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LAYOFFS!

#21
I'm truly sorry for everybody who's affected by the layoffs. I don't mean to sound callous at all ("There but for the grace of God go I..."), but it made me think of a line or two from a John Prine song:

"I got hired Monday mornin',
Downsized that afternoon.
Overcome with grief that evenin',
Now I'm crazy as a loon..."

Anyway, a sincere "Best of luck" to all of you.
 
#22
My wife's boss came in to town to lay off people yesterday. She was asked to give up 'another' person on her staff. The division head offered her a salary reduction for her whole department as a way of keeping the current number...I told her that they would take the cuts and then lay someone off anyway.

I run a retail store and it has been brutally quiet - down 60% over last year.
 
#23
I went through 3 rounds of layoffs at my last company. We weren't in a recession then--just a f***ed up company.:mad:

Round 1, they got rid of the dead weight. On Friday, we had our Christmas party. All was well. On Monday morning, with a moment's notice, we were called into a meeting room. One by one we were called to leave the room to meet with management. I survived. I was told to go home immediately, so, I didn't find out who was left until Tuesday.

Round 2, Over a few months, they reorganized departments and got rid of several good employees that just didn't fit into the new organization. They also moved the company several miles away which forced some to quit from the long commute.

Round 3, they started picking off the senior employees one or two a month. Some jobs were off-shored, some green card workers were hired (for less pay I'm sure). Those of us left trained the new employees. :scowl: When only one guy in my department was left who was senior to me, I started looking for a new job. Fortunately, I found a much better job.

Good luck to everyone.

Ben
 
#24
Was laid off back in February...9 months & counting...thankfully, wife was really good with our finances so we're ok for awhile longer but this is getting ridiculous. I have literally applied for close to 1,000 jobs all over the US, Canada, even overseas, and have only had 5 interviews. I was Vice President of Land Development & Acquisition for a national homebuilder in Tampa and saw it coming but it still stung nonetheless.

Best of luck to those in the same boat.
 
#25
I work at an auto dealership and a couple of people in about every department was laid off. I was one of the lucky ones.

Even though I didn't get the layoff things within our department are not that great:

1. One of the people who did get the layoff was a driver. Me and one other person in my department have to fill in every other day. I don't mind being on the road sometimes, but I'd much rather be inside doing what I know how to do. Especially with winter right around the corner.

2. No overtime for anyone. One week I had 3/4 of an hour overtime and they asked me to come in late on the last day of the week.

3. The last thing that happened was they cut our commission by a quarter of a point.


As much as this all sucks right now I am thankful that I still have my job. Last time I looked at the help wanted section it was slim pickings. I just hope it doesn't get any worse.
 
#26
They closed a whole dealership at the automall I work at, the Volvo franchise was dying for a long time. Only service kept it alive. Fortunately (for me) I have more seniority. They tried to keep as many of the mechanics as they could from Volvo, but have only 2 left now. I work in Lexus. Our service department is ok, but sales is hurting bad.
They did a bunch of changes at my wifes work too.
 
#27
Our entire department was called into our CEO's office yesterday and told all of our jobs were being outsourced to a different location (about 2.5 hours away). Full-time employees that qualify have 45 days to accept a buyout or accept a different position possibly at a different location. I'm only part-time, so I probably will face a layoff sometime early next year. Oh well, I can probably make almost as much collecting unemployment and will have more time to search for a full-time job as I'm going nowhere with my current company. At least they're giving us plenty of advanced notice. This economy really sucks!:mad:
 
#28
Chrysler/Jeep tech here. They laid off one of seven techs, one of two service writers and a shuttle driver. That's all I know about. It's strange, everybody's tightening up but people still come in and drop a grand on service work. Luckily I'm one of the techs that's probably not going anywere.
 
#31
I was out of work for about 4 months this past spring and summer and was doing house painting and mowing lawns in between pounding pavement looking for a full time job.

Luckily I found a decent job in a small factory (8 employees) that makes products for a very expensive hobby industry. The company has always been recession proof because our customers are typically financially well-off and they tend to be fiercely loyal, particularly to American brands.

We just had a trade show last week and our company far exceeded all of our previous sales totals with record orders coming in that will keep us busy as far into the future as we can predict. In fact they just gave out our Christmas bonuses early and I got a decent chunk of change even though I've only been there since August.

I know it's just a factory job and the base pay isn't the best but I sleep a lot better at night knowing that it's about as safe as any job can be in the U.S. right now and it's paying my very modest bills and providing me with health insurance. It also means that I have to live pretty frugally and I can't afford to buy a house or new car as long as I work there because there is nowhere for me to be promoted to -- working the warehouse in production is as high on the ladder as I can go with that company. Buying any new bass stuff means I have to pinch pennies and sacrifice somewhere else -- such as living in a tiny, no frills apartment. But with the economy the way it is, I'll accept that as a trade off for the job stability.
 
#32
Man, I feel for you guys. Very sorry to hear that. Hopefully, the upswing will begin soon, but I don't expect it to happen.

Maybe I am just ignorant to the overall sitaution, but it seems to me that the cause of this is a few different things - outsourcing of jobs for cheaper labor, importing of chinese (or other to be fair) cheap products in mass which cuts profits to a minimum to US based companies, and also some greed on the top end of the income scale.

I have been self employed for 15 years, and the decline to where we are started a good 10 years ago from my observations. When will it rebound? How can it rebound if the above listed are the root causes? I don't see this being an easy or quick fix, but I sincerely hope I am wrong. Perhaps the length of the decline hasn't been noticeable to those who have had up to this point truly secure jobs, but when your workload is in direct connection with domestic retail purchasing.....it's hard not to notice when it is a direct reflection on your own bottom line.
 
#33
I got it by a phone call yesterday afternoon. My former company let 8 of us go do to a reduction in force. I have worked in Aviation for the last 20 years. This is rough. I keep telling myself it is hard to argue with the numbers and the numbers always win. I was the junior guy in Product Support and had made it through two RIF's already.
It's a beautiful weekend in South Texas gonna take the family out for lunch and a movie and come Monday morning hit it running.

Take care all,
Bryan
 
#35
that blows but again this is one reason why I am glad I went into the trades. You cannot outsource anything I do. So for me I dont have to worry about that but if the construction jobs are not there I have no work, and thats the way its looking after the hospital job I am workin on finishes up next year. I just hope my company gets another big job soon to send me to or....
 
#36
I've been playing music for a living my entire life, except for a stint where I needed to stay close to home to take care of an aged father. I was laid off from that, the first and only time. That was 5 years ago before it was trendy.
Now, I just graduated from Grad school and I'm looking for my first real job in not the best of times.
I actually, after five months of searching just got two jobs, in the library field.
Working as a reference librarian two nights a week (luckily, not gig nights) and Sat. mornings (not looking foreward to Friday night gigs) I also got a job as a cataloging assistant at a Yale University. It's a lot less than a regular library job, but it's work and you basically to be able to put "Yale" on your resume.
Hello new gear...

Andy
 
#37
After 9/11 I was laid off from a company I'd worked at for 8 years. 2 weeks prior to the layoff, wife and I were happy to be new parents. Got another equivalent - paying job within 90 days, worked there for 18 months and got laid off.

Laid off twice in 2 years, trying to raise a family & pay a mortgage. I know how bad it sucks, I really do.

Minimize expenses - for example, you can live without premium cable TV. Don't be afraid to sell that new $500 / month car or truck that guzzles fuel, get something you can afford for the time being. Try to find a career field that cannot go away, or go overseas (at least in your lifetime). Construction / industrial, health care, education, utilities, food services, repair, etc. Don't be afraid to get dirty, to work hard, or to work outside. Best of luck to those who are out of work... I hope your period of unemployment is short, and that you find a new job that you are happy with :).
 
#38
Another auto tech here. No layoffs in our shop yet, but there are talks of it if business keeps going down the crapper like it currently is. Out of the five techs, I'm thinking I'd be one of the last ones to go, but being that myself and another tech are the two highest paid in the shop, they might axe one of us first in a effort to save money. The corporate mindset is why pay a guy $25/hr when we can pay someone else $15/hr and (hopefully) get the same job done, for $10 less per hour. In the long run the savings to the company would be fairly large. Never mind the fact that alot of the younger lower paid guys in the auto industry couldn't fix a sandwich, corporate is looking only at cutting expenses and gross profit in the short term.

If I am one of the ones let go, I have a lift in my home garage and a steady flow of sidework, so I don't think I'd have trouble surviving.

fenderthrupeave said:
that blows but again this is one reason why I am glad I went into the trades. You cannot outsource anything I do. So for me I dont have to worry about that but if the construction jobs are not there I have no work, and thats the way its looking after the hospital job I am workin on finishes up next year. I just hope my company gets another big job soon to send me to or....
Click to expand...

While it's true they cant send your job to China, they can effectively bring China to your job. What I mean by that is they can lay off the higher paid employees and bring in a bunch of younger guys and pay them less money to do the same job you used to do. Also by using cheaper materials but charging the premium price they can stick even more money in their pockets, and give you the shaft at the same time. Think it doesn't happen? I see this every day. If you're union, you may have a fighting chance, but many of us in the auto repair industry aren't.
 
#39
fenderthrupeave said:
that blows but again this is one reason why I am glad I went into the trades. You cannot outsource anything I do. So for me I dont have to worry about that but if the construction jobs are not there I have no work, and thats the way its looking after the hospital job I am workin on finishes up next year. I just hope my company gets another big job soon to send me to or....
Click to expand...

You apparently do not work in a large metro area. Prices in the large city areas are in the 1970's rates thanks to illegal immigrants for most every trade.
 
#40
Mike N said:
Another auto tech here. No layoffs in our shop yet, but there are talks of it if business keeps going down the crapper like it currently is. Out of the five techs, I'm thinking I'd be one of the last ones to go, but being that myself and another tech are the two highest paid in the shop, they might axe one of us first in a effort to save money. The corporate mindset is why pay a guy $25/hr when we can pay someone else $15/hr and (hopefully) get the same job done, for $10 less per hour. In the long run the savings to the company would be fairly large. Never mind the fact that alot of the younger lower paid guys in the auto industry couldn't fix a sandwich, corporate is looking only at cutting expenses and gross profit in the short term.
I agree with what your saying and me and you are probably in the same boat. I'm one of two highest paid techs in the shop as well. Fact is they have to get three 15 dollar and hour guys to replace me as none of the other guys bill even a third of what I bill. Not to mention they don't have even a quarter of the training (that they paid for) or a fraction of the 25 years of experiance. But the one caviat to all that is that management is basically incapable of making an intelligent decision so who know. I do know they know who makes the money in the shop and your probably there too.
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