Rehire

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I have a question for you. I was laid off in a senseless "cut-just-to- make-cuts" decision by clueless upper management (who, by now, I already know are the truly EVIL ones - not HR).

The thing is, I know that as soon as the company's profits come in line (once the aforementioned evil bunch are ousted), I'll be able to get my job back immediately. My question is - I know that there's some time limitation for when you can re-hire someone for a job that they were laid off from. Do you know what this is? I'm in Washington state.

There is no such thing as a time limitation by law. If your company wants to hire you back today they can. If they want to hire you back in 5 years, they can. Any limitation would be imposed by the company itself, it's not legal.

If you are in a union, there may be recall rights that will expire after a certain amount of time.

If you had to sign any documents, the information should be contained within your release or the accompanying information.

However, please don't count your chickens before they are hatched, or put all your eggs in one basket or any other poultry related trite sayings. If you "know" you'll be hired back I have to ask how you know this. You say the bad management will be fired.

Maybe, maybe not. Even assuming you are right and they are completely incompentant doesn't mean that they'll actually get fired. It may just mean that they will continue on in their ineffective management style.

Go look for another job. Don't count on this one to be there for you.