Downsizing
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Downsizing
| Thu, 07-17-2008 - 6:00pm |
My company has started implementing "workforce reductions" this week.
| Thu, 07-17-2008 - 6:00pm |
My company has started implementing "workforce reductions" this week.
Hiring freeze for teachers in our area even though schools are bursting at the seams.
Bex -
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift -thats why its called the present."
Bex -
Well, I'm one of them and there are going to be a lot more of people like me in my industry. I am a journalist and newspapers have lost thousands and thousands of very talented people in the past year who have nowhere to go. My lay off was not completely unexpected -- we knew it was a remote possibility -- but that did not make it any easier when I got the tap on my shoulder the day we returned from vacation. Plus, because I was technically part-time on paper (basically expected to do 5 days work in four days) I got no severance. Papers all over the country are losing as much as 20 percent of their staff. It is absolute craziness especially in the largest papers because the people who work there are probably the best of the best in this country who have risen through the ranks for years only to be pushed out in middle age. And since it is pretty specialized skill it's not like you can go down the street and get a similar job. No matter what you might think of the press in general it is made up not of the "stars" you see on TV but of regular people with families and mortgages who really believe in what they are doing. Our family is really struggling, losing money every month but still hanging on. We have a terrifying amount of debt which I am trying to tackle as I can. I write from home now and have had some luck in freelancing but it is sporadic and nowhere near what I was making before. The scary thing is my husband is also a journalist. His job is secure for now but who knows ....
The only bright spot to all of this is that I heard they are extending unemployment insurance for anyone laid off in the last year. Ours is but one of many industries in trouble. Look at all those people in the financial sector who are being laid off by the thousands because their bosses made greedy decisions or in the auto industry and on and on and on .... Ok I'll stop. Sorry to vent. Jenny
{{{HUGS}}}, Jenny.
I'm so sorry to hear you were laid off.
Edited 7/19/2008 10:56 pm ET by jestock2