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[dippydave]

**Rant alert - thanks for your time if you wanna read it  **

Just wanted to share the news I received after my Saturday night work. That I had to be let go   was sacked with immediate effect. Bit of a shock was an understatement!

FYI, I'm a nightclub and mobile DJ, have worked all over the place, but mostly in the same local venue. As well as play music and entertain, i've done nearly every job from cellar man to maintenance there. Since 1997 I've worked from 3 to 6 nights a week for the same manager but been through several owning breweries.

The area manager had decreed that changes needed to be made to improve the business. Bar prices have been reduced, promotion teams increased, some minor painting tarting up has been done but no, that's not enough.

Every entertainer needs to be replaced.

My notice? er, none. Don't deserve it. Don't have to have it as i'm self employed and under no contract save a verbal one: I'll turn up for work, you'll pay me - that's as far as it goes.

Ah c'est la vie, I'm not bad, I'm good at my job, i've done nothing wrong - oo except work in a venue for nearly 14 years with only one day off sick - it's just that customers want something fresh. Apparently!

Fair do's, gutted, relieved, teary, angry, resigned, grateful for a new starting opportunity, sad for loyal friends and customers... all feelings i've gone through in the last 48 hours.  :-/

Worst thing for me? not being trusted to have a final set, a final week of work. Apparently, once sacked, disc jockeys are renowned for not turning up for work. Exqueeze me? in what professional world? I still want to be paid, even more so with a limited income for the foreseeable future, and want to continue working after so damaging my professional reputation would help me how?

Grr at breweries. Grr at companies who think they can treat people as numbers on a page. Grr at being tarred with the same brush as others in the same profession. Grr at managers who think they are better than the employees who keep them in a job. And Grr at companies run by accountants and managers who don't know the real world!  Oh and I realise a nightclub is not the real world at all, but a world of escapism that still has real people in it!

Maybe the worst thing is that the man who's paid me all these years didn't even know I'd been sacked as he's off sick with stress. I have sympathy for his condition but he bloody lives above the club and when I shook his hand he didn't even say thanks. Just 'nothing I can do about it'.

Can't even go for a drive in me Elite to cheer up as it's bust too!

**Rant over. aye fank yew **

Least I got Cider, the OOF, and an 8 month old princess to cheer me up

Happy days, maybe i'll have more time for rantingposting!

ttfn
dave

[jonnycool]

That's pretty shite mate, by anyone's standards. I hope things pick up for you soon, keep your chin up 

[albitz]

Have a word with CAB or ACAS, a contract might not need to always be a written agreement. Worth a try.

[the alarming man]

hi dave sorry to hear about your issues and it is complete cr4p...as for D.J not turning up....didnt chris evans fail to appear once he was sacked??....not completely same thing but it sounds as though new broom sweeps clean

[Richie London]

i can remember a few yrs ago my friends dad got laid off from the company he worked for after 18 yrs. he got nothing as he was self employed. laws have changed  now so i would get advice

[Big_Al]

"The area manager decreed changes had to be made "

I'm guessing he's new or just been promo'd -- typical middle managment move -- "watch me get this company moving" and" I don;t care who gets wasted along the way"

Seen lots of this over the last few years,  these people with these great ideas never last long , but it's all the heartache they cause along the way that pees me off.

How they get these jobs is beyond me   (Rant over !)

Feel for you mate,  hope things take a turn for the better though.

[Ken T]

I don't suppose there is any local competition ?. If so, offer your services (for a reasonable fee) promising to bring along "your Crowd" , and if you can get the word out that you have moved to a better location, better sounds, drink etc, etc, this will put your previous place at a severe disadvantage.

Plus you know how the old place works, which may be of interest to another employer  . Oh and next time get an agreed termination clause .

Ken

[albitz]

Might have been wise to post your (very old ) joke in the joke thread sticky, rather than in a thread concerning another members very real problems.

[Banjax]

"The area manager decreed changes had to be made "

I'm guessing he's new or just been promo'd -- typical middle managment move -- "watch me get this company moving" and" I don;t care who gets wasted along the way"

Seen lots of this over the last few years,  these people with these great ideas never last long , but it's all the heartache they cause along the way that pees me off.

How they get these jobs is beyond me   (Rant over !)

Feel for you mate,  hope things take a turn for the better though.

yep, I've seen that a lot, especially big corporations, new manager/area head comes in and changes things for no better reason than they actually have to show they made a difference to justify their position - it would be funny if it didn't have far reaching consequences sometimes.

anyway, with your experience it sounds like you wont be out of a gig for long- best of luck 

[russ0205]

Go and get some advise mate cab i would say, cheer up tho look on the news there is worse off. :-/ :-/ :-/ :-/

[Mr Skrunts]

It happens matey, sad I know

Go to where your venue was, grab a coke and sit there all night, maybe the locals will recognise you and tell the management hoe shite the new turn is and demand the DJ be brought back.

Get a new number and advert and start handing fliers out to local venues.

But also make your your old details known to all the locals plus make yourself available (at short notice) in case this newmanager gets let down, lets face it, work is work, and you help him out one night at short notice then he may well return the favour on a regular basis (Just charge more, or give a discount for advance bookings.

[scimmy_man]

Im pretty sure if you have only worked for the same place for 14 years you are not self employed,

go see CAB.

[doog]

Dave
i am in the same line of work,
   I am surprised that you lasted 14 years at a club  cos  djs and unit managers are the first people to go when the takings fall.
They will bring in someone new  pay him less and  try out new types of music

 All the club was due you was the money for your shift  if they gave you no notice and no time to get another shift.

You should know these gigs dont last forever   time to move on theres plenty of work out there .....

Doug

[bigegg]

Im pretty sure if you have only worked for the same place for 14 years you are not self employed,

go see CAB.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
what he said + see a solicitor
HMRC might also take an interest -
they have quite strict guidelines about whether someone is self-employed or employed.
One of the main "tells" is:
could you send someone else to do your shift if you wanted?
If the answer is NO, then you are employed, not self-employed.
If so, then you have the same rights as any other employee.

hth.

[Mysteryman]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Workersemployeesandselfemployment/DG_10027916

Various factors will determine your employment status. For example, just because you have a contract that describes you as an 'employee' or as 'self-employed' does not mean that it is the case.