Well The Economy is Hitting Home

[crokett]

Everybody at my campus had a meeting with their manager yesterday. We lost two folks from my team even though we are officially under headcount. We were the fortunate ones - there are some teams on the development side that are gone. They were either cut outright or broken up and absorbed into other teams. Where possible people have been reassigned - my brother was one of them - but there are a lot more folks looking for jobs now.

[Ed62]

It's really getting rough. Our local newspaper is saying that Indiana leads the nation in jobs lost. But I don't personally know of anyone who lost their job.

Ed

[turkeywire]

Hi Guys,
I have been lurking for a little while and decided this is as good a subject to jump in as any. I'm in Houston and working in biodiesel. Had my hours and salary cut in half the first part of Dec. So I have been in the job market ever since and watching the number of jobs decrease ever since. Since I will be 63 shortly and am already retired Navy I could retire and be done with it. However I'm not ready to quit working.

[radhak]

Tell me about it!

We had been 'promised' in November of job cuts in Jan (made for not-so-great holiday season), and last week I found that I was the last-man-standing from a group of 32 ! My director, his VP, and all their teams were 'displaced'. Miraculously I was not touched, but now have to report to somebody sitting in the UK!

Everybody has till end of month, but I have the most awkward time till then. I feel for them, and am aware of the problems of being jobless in this market; so much so that I'm unable to feel relieved myself.

LOML of course let out a huge sigh of relief, as she could not contemplate the 'what if'...

[crokett]

It's really getting rough. Our local newspaper is saying that Indiana leads the nation in jobs lost. But I don't personally know of anyone who lost their job.

Ed

Before yesterday the only person I knew personally was my BIL. He starts back to work next week. Now I know a dozen at least,

[herb fellows]

My wife lost one of 3 people she manages, essentially one third of her work force. She did not even ask about replacing her, the assumption is that the answer wil be 'no', so why poke her boss with a stick. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a long bumpy ride!

[sd]

The RV industry was big in Indiana, which explains why so many jobs have been lost there. That industry has been devastated by the current economy. I work (or worked) for an RV maker in Oregon which has gone from 1800 employees to 500. Almost all of those remaining employees have been laid off since mid-November, and the plant may shut down for good if financing can't be found. It takes at least 45 minutes waiting on hold to get through to the unemployment department on the phone, and the local employment department office is jammed with people. I run into someone I know every time I go there. The local community college (which I'm planning to attend if I'm not called back to work) has seen a large increase in enrollment from displaced workers looking to retrain for a new career.

[twistsol]

I lost my job early last year and after a couple of months managed to pick up some contract work with GM through the end of the year. My contract with GM wasn't renewed, big surprise. I managed to find find a new job, but now I have a 60 mile commute for a 60% pay cut.

It's rough all over and probably will get worse before it gets better.

[cgallery]

Wow, I don't like the sound of this. It seems to really be beginning to feed on itself.

[crokett]

For my division this is in part because we got a new executive last year and the economy. The last couple years under the old boss my division would do ok overall. but there were always spots that would underperform. This year is the first fiscal year the new guy is responsible for. He wants everyone to hit targes. So some cuts were always planned but because of the economy they went that much deeper.

[Mr__Bill]

Wow, I don't like the sound of this. It seems to really be beginning to feed on itself.

From my understanding of it, that is the heart of the problem now. Company A lays off workers in anticipation to salvage a bottom line and stock price, Co. B and C loose income because Co A's former workers can't buy their products. Co B and C lay off workers who now can't buy Co A products. 'See' say the management of Co A I told you we had to lay off workers to cut costs because sales would be down. The self fulfilling prophesy. Expand this out to a thousand Co A's.....

Locally the mill is down to 2 shifts and no Sat or Sunday most weeks. They lay off in rotation so most have 2/3's of a job but at least money is coming in. Tourism was down last summer and I expect even further next summer.

On the up side there are a lot more skilled people to do volunteer work Contractors are bidding low for jobs just to keep up a cash flow and if enrollment is up at the local CC then at least the faculty will keep their jobs and have money to spend locally.

I hear that soon, if you have the money you won't even need it to buy up foreclosures. Just wave it at the bank and they will give you the house, if only you will make the payments.

As a son of depression era parents I remember my father saying that he was slim not because he wanted to be. I hope that our children don't have those memories.

Bill, on the Sunny Oregon Coast, come visit - spend money

[gad5264]

On January 7th I was asked to come to my bosses office for a meeting. I walked in and the HR Manager was sitting at the table. They asked me to close the door behind me and proceeded to inform me that my job was being immediately eliminated. After showing me the paperwork, I was led back to my office where I picked up my keys, my cell phone and handed over my company credit card to the boss who promptly escorted me to the door. I was 25 days short of having 25 years with my company. It's AMAZING that they wrapped up 20 years of service in less than 15 minutes.

[LCHIEN]

Tell me about it!

We had been 'promised' in November of job cuts in Jan (made for not-so-great holiday season), and last week I found that I was the last-man-standing from a group of 32 ! My director, his VP, and all their teams were 'displaced'. Miraculously I was not touched, but now have to report to somebody sitting in the UK!

Everybody has till end of month, but I have the most awkward time till then. I feel for them, and am aware of the problems of being jobless in this market; so much so that I'm unable to feel relieved myself.

LOML of course let out a huge sigh of relief, as she could not contemplate the 'what if'...

it's called Survivor's Guilt.

[cgallery]

It's AMAZING that they wrapped up 20 years of service in less than 15 minutes.

Geeze. If you were closer I'd buy you a beer and we'd celebrate your almost 25 years.

[JeffG78]

We had our latest cuts here at the Blue Oval on Monday . I was one of the survivors, but the guy sitting next to me as well as many, many friends were shown the door. With the whole auto industry in ruins, these poor people are struggling to find ANY work. The housing market is so bad here that moving out of state is not an option unless they are lucky enough to be renters and not home owners.

I really hope we are nearing the bottom because none of us can survive if this continues.