Downsizing

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-12-2007
Downsizing
7
Thu, 07-17-2008 - 6:00pm

My company has started implementing "workforce reductions" this week.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2008
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Thu, 07-17-2008 - 6:31pm

Hiring freeze for teachers in our area even though schools are bursting at the seams.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-14-2008
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Thu, 07-17-2008 - 8:58pm
The city I live in has been very affected by layoffs in the auto sector. I know a lot of people who are really struggling right now. So, my husband and I are very thankful that we have secure jobs, yet we are not naive and know that it can happen to anybody.





iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Thu, 07-17-2008 - 9:39pm
Well I work for the government (yup, one of those) so I am about as secure as one can possibly be. However, I am still on probation until October 15 so technically at any given time I could be unemployed. I am not worried though because my particular department is so flipping busy that we have just gotten funding to hire staff. Having said that, hearing about all the layoffs that are going on all around me, I have decided that a 3 month efund is necessary as soon as possible in order to feel comfortable!!

Bex -


"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift -thats why its called the present."




Bex -

Avatar for colomom99
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Fri, 07-18-2008 - 11:01am

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

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2008
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Fri, 07-18-2008 - 11:06am
Our company hasn't mentioned layoffs but we were told to cut all overtime. People at my office were whining about it but my theory was that if everyone cut out overtime and it saved someone from getting laid off - I'd do it in a heartbeat! It's a scary economy right now.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-12-2007
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Fri, 07-18-2008 - 5:51pm

{{{HUGS}}}, Jenny.


I'm so sorry to hear you were laid off.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2005
In reply to: fabpurplerose
Sat, 07-19-2008 - 10:56pm
Sorry about your layoff. My friend found out 4 weeks before her maternity leave that her division was being "downsized". Luckily she found a job in another department while she was on leave. Currently my husbands work has slowed alot. He works at an auto dealership painting in the body shop. Work was steady earlier this year, then as the gas prices started to go up work has slowed. I think many are keeping the insurance money rather than getting their cars repaired. There are 2 painters at my husbands job, so we hope they dont cut one. If they do I can only hope my husband would retain his position since he has been their longer. Sadly its not a union shop so theirs no standards to who they keep and let go.


Edited 7/19/2008 10:56 pm ET by jestock2