Laid off

[mr_thebrain]

just curious, how many of you are without job right now?

personally, i've been laid off for a month now. things finally got so slow that my boss asked everyone to take pay cuts. i was at 12 an hour (which around here isn't so bad) and he wanted to cut me to 9.25 an hour. i was just barely eking by each month with what i was making. i mean i own a house now, i have bills... a lot of bills. important freaking bills! i can't accept being cut almost 3 dollars an hour. i'll lose my house. i told him that. he said to wait till he got back from vacation and we'd discuss it further.

he got back from vacation and laid me off. so yeah. collecting a very meager check from unemployment. very sucky. very frustrating. very depressing. on the other hand... i'm starting to get used to it, which is just as scary.

the job search is hard. my area is hit especially hard because there was a GM plant closure just 2 towns over. thousands of people looking for jobs in my area right now. makes it really hard to get anything because of all the competition. i'm willing to travel a fair piece to get to work, but i can't relocate cuz dammit, i JUST bought this house last year. i'm staying here for some time.

still, i'm remaining hopeful. i have a lot of very useful and diverse talent so i know i'll be hired somewhere. i'm just hoping it will be pretty soon.

anyone else laid off? or just looking for work? misery loves company. share.

[Mich]

I (rather desperately) need to find a summer job, but, this being a small college town, nothing in it is really being hit by the recession that hard; lots of places are hiring. It's just a matter of how low your standards will sink. A&W is my last pick, but that sign has been up for weeks.

Honestly, I should have started applying for on-campus summer jobs way back in February, but summer seemed so far away then...

[powerfulcheese04]

Well, during the school year, I'm in school... which feels like working 2 jobs and paying for the (dubious) pleasure.

This summer, I'm doing the Merck Merial Summer Veterinary Student Research Fellows program. I get paid pretty well to work in a research lab full time for 12 weeks, make a poster, write a paper and go to a (fully paid for) symposium. It's a pretty sweet deal.

And if I like the lab and the work, I have an offer from my mentor to work there next Fall as well.

[Eddie Pinz]

I know the feeling. While I didn't have a house, I did have bills. At the beginning of last summer, I decided to quit my job and pay a large sum of money to partake in a program designed to teach microsoft sql server. The program came fully armed with a career services department that was supposed to market everyone in the program for job openings. Needless to say that I completed the program in mid august with little to no feedback from career services and was in the middle of an economy that took a nose dive since the beginning of the summer. After 3 months and numerous interviews, I got a 6 month contracting gig that is set to end next week. I had to travel far and was underpaid, but work was work at that point. However, one of those past interviews that I thought was fruitless, actually worked out. The company remembered me from that interview and offered me a better paying, closer to home, more interesting and permanent position.

So I know the feeling of being out of work and it sucks. I know the job hunt and that might even suck more. But I (for once in my life) am an example that good things can still happen in this s***** economy. I wish you the best in the job hunt and hope you find something soon.

[locke]

I've got a job, but I'm freelance, technically, which means I have to keep my ear to the ground and see what's what. I don't like thinking about how quickly I could lose my job, especially when things are so slow that I've read three books at work in the last week, so I avoid putting work into updating my 'shows in production' spreadsheet. Right now the time is right to send out about twenty resumes a day, but it's scary for whatever reason. I don't even want to call old bosses and let them know I'm looking, not really. :-p urgh. I have this vague sense of impending doom coming over the horizon and I'm sort of stuck in a deer in headlights mode right now. :-p

[mr_thebrain]

well, i suffer from a bit of the jack of all trades syndrome. i can do practically anything. hell i have experience doing practically everything. but a lot of that is nothing i can put on my resume.

still, i have a pretty tight resume.

anyway, i have an associate's in marketing, and a bunch of experience as a production supervisor, and web designer. but most everything else is production or warehouse work (that i can put on paper) i'll take pretty much anything right now, so while i don't want a sales job really (especially in this economy) i'm applying to them anyway. i've applied to a ton of places but there aren't many that i fit into very well right now. at least nothing to write home about. most of the ones out there right now are like delivery drivers and insurance sales. nothing i want to make a living with. i hate thinking i might end up with something that is supposed to be a temporary fix that lasts for years. i'm finding very little to be cheery about in the job search area.

if money were no object, i'd open a recording studio. work recording local bands. i would find very great pleasure in that. especially since the break up of my own band. i don't really aspire to be a major record producer or label or anything. just be like a little indie joint that makes a lot of people that wouldn't normally have any shot really happy. that sounds like fun to me. and building guitars. i love that.

sadly money matters. i just don't know if there's any job out there that i'll actually be happy doing to make money. i'm less scared about not finding any job than finding one i don't want. i'm pretty much seeing myself in 2 years stuck in a factory being miserable.

[Oliver Dale]

First of all, I'm very sorry to hear about your being laid off, brain. That is just sucky, left and right.

I work in the healthcare industry and am located in Tulsa, two areas that have been partially shielded from all the crap going on in the world. Still, we've felt a few pinches. Our 3% annual pay raise was suspended, and they've decreased that amount of our PTO accrual. Still, it is hard to complain. (I still manage, though.)

Here's hoping you find something soon.

[daPyr0x]

I work in pretty much the scariest industry of them all, automotive. Despite everything going on, we've managed to make it through without any layoffs, pay cuts, or anything like that. I feel very lucky. I can't help but wonder just how things are going to change in the near future, but I've already been planning on spending the next year in school training for something better.

My heart goes out to you all without work. It really wasn't all that long ago that I was working part-time at minimum wage and delivering pizzas, or hopping around temp agencies. That's how I stumbled in to this job. Just keep pushing through it and you'll find something.

[zeroguy]

but most everything else is production or warehouse work (that i can put on paper)

I'm just a little curious, but this seems to be implying something that I'm just not getting. Why not?

[mr_thebrain]

other than i have a lot of experience doing professional work non-professionally and i really don't like production work or warehouse work, not really implying anything.

[zeroguy]

Why can't you put that on paper? Maybe it's different for differenet fields, but I'd say over 90% of my experience came as a result of volunteer work, and I always put it down; I think it's helped me get jobs.

[mr_thebrain]

it's hard to explain, and it isn't that important.

[mr_thebrain]

Just an update:

I start my new job on Monday. It's in town and just off the bike trail so I could ride my bike if I want, or a 5 minute drive. With a half an hour lunch, I'll be driving often so I can take my dogs out, unless my wife will be home early enough to take care of them. It's in market research. That is to say I'll spend all day calling banks and asking what their rates are. Still, it's better than nothing. The pay is meager which is depressing. However, it's more than my unemployment checks. I think when all is said and done, I'll be able to put about 10 dollars in savings each month. (EEK) nice benefits package though.

Anyway, I'm at once excited at the prospect of going to work again, and dubious of my new job (it sounds excruciatingly boring and the pay will suck)

I hope I can keep it long enough to find something else.

I'm also agonizing over finding other sources of income (cleaning gutters, patching walls, cleaning windows, yard work, websites) under the table so as to get my bank accounts looking healthy again. Not to mention I need a new freaking TV! Mine is doing that high pitched whine thing. Very aggravating.

Anyway, after 4 months of unemployment I've gotten a bit used to being lazy and being home all day. It will be strange working a 40 hour week again.

[chromesthesia]

Still looking for a job. I did work last week almost full time. I usually seem to alternate between one month to the next in terms of working and not working...

I need more money.... I do not like this economy.

[Olhado_]

I fortunately have a job...still. It may only be for the next 6 months to a year; but at least it is still well paying. I am also fortunate that they are still paying for my Master's. I just hope I can finish my degree before they say bye-bye.

In about the next month we all find out more, needless to say we are all worried.

[Eaquae Legit]

*grump*

Me.

[mr_thebrain]

geez, since when EL?

Olhado, take it from me, if there's any remote chance that you could get laid off in the future, start looking. i didn't even though i knew it would probably happen. i regret not starting my search earlier (now that my savings are completely gone)

Cromesthesia, good luck! towards the end of my employment at the last place it was a bit like that where i didn't get many hours a week. and i had to cut people down to 2 day work weeks before they got laid off.

as problematic as this economy is, i'm hoping we come out of this stronger. temporarily low interest rates on mortgages, stronger economic plan for the future, more jobs, regulations on national banks would be good too. A recession is actually a good thing for a nation. we went way too long since our last one and i think that's part of the reason that this one is so harsh. i don't think it's being handled as well as it should be though. band aids make it seem like there's an end in sight, but it prevents a longer term solution as well as benefits from happening. a good recession should help keep costs and minimum wage down leading to a much stronger dollar. unfortunately that's something i don't see coming from this recession. i haven't seen any prices drop which is disheartening, if anything they've gone up. so i think we'll end up better off when we start recovering, but not as well off as we could be.

for as bad as the economy is, people haven't been suffering through it like they should. i mean times are hard and people are laid off like mad crazy. but i still see a lot of people buying frivolities. which i suppose is a lot of the reason prices haven't dropped. it's like it's been so long since the last recession that we forgot how to save our money and be economically safe while times are tough. consumerism is coming back to bite us in our asses and we're helping it along.

[buckshot]

I know this is not a employment service , but I need a wheat truck driver for a month and a half, maybe longer into seeding .

[mr_thebrain]

that's excellent.

washington's way too far away for me but that's be pretty neat if someone took you up on that offer!

pwebbers helping pwebbers.

[Jayelle]

I'm not laid off, but the library is doing a massive restructuring, which basically means that everyone leaves their job, all jobs become available, people sign up for their top five desired positions and get slotted in according to seniority.

It's horrible, especially because those who are part time (like me) don't have any guarantee that they'll have the same number of hours. It's the entire library system doing this, so a person could end up at any branch in the city - it doesn't matter where they live.

It's also horrible, because they are eliminating some full time positions, so some people can't even apply for their exact same job again. My co-worker, who has worked for the library for 25+ years, just found out that she will not have her same job, a job that she worked her ass off to get and that she built her life around. She's absolutely devastated.

[Eaquae Legit]

That... really sucks. I'm so sorry.

[mr_thebrain]

that is a bit harsh. bit more of a mind f*** than simply being laid off.

on a side note i've never met anyone that wanted to make working at a library their career. i mean i know people work at them and generally enjoy it. but it's never seemed to me like something that someone would aspire to do.

[wigginboy]

While I have not personally been laid off, I have seen the devestation that this recession is causing in my native Alberta. Being an oil-funded province for years, no one ever expected us to fall this hard. I have seen my step-dad, a renowned carpenter and construction Jack of all trades lose many of his contracts because they just dried up. I have seen my father, a long distance trucker who hauls crude from extraction sites, laid off for three months with absolutely no work in the field. I have seen friends and family and total strangers (via news) apply in vain for jobs they are qualified for but have no chance of getting because there is no demand at all for them. I guess the only consolation is that where I live, in Southern Alberta, we are not nearly as dependent on the oil industry and as such, our economy is stronger. Not to say that layoffs have not happened in construction, manufacturing and processing, but most industry here is safe and sound for the most part.

[Eaquae Legit]

Woo! I have an interview tomorrow! It's just a barista thing, but it's a job. For now, I'm just ecstatic to have heard back for an interview.

I've been unemployed since the end of June, when I had to leave England. That is a very long time in my world, especially since I haven't had any studies to distract me.