NFT: The economy, the recession and your job.
 

How goes it? I work for a company that builds mono-clave sterilizers. We sell to all types of medical facilities that include laboratories, hospitals, clinics and MANY universities. The writing is on the wall with my employer...sales are way down with nothing big on the horizon. A few layoffs have already happened and then today we just got a memo about all wages/salaries for 2009 being froze at the 2008 rate and that the company would suspend their matching 401k contributions. After the 1st qtr it looks very lean. Who knows what the future holds but for right now we are holding our breath and hoping our sales team can pull through. Very few jobs are recession proof....how is yours?

I work for the local county government in the elections department. I'm pretty safe unless they cut elections....which I doubt.

Law and my wife's a pediatric nurse.

Recession proof? Nah, not quite; but we're about as close as they get.

I'm a contract IT trainer. Things are already very slow with little improvement in sight.

I'm awesome.

It has really put a strain on the bar business.

gee, I am in Automobile Sales....we have no problems............:rolleyes:

Your post count is up lately.

Really? What do you do for a living? Student?

it's been hard for comedy and improv

I get 3-4 emails a day and about 5 phone calls a week from recruiters wanting to talk to me about jobs. No recession in my neck of the woods.

The pimpin' industry remains strong......

Yep

Again, what do you do for a living?

I'm an Engineer working in the Aerospace industry. While Aerospace companies as a whole are hurting some, especially the commercial side, the workload for what my department does hasn't changed much and is increasing.

Regardless, I'm awesome. :D

Working in the special ed. department of a school is recession proof.

In fact... we are hiring.

The place I work has the highest production and margin in the entire division. A lot of other places will go down before it gets to me.

I've been unemployed since September... moved and decided to take a month or so off, and the Lehman crisis hit just as I started looking again. Pickings are slim if you need a job, and it looks like a lot of places are tightening their belts as things get slower.

Doing third party support for state agency server farms. We have also been told no raises, no 401k matches for 2009. I am not too worried but the resume has been recently updated.

I hear you, all the jobs that I want are filled, oh well back to the couch i go

I work in the telecom industry and have been through 17 rounds of layoffs since 2001. Last week, they announced that they were going into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection......it's crazy...I'm doing the work of what used to be 5 people.

I'm just livin' the dream..........

Wife's laid off... I got laid off from the best job evah earlier this year and immediately found a job making $15k less with the school district so I like to think I'm good. Yay me!

Automotive industry (Repair specialty shop) is like a roller coaster. We are very reputable, but the area we are in has been smashed by closing business, so a lot of the people here are squeaking by, but we still stay pretty busy. A lot of the shops we deal with are in worse situations, and a lot we know have closed. Tax refunds are coming, and snow, so both will bring business to us. I thank the Lord we have stayed busy.

I just got a promotion last month. I just hope my paycheck reflects the change this month...

I guess that on the bright side, a lot of companies that are firing people right now could realize that they cut a few too many people and look to refill those positions.

I'm a production manager at a company that makes solar and radiant heat products. I've had to lay off 25 percent of my work force since November. I am in the same boat as Big VE just praying the sales force pulls us out of this.

Everyone tells me all the time, "well at least you never have to worry, people are always going to drink, especially when they are down on their luck".

God I just want to smack them. Yeah dumb****, they are going to go to a bar and spend money, or are they going to go buy a bottle of cheap whiskey and some off brand cola?

This last year has been rough on several people/businesses around here. The restaurants are dead, car lots closing left and right, several factories closed down, utility bills sky rocketing.

Beer distributes have been telling me that bars and c-stores are both way down, which is never the case. When we are up, they are down, and vice versa.

I heard the ICT school district was putting freeze on hiring for almost ALL school district jobs except for special ed. News said it would save the district almost 6mill. Dang.

Wages frozen for forseeable future, but job is secure. I am the oldest tenured member of the department - they'll have to carry me out on a stretcher.

was laid off from my welding job 9 or so mnths ago. been at home with the kids and haven't really looked much. good ole american manufacturing

Same here. I have 5 guys under me in my dept. and all their years combined don't add up to mine. I know my job individually is safe as long the company itself stays afloat...that will be the key.

I was notified on Wednesday that Microsoft is stopping construction on their west campus expansion, I am under contract to do $3 million worth of work on 2 of these buildings, suddenly the biggest contract I've ever won. Goes Kaput until at least 2013.. It hurts, but fortunately we still have a pretty decent backlog. We will really be hurting in 2011 it appears.. :shake: Time to adapt.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/m...ves/159857.asp

I doubt that.

I have over 12 years experience in the credit industry. Even if my current employer goes tits up, I have a feeling I'll find gainful employment somewhere. I'm good at what I do, and am convinced that no matter what you do, if you're good at it, you'll find work.

We build banks... and other stuff... but the banks are my favorites. Company was growing way too fast 2 years ago. Last year certainly wasn't as good. But we have a big enough pipeline waiting for spring and summer, so apparently companies are bright eyed and bushytailed for the future.

Everyone here (except me) has been here 5+ years. They either inspire the most loyalty ever or they have no idea how to fire someone.

Im in financial services and working part time for a school district so im ok

Gf works as a business analyst for healthcare so i think she is just dandy there

Ive been laid off for 4 months now and I love it. I worked in the automotive industry and im glad to get the heck out of there. Right now, Im collecting SUB benefits and unemployment. My benefits will last me approx 100 weeks. It just feels so nice being away from the real world and actually living it up doing some valuable things on my spare time and enjoying life. Im taking my mind off this recession crap and it feels great. Its depressing when you hear bad news all the time. So I don't wish to go there.

I have a plan Im saving money now and my goal is to get into university by Jan 2010. Im interested in pursuing a career as a physiotherapist. But right now the goal is to get into university and enroll in kinesiology health and science program. Im interested in building a career but first off I'd like to build a base for myself and establish some creditentials. Earning a degree gives me that opportunity.

That's your prerogative, but you're wrong.

Not my prerogative, I know.

Awesomeness is worthless if it's self proclaimed. ;)

All the hot bitches think DaKC is awesome

He's a step below or above Midnight, depending on how you look at it.

Commercial construction is pretty slow. The people that want to build can't get financing and the people who have enough money to finance projects themselves are shoving it all under the mattress.

I'm slower than usual right now, but staying somewhat busy. However, if we don't pick up a couple of projects by April, I'll be a solitaire-playing mofo.

I work for a small company (~25) and I fall into the "as long as the company doesn't fold, I'll be fine" category. Despite the economy, we're currently building a new office, so I think we're doing fine.

Well, he doesn't act like a total douche bag and actually is a solid poster here. Doesn't insult others etc atleast, ive got no issues with him.

I'm in advertising sales for my own direct mail company and thanfully we're still holding our own.We're definitely down some from last year but it's looking better as I just closed the Papa Murphy's account for a full page the next 10 months and I've had some new calls coming in from smaller local businesses who are not going down without a fight.

I'm thinking if the economy continues to sag our business might be okay because more and more businesses will be looking for reasonable and effective advertising.

This + your other post = man-crush?

Or they have a policy of firing everyone after their third year, and the policy started 2 years ago.

I have a man crush on larry fitzgerald, he won me $175 in my fantasy league.:D

Did you get out of the roofing business?




A few months ago, the largest advertising firm in Denver shut down with no notice. Yesterday, another iconic advertising firm in town shut down with no notice. Both laid off all their employees. Kind of scary, but at the same time it'll give other good firms the chance to rise when the economy bounces back. (My firm doesn't do advertising, but about 30 percent of our work is supporting advertising firms through research.)

If things start getting dicey, you can go to parks and start hitting children with baseball bats.

You know not what you speak.

LMAO

Mine seems to be doing ok. They have cut hours for everyone, will be going down to 35 hours a week for most everyone. I am fairly certain that the company will stay afloat and thrive in the longterm.

I just got the best job I've ever had in my life a few months ago, I'll be pissed if the economy ****s it up for me.

Pro Segway Racer. It's just like life. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.

I throw freight for one of the hardware superstores. No layoffs yet, but all part-timers have been cut to 10 hours and once the company start hiring again in the spring, they'll only be hiring temporary workers.

Similar situation here. I'm 2nd in seniority among full professors, 2nd in command administratively, and 4th is overall seniority. As long as they don't eliminate the program, I'm safe.

But this week the first possibility of a 5% salary cut was mentioned. I've been thinking for several weeks that I wouldn't be surprised about that. That would be disappointing, but not really that bad in comparison to people losing their jobs.

My greatest fear is that I don't think anyone knows where the bottom is. We aren't there yet.

If you are caught on a Segway, "win" is never part of the equation....

Need to intern at Halfcan's
soup kitchens will be hiring

I am coming up on my one year anniversary next month, The VP and the Director of Network Ops. were discussing what it would take for me to move into the IT Infrastructure side of things. We are Hiring, just hired 2 people this week and I have sat in on 3 interviews my self.
Things are going well, we roll out our new product in the next few weeks and we have a bunch of interest in it already, we are growing fast and I am blessed and thankful to have gotten in early.

St. Joseph patron Saint of workers - Ora Pro Nobis

That's what the people say when they can't afford one.

Nothing but pure awesomeness
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I'm with the government and I'm here to help............ Actually I'm a civilian working for the Army (GS) and I'll hit a combined 25yrs of service in about a year and a half. I'm also prior service (12yrs in the Army) so short of getting caught stealing or doing drugs I'm about as safe as it gets. My cost of living increase for this year was 71 cents an hour.

I'm in a Financial Services company :doh!:

However I feel pretty secure. We sold half the company last year that was health insurance to focus on our retirement services record keeping (that's the part I work in). We're flush with cash from the sell and looking to buy up stuff on the cheap as banks fail or are in trouble and need to sell off their record keeping services. We're also one of the cheapest in the market so when companies look to save money we may get more business.

Now the company has been going through a layoff of various corporate staff since we just sold half the people they used to support but since our division is the new focus we are out of scope. There is some impact though. The companies revenue is partly tied to assets managed and since the market tanked that number has gone down. Also management is using the tough economy to squeeze people a little more. I'm not planning on much of a bonus or raise this year.

I work in Internal Audit for Cabela's. The company had their first ever layoff in October. It was pretty weird to sit through. Fortunately I survived it. Unfortunately, I had to audit it.

As of now, Cabela's is doing shitty, just like everything else. I haven't seen the YE numbers, but I hear it isn't as epic fail as most of the rest of the year. Q4 is typically ginormous for us. I talked to my boss about another layoff and she stated that she has not been contacted about one yet. She said that means there isn't going to be one, or she's the one getting shitcanned ROFL. I have reason to believe I should be OK. I have the highest education level of anyone in the department and haven't received any criticism other than just the constructive type stuff relative to any aspect of my performance, whereas a few others, aren't necessarily doing quite as well. Additionally, I do work for our external auditors who charge $180/billable hour + travel, accomodations, etc. So in reality, I probably pay my own salary a few times over.

But, I'm 25, a man, and white, so that probably equates to first out.

I'm crossing my fingers for a turnaround soon. There are contingencies I have in place, but I really don't want to screw with it.

I'm a special education teacher in VA. I'm moving back to PA in July with the wife to live more comfortably when the baby arrives in August, and be closer to our families.

The district down here is freezing pay increases. I started sending out my applications for employment in PA for the 2009-10 school year.

Hopefully I don't run into any trouble.

Work for the Government. Anxiously awaiting President Obamas stimulus package, we will be swimming in $$$ after that passes.

However, i've had to absorb a couple jobs that went unfilled, but that just made my job closer to "real life" rather than sitting around doing nothing for 6 of the 8 hours of the day.

Obama? Is that you?

I'm living the dream....doing whatever I have to do to make things work.

For now, my job is pretty safe. I cover a county and a half as a phone/internet combination tech. Each week I get more and more work piled on me. But in a couple years my area is getting upgraded to fiber to the home and the trouble calls will be cut way down. Then I could see my exchange getting absorbed by another. The bright side is that a few of the older guys are about to retire so I can probably move laterally in the company to a new area.

I know it sucks when the higher ups freeze raises, etc... but it sounds like your mgmt team has a pretty good head on its shoulders. Maybe it backfires, but if your company has always been strongest in retirement services, selling off the weaker part to get capital that can be used in a down market is a great approach.

You make most of your money when there's blood in the streets. Companies with forward thinking leadership will be in exceptional shape in 12-18 mos.

Sprint announced another 8k layoffs nationwide today. That should hit the KC area pretty hard, unfortunately. Home Depot annoucned a bunch as well. :eek:

Quick question about this. I have my taxes ready to file but I'm not sure if I should wait for the stimulus package to get hashed out/passed in congress. Does it propose tax credits or a stimulus check like we got in 2008? If its a tax credit I would want to wait to file, right?

I'm good. Apparently God is a hot commodity in the midst of crisis

wow, wasn't aware we had so many of us working in commercial construction around here.

Topeka's always been slower in growth than the KC area and other regions, and we've seen some more dropoff beyond that. Luckily we do a lot of gov't work and plant maintenance, so those are both still going okay. I've got more senority that 2 others here, so I think my position is pretty safe if they make any cuts. And obviously they won't get any work if they get rid of all of us.

HAHAHA, you file taxes.

Then quit drinking all of your product. You have nothing to sell.

I removed myself from the labor pool middle of last year. Last month, I find out that my old company cut 40% of it's field staff.

Livin' on the federal dole ain't that bad and I can make a little extra $ on the side with no penalty. In fact, this January, I got a 5.8% pay raise thanks to all you hard working people out there.

I do feel sorry to all those getting the axe and hope things rebound soon. I need to sell a house and a boat.

Bump. Update: well, I was right. As of 2 weeks ago all the hourly workers were cut down to only working 3 days a week. It's not terrible though, KS has whats called a work-share program where we will get unemployment benefits for the 2 days a week we are not working. I haven't gotten the exact figures yet but it figures up to be about a 10% pay cut. So now I have 10% less pay but 40% less work...I work Monday through Wednesday and then have a 4 day weekend. Whats better is that under the rules of this program u can seek other part time/supplemental work and it will not affect your benefits. Could be worse....actually things are still looking very sparse for the next 4-6 months so it could get worse sooner than later. In the mean time I'm working on my golf game until a couple of my part time options pan out.

I have no job and my pets' heads are falling off.

Do you see any connection between those two things?