The worst words you can hear...

[Hammer]

I was marveling at the number of unemployed people that there are in the US yesterday over breakfast...especially with all of the announced cuts by the major companies either yesterday or Friday. I kept thinking "thank God my wife and I are still employed." Well, I had a conference call scheduled w/ my boss to discuss a client of mine and HR ended up on the call. OH CRAP, here come the 3 worst words. My company is going through "Corporate Economic Downsizing" and my job has been cut because I am expensive. I was the #2 salesperson in the state for 2008 and I got the axe.

 

Words of wisdom: always keep your resume ready as you never know when HR will show up.

[jwill535]

I am in month 4 of my unemployment. While the first couple weeks were nice to do nothing but sit around, send out resumes and spend the rest of the day playing PS3, it gets old fast. I am hoping to here back from a pretty exciting job in the next day or two.

 

The worst thing that sucks is that there are so many people looking for work that the talent is getting pushed down levels. People who would normally be way over qualified for positions are applying for them pushing out the people that are perfect fits for them.

[DuWayne Steurer]

People who would normally be way over qualified for positions are applying for them pushing out the people that are perfect fits for them.

I have a friend who works in management at the Wal-Mart in Janesville. With the GM (and Lear, and Jatco, and many others) closing, they're all applying at Wal-Mart. He said probably 30-40% of his hires each week are former GM employees.

[fondybrewfan]

That is really sad. No offense to anyone who may work at Walmart, but that might be the last place on earth I would ever want to work. These GM employees were probably paid pretty nicely before and now having to settle for a near minimum wage job really has to wear on their pride. But I suppose if you are in danger of losing your house,car,etc you have to swallow your pride and get any job you can find.

[Invader3K]

Hammer, good luck to you. That really stinks that they fired you. I'll never get why a company would fire someone that brings them revenue...but then again, there are so many things that can factor into it.

[Hammer]

Invader3K[/b]]Hammer, good luck to you. That really stinks that they fired you. I'll never get why a company would fire someone that brings them revenue...but then again, there are so many things that can factor into it.

Thanks Invader. I am with you on the revenue part...trust me. From what I understand we were over budget when they ran the revenue against what our payroll was...so they started w/ the biggest salary/commission people and moved down. It was almost a curse that I was good at my job...

[DougJones43]

I'll never get why a company would fire someone that brings them revenue...but then again, there are so many things that can factor into it.

It seems like companies are becoming more and more short-sighted. The obsession with short-term cost cutting has let to quality issues, with many incompetent and under-qualified people doing jobs. These companies often seem to pay for it in the long run though (see: Circuit City).

 

I used to work for a place that was constantly losing workers because they paid like crap, and people would go elsewhere as soon as they found a new job or got a little experience. They promised raises and new pay-grades, but the pay-grades never came and the company always seemed to find a reason to not give people their raises.

 

This company constantly had new people coming in and there were always quality issues -- but management could never figure out why. Their solution was to put up "motivational" posters, call group meetings to disparage employees, and place all of the blame at the feet of the lower-level supervisors. The company ended up losing some important clients because the clients became irate with the poor quality, which led to layoffs. It was sad and pathetic.

[BrewCrewForever]

Sorry to hear that Hammer. I am in a similar situation, I have not been let go, yet. I hear lots of rumors at my office of people being let go because of the poor economy. I heard rumors that this was the week everything would happen if it did. I left today still with my job, will I make it three more? Who knows. Got my resume updates just in case.

[tristarscoop]

They did pretty much everything they could at my job to keep from laying us off. At first, a few of us got cut from 40 to 32 hours. It was nice to not get completely laid off, but I needed extra pay. I got a part time job for 4 hours a day to make up some cash. Less than a month later, two weeks before Christmas, I got fully laid off from job one. The next day, I was able to go full time at job two. It's about $1 less an hour, but I'm so lucky that I had something to fall back on. Good luck to all those out there.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I was contracting at a place in Madison, doing fairly well, but temping is never anything to make a person feel secure, especially in this climate. 2 months ago the parent company asked a group of about 60 contractors if any would be willing to make a temporary departmental shift because of over staffing. Of 60, only 5 of us volunteered. The shift was not really desirable, and the pay scale in that department was also a slight downgrade from where we were at.

 

The irony is that as of next week here, the 5 of us that took the temp shift are now being hired on full time permanent, and we're being trained to work in a department that's more or less one step UP the ladder from where we were to begin with. Of the 55 that chose to stay where they were, about 15 have been let go, and the rest are still contracting indefinately.

 

Long story short, it doesn't hurt to take one for the team once in a while. It might actually get you somewhere.

 

I guess the moral of the story here is, I can't understand people turning down ANY kind of work right now. Just about everybody is cutting back. One person I know turned down a new position over a difference of 50 cents an hour.

[LouisEly]

I was the #2 salesperson in the state for 2008 and I got the axe.

 

Provided there are more than two people for the state for sales you should have no problem finding a new job. If you are in the top 1/3rd of sales and can document it, any smart employer will recognize that and see that you can bring in revenue and hire you. This may be a blessing in disguise, because if the former company doesn't recognize the value of top salespeople then they might not be that great to work for long term.

[DSFastball55]

It's been almost five months for me. I'm not even getting interviews for some jobs I'm overqualified for.

[thebruce44]

I am in month 4 and have all but given up. I have applied to every Civil Engineering Firm in Chicago and not one of them has been able to hire someone. To make things worse, all of the managers who were above me at my last company have been laid off for about 2 months, and none of them can find work ether. They are all more qualified and willing to take pay hits, so there is really no way for me to get a job until they all get hired.

 

In the mean time, I am putting together my shirt website because its a fun hobby, and I am used to sitting at a computer for most of the day. However, as a young engineer, I feel like I am loosing valuable development time where I could be learning more and improving at my career.

 

Quick note: getting let go is by far not the worst words you can hear. Stay healthy, keep your head up, and remember that there are a lot of other great employees out there in a similar position. Hopefully it will all be over soon so we can go back to being productive members of society.

[GAME05]

I was laid off after September 11th, when the economy took that nosedive, so it was a long while before I found anything else then.

 

 

what stinks is everyone is saying that now is the best time to be in school, which i am. when i first started, my savings was going to get me through without debt, but I just learned this morning that I'm broke, and I have about another year of school left. sure hope student loans get you enough to live on.

[DHonks]

This is my second year of teaching, and budget-wise we're seeing something unheard of here in AZ. First in November, our voters failed to renew the district's Budget Override measure, meaning that we had to slash $8 million off of the budget in '09-10. Then the news came that the AZ legislature is slashing educational expenses. The result is that we currently are expecting to be $32 million short of the initial budget. As a 2nd year teacher I have some unique specialty training, but that doesn't matter. I'm the most recent hire for my department, and today my principal confirmed that my position might be eliminated. Since I'm a fulltime certified teacher, I should be able to either stay at my current school or at least be re-assigned to another school. However, many of our first year teachers (usually in their 20's) are on interim contracts and have no guarantees of jobs. How horrible to go to college for 4-5 years for a specialized degree that most consider noble and a sacrifice, then to have politicians slash funding to the point where you have no job and your training is worthless in most fields. The old teachers might be one year from retirement, but the young ones are bearing the burden here.

 

The reality is that politicians are viewing schools as a simple place to slash funds rather than actually doing their jobs and weighing the costs and benefits. There is a reason Arizona is rated among the worst in the nation for student test scores, spending per student, and places to raise a family. The new middle school limits will go from 165 student contacts per day (for a teacher) to 190. That's an average class of 32, with a maximum of roughly 38.

[LouisEly]

Not to turn it to a political discussion, but there's an old saying - anything the government gives out is something taken from someone else. If government revenues are down because taxes collected are down, then spending needs to be cut everywhere. If it's not in your department, then it has to be cut even more for other services. Or sell a lot of bonds and drive up debt.

 

If people have not gone to school for 4-5 years for a specialized degree and are considering going back to school, and you like working with people, I highly recommend going to nursing school. Despite the economy, there is still a great shortage of nurses nationwide. With a nursing degree you can go anywhere and work anywhere, and chances are wherever you live there are plenty of job openings. And nursing pays fairly well too.

 

For those of you males reading this, a friend of mine is a "male nurse"; he has a highly specialized degree and training (nurse anesthetist) and makes six figures doing that. Being a nurse at a private doctor's office doesn't pay very well, but some nursing positions at a hospital come with hourly wages that can make an autoworker blush.

[Hammer]

Update: Still w/out a job and now not sleeping at night. Every job I apply to has over 500 applicants and some have had as high as 1200-1300. Man...this economy can kiss my tail...

[Brian the Automator]

I'm really sorry to hear that, Hammer. I went through two periods of unemployment back during 9/11 when the economy was in the crapper that time. Not being able to work is a serious kick in the groin... financially AND emotionally. You and everyone else here that is struggling with this is in Nicole and my prayers. It WILL get better.

[bullox]

That is really unfortunate to read Dhonks. If anything needs funding in times like these it's education.

[razzzorsharp]

My wife who has been teaching at Sheboygan Public Schools fro the past three years may be out of a job as well. Weird times.

 

(On a side note, I heard words that were close to the worst you could hear from my FIL this past weekened when he came running out of the bathroom yelling, "Where's the plunger?")

[craigharmann]

It really sucks that qualified people don't have jobs. The only advice I can give you is be creative. I am a church musician, and I was basically fired a few years ago, because the church had no money....long story. But I didn't want to work a "real" job (I went to college to teach religion and choir in Lutheran schools...quite marketable, I know) but I decided that I was going to try to teach private music lessons and see if I could earn a living on that. Thankfully, my wife had a full-time job. It was great, and thankfully, I'm back in a full-time position, and it all worked out. But if you have a hobby or skill that you could go into business for yourself, maybe that's a route to go down.

[FVBrewerFan]

Always remember, it isn't WHAT you know it's WHO you know. As time moves on, the economy will always have ups and downs. Nobody currently unemployed wants to hear this (can't blame you) but it was much worse in the 70s. But regardless of how the overall economy/job market is doing, you could still lose your job on any given day. Maybe the economy turns around, but your industry, company, or skill set is in a"recession." That's why it's absolutely critical to do what you can to network with people within your industry, local business groups, etc.

 

I think most of us realize there's a large percentage of jobs that are never advertised. The goal should be to meet as many people as you can, so when you need to apply you have someone who at least knows you and can help you- rather than being one more resume out of 1,000. It's easier said than done, and hardly fool-proof. But the more you netowrk, the better your odds at landing something.

[Hammer]

Update: While I do not want to rub any salt into the wounds of those that are still looking...I just got hired by a very good company!!! Thanks for all of the well-wishes!!

[Brian the Automator]

Congrats, Hammer!

[DHonks]

Hammer, congrats.

 

As for me, last week Tuesday I received an email (almost 2 full months after my previous post in this thread) and I was placed in a position at one of my district's high schools. I already coach girls golf at a different one, but they'll let me continue there. It sounds like I'll have 3 US history classes and some combination totaling 2 classes of AP US, AP Euro, World, or Econ. I'm hoping for Econ, as I was both an Econ and History major. The district still is waiting for the state of Arizona to release its budget (in June), so we won't hear about paycuts until then. Shifting to high school will be nice for school spirit, and I should be able to pick up another sport (ideally I'd love Frosh or JV softball).

 

For background info for those in Wisco...AZ used to be primarily full of retirees. Therefore, they believed that you should never be able to be taxed out of your home, and AZ has some of the nation's lowest property taxes. Instead its tax-code is based on sales and tourism taxes, which have been dramatically cut in recent years. AZ is a fast-growing state for a number of reasons, but has not adapted its tax-code. Additionally, we have all of these ballot initiatives that are passed by the people. The money to fund them is "locked" by the rules of these initiatives, so much of AZ's revenues are earmarked and can't be shifted without voter approval.