Been with this company for a little over 5 years, started at $10/hr and worked my way up to 24.70/hr. I worked my ass off to get to where I was, welp business got slow so they pulled me into the conference room on Wednesday and said “we had to cut 3 positions in your department, you're one of them. You have two options: move to a different department for $20/hr or take unemployment.”
Not much of a choice if you ask me, I was livid and let them know what bullshit this is, I've been nothing but loyal to them but it didn't matter to them if they can save a little bit of money. I thought I had tenure over all the other new employees but obviously that didn't matter.
I did suffer a work injury 2 years ago and have chronic pain in my right arm but I still showed up to work every day, the only thing workman's comp covered was my medical bills and PT, not wages since I was still working my 40 a week. I know it in my heart this was part of the reason they cut my position, why keep paying a hurt guy X amount when we can pay a new employee far less.
I'm considering taking legal action, since I was hurt on the job 2 years ago, my performance has suffered because of it and they holding that against me even though they won't admit it, my state is a “right-to-work” state so they can fire or demote me for absolutely any reason so I'm not sure what to do.
End of rant, TLDR: loyalty is a one way street, companies and HR pretend to be your friend until it's no longer profitable for them.