US in recession, curious as to how the folks on here are faring

[matrimelee]

I didn't want to start a dialog on a major social site, as I have co-workers and such on Facebook. I'm just curious, how are things? I'll share my tale, as well.

I have worked in the technical department at a stainless steel mill for several years. In October of 2008, said company started making moves to cut costs. They eliminated temporary contractors, stuff such as that at first. By the end of they month, the wage cuts started on full time employees. We have not seen a lay off, so I suppose we are lucky there. But through cutting our working hours (never below 40, but we had structured overtime that is part of our wage), they effectively did the wage cuts they were looking for. To most of the said employees, this amounts to around 10k every year. No small cut, no sir.

In 09, we had good months and bad months. In August/September, we set production records... Which means we sold a lot of steel. But we stayed at the lowered hours, never saw any extra money over it. February of 09, we're still doing steady work, and still on our wage cut.

Every couple of months, management has put out a memo to appease the workers. We'll "go back to our normal shifts, when business returns to normal", things of that nature. Well, this is the steel industry. It's as seasonal as can be, folks. We all see the writing on the wall, we're never going to make they money we once did. At least, not working at said plant.

We are a non-union plant. Honestly, I don't see how being union would help us, but I'm sure that people have looked into it. I've seen 10 year employees just quit.

Through all of this, I've tried to make NO big changes to my spending. I still take the family out to eat, I still buy games I want, I still keep us in things we need. I still pay my bills. I don't get to make double payments on my cars, anymore... I don't get to have a huge lavish Christmas celebration. Actually I did have to cut back going out to eat, we just don't notice it anymore at this point.

This has actually gotten to the point, where you can tell it's hurting the town as well. It's small (guessing 15k people), and they're seen 2.5k spend less money. Many people are out of work, period. Many homes are for sale.

By no means to do I feel sorry for myself, and neither should you. I'm just looking for answers that I won't get on the evening news. What bullshit is being pulled, at the corporation you work for?

What's your story?

 

[madman]

I obviously don't know the details behind what exactly is happening at your company, but it is possible that they are trying to re-build cash reserves by keeping the lower wages while business is returning to normal. It's not unusual for the economy to have caused the company to lose money while sales were down. Either way...that is a bummer and not uncommon in our current economic situation.

 

[LoneSage]

The annual budget was approved some months ago, and basically as long as residents continue to move in and as long as a lot of them don't die, we're good.

Not a lot of chances for overtime anymore, though. If someone's out, supervisors are less hesitant to let someone already working 80 hours take that person's day.

 

[Domino-chan]

We had some major cutbacks and we're now running on a skeleton crew. What makes it worse is that the managers don't seem to care that we're so low on physical cash in the vault (I work for a slot coin company). I'm even more frustrated since my college courses are teaching me how a good manager SHOULD act. :x

PS - I've met my manager once.

 

[Phyeir]

I'm in a group that should have 1-2 more people and the one person in the group with more experience than me (under the manger) will be going to another position soon, which places me as top dog under the manger. Except that, even though I will be and have been doing that higher level job, I don't have the title or pay to go with it. Yay! Can't same I'm surprised, been a lot of layoffs and most groups are on skeleton.

Hoping to turn it into something in the next 6 months (a promotion), but we'll see. Don't get me wrong though, I love what I do, especially compared to my old job, but still would be nice if the level of what I do and my pay matched.

 

[IsamuBlue]

I was laid off last July and have been unemployed ever since.

 

[Darren870]

I haven't been effected by it to much. No hours cut, no bonus lost, got a raise and a promotion, and got relocated overseas to London. I realize I am very lucky of course.

My girlfriend on the other hand isn't so lucky. After she graduated college (may 2008) she hasn't been able to find a full time job. She has been doing volunteer and part time jobs while looking for full time work.

She is moving out here this weekend so hopefully she will have better luck finding work here.

 

[GregN]

I got my hours cut in half about a year ago. We've laid off a good chunk of our workers, and it's another skeleton crew here. Many people, myself included, are doubling and sometimes tripling up our responsibilities.

We have some sales down the pipeline but that won't be for a little while yet, and when there is, I'll be back to full time with health care beneies hopefully.

I'm happy to be working part-time, much less working AT ALL.
Many of my old co-workers who were laid off are on facebook, one of them has a boat load of experience and it still took him 6 months to get a job. 3 of them to my knowledge still haven't found jobs.

 

[Opethian]

I am thankful for having a job at the moment. 3 of my friend's have been either laid off or docked time that forced them to find a 2nd or 3rd job.

 

[RevQuixo]

Laid off in Oct. of last year. I've had one interview..and they after the inteview eliminated the position.

So yeah...it sucks.

 

[ForeverSublime]

Eh, no BS being pulled from my 9-5. They can't promise me anything, and I don't expect them to. That's what makes someone an employee. People get hired and fired. It's not my company, that's how it works. I've seen things get better for some people that have lost their jobs (myself included) - you never know how things will work out. The people that I have personally witnessed things not get better for I wouldn't consider stand-up people to begin with, to put it nicely. I'm sure there are plenty of top notch people I don't know that have been screwed. Some of my coworkers are being outsourced at the end of this month, but they are being taken care of with new jobs in the deal - essentially outsourcing themselves. They are losing some $ in the long term, but it could lead to other opportunities for them. If nothing changes, nothing changes - good or bad.

Things are great overall. . . better than before the recession thus far. That could change - I definitely like having the money I make from my job right now -unfortunately it's just a matter of fact that as an employee it's not entirely my decision whether or not I keep my job much less get that promotion/job change. The promotion is still worth the try if it'll make my life better, though. Keep the options open and live on the potential upside of life.

I think a lot of people I know have fared well even after they lost their jobs simply because of the area they live in. To get a good stroke of luck, sometimes you have to place yourself in proximity to opportunities or to the life style you are seeking. Sometimes. . . because none of us are in complete control. A natural dissaster could change a lot in the Bay Area. . . lives more than luck.

Bottom line: I think looking at a job as your life is very one sided, and looking at the economy as an indicator of quality of life is not entirely accurate. There's a lot GDP and all the other statistics don't take into account that mean a lot. If you have "a" job then things are "okay", but if you lose it things are horrible. There's multiple parts to the whole of life, and there's multiple ways to earn an income at the same time (own a business/invest). If all of your bets are on one horse, you put a lot of risk on missing potential (potentially huge) upside that could be happening around you.

I think that parrots my experience during this recession - from the good, the bad and the accademic I've been exposed [conditioned?] to.

 

[Buro Destruct]

After losing my job last October, I just recently obtained a new position at a much larger/more stable company working with and for two friends from college. Highest paying job I've ever had.

I don't want to talk about it too much, I have an intense fear the Universe will not hesitate to break me down again if I get too complacent.

 

[Mike Shagohod]

Well I had 6 months of job hunting from late Feb to mid August of 2009 after leaving the Security Enforcement occupation, those were some hard time with just the wife making all the money. While she makes some nice change, for a family of 4 now though, it depends on her to pay the mortgage and other bills. What I make has always saw to it that there is money for groceries (which even a small run is like $135.00USD at the grocery store), money for going out to eat (which we do more often than we should as neither the wife and I have the will to cook from our respective stresses)... and money for EVERYTHING Else.

So that was hard.

Outside of that when I'm working we don't struggle too much unless there is some insane medical emergency, then that shit has to go onto a credit card. And I'm still paying off my Discover at that, though Pops has asked me if I wanted some help in that now that he's a retired bad ass (freggin' makes more money retired drawing 100% disability from the V.A. and his 25 years with the Post Office than he did working all his life), and I said, begrudgingly: "Yeah, alright."

Thing is this though, and on this note the wife and I have always been on the same page. Neither of us have ever seen the need to just buy stuff. Even before the kids, neither of us had much interest in going clubbing. We don't drink alcoholic beverages (and boy can that and clubbing deplete money), we don't see the need to be $Bling $Bling with wardrobe, never saw the need to have the latest and greatest vehicles, usually avoid the cinemas with all the stupid kids and the movies generally suck. THIS SAVES MONEY, and we can do other things.

Basically I've lived as Spartan as I can (though I do have game systems and obviously a computer, an arsenal of weapons and stuff, etc.) in our technological age not because I had to, but because I never got caught up in stuff. When I see the amount of stuff most struggling ppl have, I shake my head. I know of SIX families that are not sure if they're going to have food in the fridge or even be able to pay the rent EVERY MONTH, but they've got every game system out, all the best tech shit and TVs, both have $35,000 + vehicles outside, both go clubbing three times a week having to pay babysitters to watch the kids, BOTH go to the movies literally every weekend, and both have to floss in flashy clothes.

WHY?

The economy sucks sure. Jobs are harder to get and even guys I know with PHDs are flipping burgers, doing janitorial/custodian work, doing grunt construction work and more and for waaaaaay less than what they were used to. But the bottom line is, if people would live somewhat reasonable and not try to be like A List Hollywood stars, most wouldn't have it as bad as they do. So for me, hard times is just part of living, but there's lots to do as well. It's purely a matter of what someone puts on the pedestal for their lives. If you can't get a job and you're truly looking for work and will take what's available then I feel bad for you. If you're holding out for something you think IS YOU, but won't work, you can suck my cock.

 

[neo_mao]

I was laid off last July and have been unemployed ever since.

same here...

 

[racecar]

35% wage cut for me so $ are a little tighter but i have some saving so it's not as bad but it'll definitely put off a few lavish thing like vacation and new car....

 

[racecar]

i was actually debating on a career change last week

 

[OrochiEddie]

College student....WOO!

 

[Phyeir]

i was actually debating on a career change last week

Bad time to. Have a friend of mine trying to do the same and it's just a switch of rolls in finance and he's basically being told that it'll be like he's starting off out of college, with a reset of his pay down to that level.

 

[neo_mao]

Bad time to. Have a friend of mine trying to do the same and it's just a switch of rolls in finance and he's basically being told that it'll be like he's starting off out of college, with a reset of his pay down to that level.

exactly....I worked in finance as well, and started thinking about jobs in maybe something like marketing, ops, or compliance...all functions within financial companies. But there are already so many people with plenty of experience in those roles looking for jobs as well...there is no way I could compete with them as a relative newbie...

so now my options are sticking in finance, or going to grad school. Won't know about school for a few months, but not having much luck w/ jobs in the meantime...

 

[Rocko]

College student here as well. I also think the recession hasn't hit as hard over here in Sweden either.

 

[racecar]

Bad time to. Have a friend of mine trying to do the same and it's just a switch of rolls in finance and he's basically being told that it'll be like he's starting off out of college, with a reset of his pay down to that level.

that what a friend told me and talk me out of it cause if i quit, i might not find another job

 

[GregN]

so now my options are sticking in finance, or going to grad school. Won't know about school for a few months, but not having much luck w/ jobs in the meantime...

If I'd go to grad school, it would be purely for my own benefit. I have absolutely no desire to climb the corporate ladder or anything like that. Most of the people who go to grad school are career yuppies. If I was in teaching or something that's another story.

Thing is this though, and on this note the wife and I have always been on the same page. Neither of us have ever seen the need to just buy stuff. Even before the kids, neither of us had much interest in going clubbing. We don't drink alcoholic beverages (and boy can that and clubbing deplete money), we don't see the need to be $Bling $Bling with wardrobe, never saw the need to have the latest and greatest vehicles, usually avoid the cinemas with all the stupid kids and the movies generally suck. THIS SAVES MONEY, and we can do other things.

Pretty much the same sentiment. I have just about everything I need right now as far as I'm concerned. I find most movies aren't worth the time or the money nowadays, my car runs, I've never been much for drinking or clubbing. I don't go bling bling with the threads either. Non-work clothes are a mix of Target, Wal*mart, Kohls, Old Navy, and thrift stores.

About the only things I spend $$ on are insurance, gas, going out to eat, and the occassional game or two here and there. I'm sure things will change when I go back to full time and get a house, but that's still down the road.

I sure won't be buying a 3D TV in the future.

 

[Masamune]

I'm employed so I can't complain. I got my B.S in Q4 '06 and was promoted within my company (going on 10 years this October) but I'm doing something that doesn't really apply to my degree. But hey...it pays the bills so not going to complain. Due to the market I didn't get a raise (first time in company history, only affected managers) but they still paid out a historic profit sharing so that balanced out.

The recession hasn't really impacted me. I'd say that I've cut back on spending but that would be a lie. If anything, I'm putting less into the stock market and paying down my credit card debt while saving up for my first house.

The recession HAS impacted my girlfriend much harder though. As a nursing student, more people are going back to school and the schools are finding it harder to find instructors (why teach when they can make more as a nurse) so its harder for her to get classes. But she's only a year or so away so...she'll pass me up on the pay scale shortly.

My parents are both out of work though. Thankfully they've got a ridiculously low mortgage and my uncle moved in with them to save $$$. I'm hoping the market turns around so they can find jobs.

 

[matrimelee]

35% wage cut for me so $ are a little tighter but i have some saving so it's not as bad but it'll definitely put off a few lavish thing like vacation and new car....

We've seen 15-20% wage cuts, I can relate. Ditto, for considering a career change.

 

[matrimelee]

I'm employed so I can't complain.

Is it really that simple? I mean... That's the sentiment that I've heard around the plant all along. Well, up to the point that morale crashed.

Yeah, it's great that we're working. It's also great for the management that we still show up for work and do the job, even with our wages cut.