a great job because the client found out through the grapevine that the staff had been cut by more than 50% and figured that they wouldn't be able to handle the workload... I can see both sides of this coin, as if they had received this project, they very well may have been able to hire back some of the staff they had recently laid off.
Let it go. They're under no obligation to update the webpage as YOU see fit, and they're not misrepresenting themselves either. Those people in the photos helped create the projects in their portfolio, and they are representing their history. Seriously, move on.
This is not much different than asking employees' friends or others to come in to the office on a day that a potential client comes in, to make the firm look busier than it is.
We'll stop using your image on our website when you stop filling your portfolio with images of projects that you only worked on for two days while at our firm.
The outrage expressed by some around here (not necessarily this person) about the misdeeds of employers supposedly acting like war criminals is humorous.
I'll bet if you asked some of these accusers about (1) the amount of time they spent on the internet at their desk, (2) the amount of personal xeroxing they did at the office, (3) the number of office supplies that magically now reside in their apartment, or (4), as you say, the number of beautiful images in their portfolio of projects that they barely worked on, these poor, aggrieved souls --if honest-- would be shamed into admitting that it cuts both ways.
i'd write your old firm and ask them to take your picture down since you are no longer a part of the firm and do not wish to be associated with it. frankly, it's tacky for them to have pictures up of employees they laid off.
Apr 3, 10 8:52 am ·
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My old firm went from about 75 to about 25 over the course of 1 year, starting in summer of '08, bottoming out about a year later. I lost my job midway through the carnage. I visited their website recently , and noticed the About page on the website had not been updated in all that time; there we all are, a photo from early 2008 showing all 70 shiny, freshly scrubbed faces, unsuspecting of the impending earthquakes in the months ahead.......so many lives about to change.
As the website has been updated off and on since, I concluded its not inattentiveness, but intentional, that despite the horrific hit the firm has taken, its trying to portray that it is a much larger office than it is. I am sure the firm is not alone in attempting to send out a business as usual message , but the disingenuousness of this is disgraceful.
I moved on long ago , and for me, my layoff has been the best thing that could happen, but I think this sucks and had to vent about it. Wondering if others have run across other examples.
what firm?
File a complaint for false advertising, misrepresentation.
If they have done government work (RFP. RFQ), inform your state's accountability office. Many governments use websites to verify the information obtained from RFIs through websites. Defrauding the government is pursued a lot more aggressively that fraud between private individuals.
You could also claim that the firm no longer has a right of publicity over your persona (given if your state has "right to publicity" laws). It is well within your means to ask them to blur out your face or crop you out of the photo.
I'm aware of firms that have taken to very shady practices during the downturn, one in particular that had an employee leave on their own accord and then the reception was directed to say that they had "stepped out" or are "out of the office" when a client called for them. A very risky tactic that looks damaging to the firm and especially the individual in question, who can be interpreted as being inattentive or slacking.
Another firm has lost a great job because the client found out through the grapevine that the staff had been cut by more than 50% and figured that they wouldn't be able to handle the workload... I can see both sides of this coin, as if they had received this project, they very well may have been able to hire back some of the staff they had recently laid off.
Let it go. They're under no obligation to update the webpage as YOU see fit, and they're not misrepresenting themselves either. Those people in the photos helped create the projects in their portfolio, and they are representing their history. Seriously, move on.
Any ego gone wild posting this topic.
Well that's common.I check out architecture firms sites and I see most of them were last updated in 2008.Nothing new here.
I'm more annoyed at offices that haven't updated their careers section in the last 3 years.
This is not much different than asking employees' friends or others to come in to the office on a day that a potential client comes in, to make the firm look busier than it is.
As FP recommends, move on...
We'll stop using your image on our website when you stop filling your portfolio with images of projects that you only worked on for two days while at our firm.
:o)
oh snap!
Touche', Babs.
The outrage expressed by some around here (not necessarily this person) about the misdeeds of employers supposedly acting like war criminals is humorous.
I'll bet if you asked some of these accusers about (1) the amount of time they spent on the internet at their desk, (2) the amount of personal xeroxing they did at the office, (3) the number of office supplies that magically now reside in their apartment, or (4), as you say, the number of beautiful images in their portfolio of projects that they barely worked on, these poor, aggrieved souls --if honest-- would be shamed into admitting that it cuts both ways.
photocopy your face then copywrite it.....
most small firms who do bigger jobs do the same. Nothing new.
i'd write your old firm and ask them to take your picture down since you are no longer a part of the firm and do not wish to be associated with it. frankly, it's tacky for them to have pictures up of employees they laid off.
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