Work. How is it where you're at?

[FastZipper6]

Don't know where this thread should go but how's it going where you work?

Where I work there's layoffs, paycuts and decreasing production. My health benefits now cost me 4 times as much as a month ago.

How many of you have been laid off? Had a paycut? Or anything else?

Hopefully No-Drama-Obama will get us out of this mess although it won't be a quick fix.

Personally I think all the bailouts aren't going to work and we're heading for GD2. Great Depression 2.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[notjohndavid]

I think the only way we'll get out of it is if Obama says something along the lines of "Things are going to get bad before they get better folks, everyone's got to be on board for this and it's going to hurt... a lot of things are going to have to change and if we all work together on it and focus on the light at the end of the tunnel we can pull through it"

it probably won't happen though. everyone will keep thinking about the short term and not about the long term.

But to answer your question:
I work for the government and i've seen changes. there used to be phenominal amounts of overtime but it's been pretty much cut out. Which makes me actually pretty happy because I don't think the people I work with should be getting overtime. They milk the system and drag their asses during the day so that they can get overtime after work. It's not fair to taxpayers so I'm glad to see it being cut back.

 

[OZXJR]

In my work (springwater)this is our busiest time of year,we are flat out at the moment and should be for at least another 3-4 months.Thinking about asking for a raise at the moment .Only had one lay off in the last year and production is ramping up nicely right now.

 

[nimzotech]

Ahh work, shmerk.
There has been a hiring freeze; though no layoffs in my line of work - Community College District. Obama stated that before it gets better, it will get worse. I don't think we have hit rock bottom yet. On a brighter note, I happened to be looking over the short U.S. presidential bios at the whitehouse.gov website. I was astonished how Economic depressions hit the U.S. several times and how different presidents handled/mishandled the situation. The $20 bill man comes to mind, Andrew Jackson and following him Martin Van Buren both tried fixing the economy only making it worse. Even in the 19th century we suffered from the cyclical "boom and bust" economy. I'm one of those "Invisible Hand" believers and think that we need not fix the markets. What comes up must come down, and vice versa. I'm looking forward to the later.

Does history repeat itself?

 

[Humperdinkel]

In my work (springwater)this is our busiest time of year,we are flat out at the moment and should be for at least another 3-4 months.Thinking about asking for a raise at the moment .Only had one lay off in the last year and production is ramping up nicely right now.

LOL , with that terrible water you guys have down there im surprised you aint flat out all year round :thumbup:.....Mate i swear you can chew that water :Flip: ..........Other than that we are flat out at work aswell , driving trucks is always busy....13 hour day 1st day back for the year was nasty..

 

[OZXJR]

Yup,2 things I was warned about before I move here 1ont drink the water 2ont drink West End,lol

 

[grumpy1luvs2eat]

I'm feel fortunate to have a job with reduced hours, 32/week. I could have been laid off with no benefits as some have been. I'm only responsible for myself as my children are grown and I'm divorced. I often wonder how people get by these days. GRUMPY

 

[Yatz86]

sigh, working in logistics dealing with export shipments....volume has decresed a lot to about 50% as compared to last year....guess have to now focus on the needs instead of the wants

 

[Mississippi]

I work in the metal building industry, and we have shut down 3 plants and had a bunch of layoffs outside of the plants. Business is not good. It is gloom and doom around here, and you keep you head down. I am in the programming dept., and so far, no layoffs in my dept, but who knows what today will bring. Good luck to everyone!!!! It is going to be a long year!!!!

I agree, the stimulus plan will not do jack for people!!!

 

[geetarhero]

autobody refinishing technician here.
bad economy, good economy; doesnt matter. People still smash up their cars
might be looking at a pay cut if things get bad, but so far Canada has held its own against the world economy. Really only Ford and GM auto employees have been hit hard. and maybe one or twooil companies have reduced work force.
Gov't has created somewhere around 160,000 jobs just in my province this month so im sure itll truck along just fine
(for the record theres only about 2-2.5 million people in the whole province)

 

[Kilbane83]

Was a tech for 4yrs at Circuit City that just went down the tubes. Currently liquidating my store while looking for another job. Sucks, but that's life.

 

[fz6joker]

I work for a college in Kentucky where every full time student is required to work on campus and the money they earn is paid towards their tuition. Regular students are only required to work 10 hours a week (I'm an actual worker and a student so I work a lot more than that) but the "money" they earn is actually federal grants awarded to the college by the government. The rumors are that work hours are going to be cut in half as the government can no longer afford to give as much money as they have in the past.

 

[SergeantG1]

I'm a state government employee. We haven't had any layoffs, I believe there is a hiring freeze right now. Last summer they flooded us with extra staff because there was such an issue with overtime. So of course right now there is very little ot. I work in prisons so we many positions that have to be staffed 24/7, there is no way to completely eliminate overtime. They made it look good on paper by showing that they are paying less in overtime, but in all reality they're just spending more money to cover the training, benefits, and salaries of the new staff. Our contract expires in June, and I'm sure they'll be chipping away at our benefits again.

 

[steveindenmark]

10 people got laid off where I work just before Christmas.

Having said that I work in the sail making industry and things usually quieten down just before christmas and then pick up again in about March and we start re hiring again.

But one of our local businesses who make the props for wind turbines has just laid off 200 workers.

Steve

 

[shaggystyle]

I write software for the healthcare industry. So far it seems to be a fairly recession proof job market. We are actually still hiring and are on track to have one of our most profitable years ever (the company is only 6 years old, so that's not saying much). It makes sense as medical care is the one service that is 100% produced and consumed here at home, thus mostly immune to the international climate. And with the aging baby-boomers, demand is going to continue to increase for at least another 20 years.

In general Louisville seems to be handling things pretty well. I haven't noticed many local businesses failing (yet). They aren't doing as well as they used to but they are still open, which is something I guess. I should put a disclaimer that for the most part I only patronize bars, so every clothing/record/antique shop in town could shut down and I wouldn't know about it until my girlfriend said something.

 

[08fz6]

I travel around taking composite photos. The company I work for is the largest and most successful in this business. They are prospering very well! I have nothing to worry about... hope everything works out for all of you!

 

[LERecords]

I work in the Waste Industry (trash).. i actually got hired due to business looking for ways to cut costs.. guess im lucky.. the company i came from (ecolab) just laid off 1000 people.. i heard they called some of the sales people from the field, had them meet at the regional offices, then took their company cars and drove them home in town cars,. they also tried to screew them out of half the required serverance.. real nice right ... guess im just lucky to have switched jobs right..

 

[SueMc]

I work in the Oil & Gas industry in Calgary, and so far, we're holding our own. However, the parent company of the one I work for is American and filed for Chapter 11 back in July. We're still in good shape and making money, but to prevent our parent company's creditors from sweeping our cash, we had to file for creditor protection.

We're currently up for sale, and there's interest and offers, but that also means that I don't know whether my job will exist once we're bought by a new company.

I've had a couple phone calls with job offers, but I really like the company I work(ed) for, and the management and people I work with are the best! I'm still holding out hope that we'll perhaps be bought by someone who doesn't currently have operations here and we'll be allowed to continue running much as we are now.

 

[CdnMedic]

I'm in the military so we're hiring.
I'm getting a raise early next month (entering my 3rd year) and they are giving me back pay for field service in march and in april I get a salary raise that we are supposed to get PLUS I start getting my field service pay every month like I should be. Can't complain, we are hiring for sure (canadian military wasn't hiring a few years ago).
I love my job, I feel extremely lucky, I got all my training for free that was worth about $50, 000 just for my medical license. I get to travel, I get lots of cool experiences... Next month I go to the arctic to go caribou and fox hunting, and spear hunting for seals with the Inuit for a week. And I'm also involved in some special military stuff so I get some added benefits.
I might not make a **** load of money, but I love what I do and to me, that makes my life perfect! well, it will be perfect after i get my damn bike!

 

[Gilo-FZ6]

I work in a plumbers merchants..part of a national network which in turn is part of an umbrella company that has been hugly succesfull while others have been closing down/laying off ..at our shop level things have got quieter with our biggest account holders freezing all their new-build projects,but that said we've taken on a new contract supplying sanitaryware and all materials for about 20 super-nursing homes this one job alone is about 2 years worth of work and will keep my monthly target bonus rolling in