>> My mother is a highly experienced engineer, and she earns quite a lot 
>> of money.
> 
> She should be in a favourable position to move jobs then, plenty of 
> professional older workers move companies, and don't believe all the 
> hype about there being no jobs at the moment - monster sends me about 
> 10-20 new jobs every day for quite a narrow area of engineering.

Ah, but that's the great thing about monopolies, isn't it? Your skills 
are only relevant to the company that holds the monopoly.

Besides, who's going to hire an old fat women approaching retirement age?

>> We're 
>> talking about a systematic plan to save the company money by pushing 
>> people out the door on the cheap.
> 
> A lot of companies have been doing that recently, she shouldn't feel 
> it's anything personal against her.

You and I know it isn't personal. When you haven't slept for several 
months consecutively, it feels like the world itself is against you 
personally.

>> I don't know - 
>> if you can see that an employee is stressed out, would you spend 20 
>> minutes screaming at them at the top of your voice? Does that sound 
>> constructive to you?
> 
> No, it sounds like she should make a complaint.  At the very least she 
> should be recording all such incidents.

When the company itself has decided they want to get rid of you, is 
complaining to the company really going to get results?

Who do you complain about? It's not just one person, it's the whole system.

(I'm not sure whether she's already tried this route. I'd have to go 
find out.)

> There are plenty of avenues to take when making complaints.  I would do 
> it internally first, if it's a large company it will definitely have an 
> internal procedure which should probably follow first.  If that bears no 
> fruit then there are plenty of external options, like tribunals and even 
> going to court.

Oh, they definitely have an internal procedure. I don't know whether 
she's tried it yet. She's tried talking to the union, but they seem to 
be being almost as stroppy with her as the company itself. Not sure what 
else there is. But watching my mother degenerate into a living zombie, I 
find myself thinking somebody should be taking these people to court... 
It surely *can't* be legal to make somebody physically ill.

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