Tales of the Recession

So I was joking telling my group at our last session as long as I had a job by the time of the release I was going to pick up Monte’s new book.

When I came in last Thursday my company starting laying off staff that morning without warning. When the bloodshed was done over 30 people many of them friends were gone. I work in a large law office in Detroit, Michigan with about 300 people so in total about 10% were laid off by noon.

I’m suffering from survivor’s guilt but thankfully I was spared this time. Anyone else got a story to tell?

Glad to here you still have a job. I'm lucky to live in one of the regions that the Treasury and Commerce departments thinl will get by relativly unscathed by the recession.

So I was joking telling my group at our last session as long as I had a job by the time of the release I was going to pick up Monte’s new book.

When I came in last Thursday my company starting laying off staff that morning without warning. When the bloodshed was done over 30 people many of them friends were gone. I work in a large law office in Detroit, Michigan with about 300 people so in total about 10% were laid off by noon.

I’m suffering from survivor’s guilt but thankfully I was spared this time. Anyone else got a story to tell?

I too hail from Motown. The ad agency I work work had a large cut before Christmas. I survived but work 'feels' different now.

So far, I'm safe (knock on wood).

I had a similar experience back in 2001, however. Shortly after 9/11, after the market dropped, my company did the ambush-layoff thing. About 80 people were told that day, with no prior warning, that they were being fired. They were told to pack up their desks and were unceremoniously marched from the building.

I remember feeling like a survivor on that day.

On the plus side, the victims WERE given severance packages.

Working in IT...during the burst of the dot com bubble, over the spread of about 2.5 years I was personally laid off from about 15 contracts. It's not fun.

I feel horrible about anyone facing this...and cringe when I hear of more layoffs....

We had some layoffs right before Christmas which was a little traumatic as my first child was about to be born but I made it through and so did my dept. Because of vacation time, paternal time and holiday time, I was off for 4-5 weeks. The day after I got back, they fired my boss which would have happened at Xmas except for my looming time off. My boss really took care of his people and bent over backwards for others departments and their projects too. So now I get a lot of his work and stress piled on me and I'm annoyed by the bean-counters who make these stupid decisions.

Laid off right after Christmas. Working in the construction field it was a pretty sure thing. I have some hope of returning in the Spring, assuming that we don't spiral farther down the pipe, but I have my eye on the nursing field if that doesn't pan out. The Baby Boomers ain't getting any younger ...

Laid off right after Christmas. Working in the construction field it was a pretty sure thing. I have some hope of returning in the Spring, assuming that we don't spiral farther down the pipe, but I have my eye on the nursing field if that doesn't pan out. The Baby Boomers ain't getting any younger ...

Aren't you a baby boomer too...?

I slide into work everyday wondering if my district manager is going to spring out from behind the sales counter donned in streamers, helmeted in one of those pointy, dunce party hats, yelling "Surprise! Your fired!" (I'd phrase it correctly as "You're Fired" but I'm trying to do an impression of my blathering district manager and even though the phrase sounds the same to the human ear, he would misuse "your" in his substandard excuse for a brain. Sorry I have either developed a tumor or an anger problem. Not sure which.) I manage an automotive repair shop. Things are bad when you start to develop the irrational mindset that every idiot customer who refuses to fix their deathtrap car is in a warped twisted way causing me to loose my job.If I didn't hate people after nine years of customer service/abuse I certainly do now. The worst part of all of this? I was forced to lay people off. Not an exciting task. The phone rings.....district manager says, "I need a head this morning. Don't care who and I need to know in an hour, so I can submit the name to my bosses. Pick someone or quit." Instrument of bad news, I guess I could call myself that. Ever have to pick between the kid who's got a baby on the way....the mechanic who's wife just delivered two twins.....or the friend you recruited from another job that you've known for ten years? Pleasant.

Patrick Curtin wrote:

Laid off right after Christmas. Working in the construction field it was a pretty sure thing. I have some hope of returning in the Spring, assuming that we don't spiral farther down the pipe, but I have my eye on the nursing field if that doesn't pan out. The Baby Boomers ain't getting any younger ...

Aren't you a baby boomer too...?

;-)

Squeaked into the Gen Xers by three years ...but yeah the post WW II births are the big nut, they'll need lots of nursing staff the next thirty years easy.

Laid off right after Christmas. Working in the construction field it was a pretty sure thing. I have some hope of returning in the Spring, assuming that we don't spiral farther down the pipe, but I have my eye on the nursing field if that doesn't pan out. The Baby Boomers ain't getting any younger ...

I do PET scans; man I was here til 6:00 last night.

{edit} I don't mean to sound like a dick to anybody unemployed; believe me I know how that feels. I'm just tired, man.

I do PET scans; man I was here til 6:00 last night.

{edit} I don't mean to sound like a dick to anybody unemployed; believe me I know how that feels. I'm just tired, man.

Funny, my wife chased her dream to to do high-class chef stuff, she commuted 5 hours each weekday for an entire year to get to her Cordon Bleu Academy, moved heaven and earth to get her new job ....

...And she hates it. Plus she has to work for $10/hr for possibly up to five years as a line cook to break into the biz.

She renews her CNA qualification in an afternoon and has a job paying $14/hr starting with all bennies within a week.

I'm starting to think that's not a bad deal.

My specialty is kinda rare, so a bunch of schools open and there's no new jobs, then the schools close and there's gobs of jobs. It's not affected as much by the economy as by how many Nuclear Medicine Technologists are being churned out at the moment; right now Nukes is pretty tight, in Dallas anyway.
Nursing though, there's a lot of work there.

Well I survived the last purge,

Surprised me, I was expecting to get the axe, not the person who got laid off.

I'm taking it in stride. I do the best I can do. If that's not good enough for them... frak 'em, I'll find something else.

I've renamed Friday as Fireday. It seems to be catching on, as we've had a layoff every other Friday since the new year began.

...

Nursing though, there's a lot of work there.

yeah, It's not my favorite line of work, but neither was concrete forms and I managed that in the winter one year to make ends meet after the Army. There are no bad jobs, only bad attitudes. I will survive, becuse I can work anything, up to and including pizza deliverer if that's what it takes to stay solvent.

Mrs. Zombie and I are lucky, we're both gov't workers.

Mrs. Zombie and I are lucky, we're both gov't workers.

Yeah the DoD ain't going broke anytime soon.

*sigh*

Kinda makes me wish I'd stuck in for my twenty in the military, but considering my MOS has the AE Arabic language descriptor on it ...

...Well, you know where I would have spent the last six years ... :P

Aberzombie wrote:

Mrs. Zombie and I are lucky, we're both gov't workers.

Yeah the DoD ain't going broke anytime soon.

*sigh*

Kinda makes me wish I'd stuck in for my twenty in the military, but considering my MOS has the AE Arabic language descriptor on it ...

...Well, you know where I would have spent the last six years ... :P

I keep trying to convince them that a platoon of "All Zombie" commandos would kick ass, but they don't listen.

Mrs. Zombie and I are lucky, we're both gov't workers.

My taxes pay for zombie Cajuns?

Aberzombie wrote:

Mrs. Zombie and I are lucky, we're both gov't workers.

My taxes pay for zombie Cajuns?

Hey now, we aren't just any "zombie cajuns". We're specialized zombie cajuns with levels in Expert and ranks in Knowledge (engineering).

I keep trying to convince them that a platoon of "All Zombie" commandos would kick ass, but they don't listen.

I'm going to write my congressman about this.

Hey now, we aren't just any "zombie cajuns". We're specialized zombie cajuns with levels in Expert and ranks in Knowledge (engineering).

Does living in Philly disqualify you as a Cajun? You probably talk like you're from Joisey and eat too many cheesesteaks!

Aberzombie wrote:

Hey now, we aren't just any "zombie cajuns". We're specialized zombie cajuns with levels in Expert and ranks in Knowledge (engineering).

Does living in Philly disqualify you as a Cajun? You probably talk like you're from Joisey and eat too many cheesesteaks!

I make regular trips back to Louisiana to immerse myself in swampwater and inhale several pounds of boiled crawfish. And I really don't care much for cheesesteaks - or as I think of them, cheap imitations of a good'ol po-boy.

And I really don't care much for cheesesteaks - or as I think of them, cheap imitations of a good'ol po-boy.

Seems like apples and oranges to me, the ingredients and even the bread are completely different.

Aberzombie wrote:

And I really don't care much for cheesesteaks - or as I think of them, cheap imitations of a good'ol po-boy.

Seems like apples and oranges to me, the ingredients and even the bread are completely different.

Exactly! These pesky people in the so-called "City of Brotherly Love" tried to imitate a Po-boy and failed miserably. Couldn't even get the bread and ingredients correct.

Exactly! These pesky people in the so-called "City of Brotherly Love" tried to imitate a Po-boy and failed miserably. Couldn't even get the bread and ingredients correct.

Bah! Since I hate seafood, they got it exactly right!

I slide into work everyday wondering if my district manager is going to spring out from behind the sales counter donned in streamers, helmeted in one of those pointy, dunce party hats, yelling "Surprise! Your fired!" (I'd phrase it correctly as "You're Fired" but I'm trying to do an impression of my blathering district manager and even though the phrase sounds the same to the human ear, he would misuse "your" in his substandard excuse for a brain. Sorry I have either developed a tumor or an anger problem. Not sure which.) I manage an automotive repair shop. Things are bad when you start to develop the irrational mindset that every idiot customer who refuses to fix their deathtrap car is in a warped twisted way causing me to loose my job.If I didn't hate people after nine years of customer service/abuse I certainly do now. The worst part of all of this? I was forced to lay people off. Not an exciting task. The phone rings.....district manager says, "I need a head this morning. Don't care who and I need to know in an hour, so I can submit the name to my bosses. Pick someone or quit." Instrument of bad news, I guess I could call myself that. Ever have to pick between the kid who's got a baby on the way....the mechanic who's wife just delivered two twins.....or the friend you recruited from another job that you've known for ten years? Pleasant.

Been there, friend..it's a royal pain in the ass. And corporations don't give two f#%^$%s about you, or anything but the bottom line.

I'm only lucky right now because I support the healthcare industry...which hasn't had as rough of a hit as of yet...

And corporations don't give two f#%^$%s about you, or anything but the bottom line.

The devil you say! Wells Fargo is all tied up in knots over its employees.

flynnster wrote:

And corporations don't give two f#%^$%s about you, or anything but the bottom line.

The devil you say! Wells Fargo is all tied up in knots over its employees.

Having just read that article, and knowing people who work for WF as well as others in the industry...I think it was valuable to the bottom line to have a "warm huggy get-together" thrown for a certain subsection of overachievers that they wanted to continue to be overachievers. In the end, if it wasn't going to benefit the company, they wouldn't have done it (IMHO).

Personally, I am of the feeling that as individuals, people do good things. I rapidly lose faith in humanity once we've collected into groups with heirarchies.....

Sort of Mr. Krabbs’ Employee of the Month award?