First Texas laying off employees.

I don't know what is up with First Texas but I see that they have laid off some good people. I really like Fisher /Teknetics products but for them to layoff employees right before Christmas leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I wish the employees who got laid off the best.

Seriously?

I agree completely, my good friend lost his job at 1st Texas last week. To be honest, it has turned my attitude against them for good. And right here at Christmas. I felt like something has been up for quite some time and this proves the fact. No one can convince me they're not in trouble. For more that 15 years I have promoted and sold many of 1st Texas products, but no more. Just think I almost fell for the F75+, BS...........

This is worse than Mr.Shirley holding out Christmas bonuses on Clark Griswold and his employees on National Lampoons Christmas Vacation movie. It just plain sucks to do that to people right at Christmas.

Quick, someone start talking about a First Texas model detector.

Maybe this will help them sell a few.

Never did understand why their warranty wasn't transferrable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 12:24AM by Sod-buster.

which staff? they are moving info a new huge facility first of the year which seems like growth not decline.

detectingMO Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> which staff? they are moving info a new huge faci
> lity first of the year which seems like growth not
> decline.


Maybe you hit the nail on the head.

New facility could mean better layout- time saved, and some additional automation, hence the need for fewer employees.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 01:02AM by Sod-buster.

Companies who are thriving don't lay off employees. In a growing company, if automation necessitates fewer employees in one department, they would be shifted to another department. Business Operations 101.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 01:34AM by Shenandoah Digger.

Shenandoah Digger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Companies who are thriving don't lay off employees
> . In a growing company, if automation necessitate
> s fewer employees in one department, they would be
> needed in another department.

My thoughts also booming companies don't lay off.

I suspect that detector sales - across the board - are down.

Minelab has scored a major marketing coup with the Equinox - but only at the cost of cutting the price of their probably most popular machine - by more than half.

Times are tough.

First Texas has radically cut prices on their leading models. CLUE!

It is not surprising that over the last several years that other Detector companies have made radical re-organization steps - some of our contributors can attest to that.....

Sad, of course. Having been laid off in 2002 by Honeywell, I understand the pain of being told that my services aren’t affordable any more. I moved on - I was lucky - I had another qualification to fall back on.

My respect and sympathy for working folks who are laid off. It’s hard to not take it personally.

With respect and sympathy for those affected.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 01:36AM by lytle78.

Depends on what staff. They may be laying off distributor/ dealer sales teams and hiring more warehouse and CSR staff due to sales model shift?Judging by last email sender change to dealers I think I know who mark was referring to. Sad but their business has changed and probably makes sense for them.

Sad to see as FTP style detectors are some of my favs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 01:47AM by detectingMO.

I think overall the hobby is slowing down. I have been hitting the local parks lately, and I'm hitting a lot of clad 1-3" deep, which tells me these parks have not been hunted much in the last years. Only the tot lots are clean.
Also look at the demand for used detectors the last few years, low low prices, equal weak demand. Down below under the online users , I see Geotech signed in, I think he is looking for hunting tips. He is going to be using his Muffler on a Stick on the weekends, just to make ends meet! Just kidding ya, Geo! I wish the company well.

They just bought out another company....
They are building a new warehouse....
They make more from BH products at big box stores in a few days than other companies make in a month...
They recently hired an engineer...(and are actually making new hires in other departments)
They sell NV goggles that cost $10K a pop...

Business Operations 101 is that if X person does have the skills needed to make position Y work during a shift in operations...they will hire a new guy to do it.

3 close friends and myself once got laid off after back to back years of HUGE profits. Replaced all 4 of us with college grads who knew how to write code better then we did. The company had even better sales in the years after that. That company is still going strong to this day.

Now before anybody jumps down my throat...I had lunches and conversations with a coupe of guys that got laid off at First Texas. They were great guys and hearing the news had me extremely shocked and bummed. I truly wish them the best.

Raising my pitchfork and spewing forth speculation and "I'm mad now" nonsense does not change anything. Life goes on for all involved...even when it does leave a bitter taste in ones mouth.

My YouTube - [www.youtube.com]
Website - [www.thehuntergt.com]

Business 101.

Your most costly liability I the long run= employees not equipment.

Younger folks who can do tasks, will generally do for a lower wage vs an older person who usually waants higher wage (for good reason) since their families are larger, and somewhat older.

Automation can cause positions to be deleted.
Are these folks always relocated?
Probably depends and depends on their actual perfermance or actual other qualifications for other positions.

Even the layout of a new building/equipment if thoughtfully pre planned can call for loss of positions.

Pretty much common sense.
Efficiency, this is important.

I saw a video of the inside of portions of Nokta's operations center.
I saw efficiency when I viewed-big time.

Old ways of doing business, can trap a business.

I when in the USAF was charged with viewing operations a lot of times, and reporting my opinion(s) on what I thought would streamline, make more effecient different operations taking place daily.

Just saving an employee from having to take one extra step walking to do a task, this adds up to saving TIME.

TIME is MONEY!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 05:53AM by Sod-buster.

I was laid off after 32 years when a contract changed hands. Thats life.

Sod-buster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Business 101.
>
> Your most costly liability I the long run= employe
> es not equipment.
>
> Younger folks who can do tasks, will generally do
> for a lower wage vs an older person who usually wa
> ants higher wage (for good reason) since their fam
> ilies are larger, and somewhat older.
>
> Automation can cause positions to be deleted.
> Are these folks always relocated?
> Probably depends and depends on their actual perfe
> rmance or actual other qualifications for other po
> sitions.
>
> Even the layout of a new building/equipment if tho
> ughtfully pre planned can call for loss of positi
> ons.
>
> Pretty much common sense.
> Efficiency, this is important.
>
> I saw a video of the inside of portions of Nokta's
> operations center.
> I saw efficiency when I viewed-big time.
>
> Old ways of doing business, can trap a business.
>
> I when in the USAF was charged with viewing operat
> ions a lot of times, and reporting my opinion(s) o
> n what I thought would streamline, make more effec
> ient different operations taking place daily.
>
> Just saving an employee from having to take one ex
> tra step walking to do a task, this adds up to sav
> ing TIME.


We'll see, but the lack of anything really new from FT makes you wonder. Didn't they have a plan to introduce a progression of new machines a few years ago? So far all we've seen is a rehashing of old stuff. Good machines, but nothing new that we haven't seen already. And MInelab's clever marketing has already stole the show for the foreseeable future with the Nox.

I got laid off one time in December. It sucked big time. I feel for anybody that loses their job before the Christmas holiday.

HH
Mike

maybe the hobby has mostly old timers and no new young blood ??
things are going for sophisticated software as we see at XP and AI will be lurking in the shadows .intresting times ..

3 and half million US truck drivers will be facing the sack when auto drive trucks get rolling and how will they respond ??

Any ever think the layoff timing might have more to to with the year ending?
It could be just coincidence that Christmas falls so close to yrs/quarter end.

Sorry to hear people got layed off, I wonder what’s going on at FTP? What company did they acquire?

John

Business always do their layoffs around then you have to do what is needed to keep your company running.
Here is an idea you start a business and employ them not so easy huh?

And you can just GOOGLE why business do their layoffs in December before blaming first texas for doing it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 04:43PM by GreenMeanie.

Green Meanie have you ever lost a job right before Christmas? I have a family just like the guys at First Texas who lost their jobs. Why wouldn't First Texas wait until after the New Year to lay them off instead of at Christmas when things are already stressful enough and money is tight. FTP gets a Bah Hum bug from me for doing this. And I don't have a company to hire them on but I do have the choice whether to buy the products that company makes and I won't after this.

Well never go to a WalMart...Kmart..or any big box store for that matter.

Ebay and Amazon are off limits too.

Boycott Google and the ISP you are using internet on.

They all do layoffs at years end.

My YouTube - [www.youtube.com]
Website - [www.thehuntergt.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:45PM by TheHunterGT.

Sad but true - the end of the year is when you have to come to terms with where you are as a business and how you will,position yourself for the year to come - when I got laid-off in 2002 it was mid-November. I was lucky - I got a fairly generous severance package which tided me over through the winter.

I have been told (via a personal communication with an FT employee who I have corresponded with for a while now on matters having nothing to do with metal detecting) that the employees laid off at FT received a severance package. Not a legal requirement, but since First Texas Products is proud of being a local success story - employing lots of El Paso folks in a clean, safe and by all accounts - happy work environment, I guess they felt that they ought to do what they could to lessen the impact.

Nobody likes this kind of thing - I have had to, on occasion, be the one responsible for deciding who stays and who goes. It ain’t fun - for anybody.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

One cold November day I was standing on the porch of a funeral home waiting for the procession to go to the cemetery. It was raining and dreary out. One of the other men on the porch said loudly "it sure is a bad day for a funeral". I responded "Any day is a bad day for a funeral".

I kinda feel the same for layoffs. There ain't a good time for them, no matter when it happens.

So much speculation and over reacting. The fact is none of us really knows what happened. Boycotting FTP will solve nothing,

Some small businesses do it during slow times when they want to keep them or give them time off for holidays..... which allows them to draw unemployment. Not as big a pay check, but its a cost saver to the company and still lets the employee draw something. Some construction companies do this in the winter.