Who Here Has Been Laid Off?

[Lookingglassman]

I probably will be in two years. I work for the Army and my job is moving down to FT Benning in 2011. The govt sent us all letters offering us our jobs down there and also offering to buy our houses if we cant sell them and move us. I even got offered a relocation bonus of $10,000. So far I havent replied to the offer (I have until March 9), but I really dont want to move. I have been in this house 10 years, I have a great low fixed interest rate. My house payment is under $950 a month and I have no other bills.

I have some friends who are stationed down there and some who recently went down there and they all come back with the same story: The housing pretty much sucks down there and the prices are jacked up because they know the army is moving two large units down there in two years. I dont want to give up my house and low interest rate for some shack with a higher interest rate so I am 90% sure I will remain here and hope for the best. I figure if all else fails I can go back to work as a loser welfare worker for this sorry state.

 

[Praetor]

Damn, well thank you guys are making me feel less alone, but generally worse about the job market. Everyone seems to at least be in a little fear for their job.

My boss has actually been pumping more money into our business to keep it afloat. He's lowering prices and investing more money in our product to attract more customers. He believes it will help us be even stronger once the recession is over.

That said, he's trying to weed out the crappy employees, but he's doing it by encouraging his current employees with incentives. All in all, we're doing pretty well. And I am, luckily, someone they cannot afford to lose. They won't fire me, and if I were to quit, they'd be totally fucked.

That's pretty much what had been going on at my ex-work, minus the incentives.

 

[SeerSGB]

Anyone else thinking about moving to a better job market? It's something me and the wife's talked about; not likely with our finances at the moment.

We're also talked about 1 or both of us going bag to school and upgrading our skillsets.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Damn, well thank you guys are making me feel less alone, but generally worse about the job market. Everyone seems to at least be in a little fear for their job.

Yeah, it's pretty grim, that's for sure. Since I feel like it's coming, I have already spiffed up my resume and sent it to a few recruiters on Careerbuilder.com Usually, when a person with my qualifications does that, they get BURIED in phone calls from recruiters. 6 or 8 calls a day for weeks! That was my experience the last time I did that.

This time? Not a single legitimate phone call yet and it's been about 5 days. Just a couple of scam artists trying to get people into pyramid schemes and such.

When the shark recruiters are not calling CPAs with tons of big accounting firm experience and a Fortune 500 on their resume...well, you know it's bad in the accounting industry.

What I'm curious about is what are all you guys doing with your free time? I mean, there are only so many resumes you can send out in a day, you know?

Gotta find some (cheap) ways of keeping your mind off things.

 

[Holdfast]

^ On that issue of what to do. Well, as bizarre as it sounds, a recession is a pretty good time to start a business of your own. If you have a business idea/model strong enough to turn a profit in a recession, then chances are it's worth running with.

In the long term, I'm very attracted to the idea of a portfolio career - running several small-scale "cottage-industry" type businesses, spending about a day or so a week on each. I think that would suit my personality much better than having to go to the same job every day. Plus, if each is small-scale, you have less admin hassles and if one is going through a dip, another is likely to be doing well. So there's some paradoxical security there.

Even though I'm more or less full-time employed at present, I have started up two small businesses as well and have clear plans to launch a third once I rejig my regular job's hours to let me do this. Plus there's a fourth income stream I can start tapping if I have more "free" time. The point I'm making is that free time can be profitable if you can think laterally and have an entreprenurial streak.

 

[Praetor]

Damn, well thank you guys are making me feel less alone, but generally worse about the job market. Everyone seems to at least be in a little fear for their job.

Yeah, it's pretty grim, that's for sure. Since I feel like it's coming, I have already spiffed up my resume and sent it to a few recruiters on Careerbuilder.com Usually, when a person with my qualifications does that, they get BURIED in phone calls from recruiters. 6 or 8 calls a day for weeks! That was my experience the last time I did that.

This time? Not a single legitimate phone call yet and it's been about 5 days. Just a couple of scam artists trying to get people into pyramid schemes and such.

When the shark recruiters are not calling CPAs with tons of big accounting firm experience and a Fortune 500 on their resume...well, you know it's bad in the accounting industry.

What I'm curious about is what are all you guys doing with your free time? I mean, there are only so many resumes you can send out in a day, you know?

Gotta find some (cheap) ways of keeping your mind off things.

Well, personally I've been working on a number of art-related projects to try to brush up on skills that atrophied while I was working, and frequenting this and other boards too much. I'm also trying to get more into freelancing to pay bills in the meantime. As much as I enjoy the time off, I dislike not having a job.

Speaking of scams, I've encountered a number of those. It's remarkably hard to tell legitimate ones from the really good scams until youre asked to provide too much info, or visit an obvious website.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

What I'm curious about is what are all you guys doing with your free time? I mean, there are only so many resumes you can send out in a day, you know?

Gotta find some (cheap) ways of keeping your mind off things.

Well, when I get laid off I'm going to spend my free time masturbating.

 

[Holdfast]

What I'm curious about is what are all you guys doing with your free time? I mean, there are only so many resumes you can send out in a day, you know?

Gotta find some (cheap) ways of keeping your mind off things.

Well, when I get laid off I'm going to spend my free time masturbating.

Get a webcam, a webpage and secure discreet billing & you've just found yourself another income stream.

(see, told you I was an entrepreneur)

 

[Mallory]

You just had to say "stream", didn't you?

 

[Amaris]

I was laid off in June of 2008.
I'm still unemployed.

J.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

What I'm curious about is what are all you guys doing with your free time? I mean, there are only so many resumes you can send out in a day, you know?

Gotta find some (cheap) ways of keeping your mind off things.

Well, when I get laid off I'm going to spend my free time masturbating.

Welcome to the club! Uh, just remember, we don't shake hands.

 

[tomalak301]

I haven't been laid off (Didn't even have a job) but I'm just starting my career and don't know what to expect. Even if places were hiring, I doubt they are looking for entry level positions and I'm getting fraustrated by the fact that I just got out of school at a really bad time. I've seriously given some thought to graduate school but I was really hoping to gain more work experience. Right now that's not going well.

Yesterday I attended a job fair and seeing all those people standing in lines just to give people resumes really struck home how bad it's gotten. What pisses me off even more is all these people getting laid off while executives are getting freaking $18 million bonuses or now the Director of the IRS barely even paid his taxes.

 

[Small White Car]

Not to turn this into a recruitment pitch or anything, but my company is doing great. Our "big economic problem" is that our bonus is going to be slightly lower this year. Nice 'problem' to have, I know.

For those who can't find work, you can't go wrong with a company that's still growing and hiring. (And hiring without any experience in our field.)

There are some jobs in all states, but our biggest offices are:
San Diego, CA
Tucson, AZ
Dallas, TX
Lakeland, FL (Near Orlando)
Macon, GA
Virginia Beach, VA
Fredericksburg, VA
Marlton, NJ (Near Philadelphia)
Woodbury, NY (Long Island)
Buffalo, NY
Coarlville, IA
Chevy Chase, MD (Mainly IT and programming work)

I'm serious, it's worth looking at. Yes, it's mostly 'phone center work' but remember, people are calling YOU, not the other way around, so it's not like telemarketing. And advancement opportunities are great. Most of the supervisors and floor-managers I know tend to have been with the company for less than 5 years. If you're looking to move into business management, and you're dedicated, it's a fast-pass to that sort of thing.

You don't need to know didly abut insurance. They train you. Many start without a college degree, use the company education plan to earn one, and advance to management from there.

 

[FrontLine]

My final day with IBM cum AT&T was 31 Jan 04. but I knew well in advance that it was coming. So I laid the ground work to start my own business and have been at it since. From June to mid November I had ZERO business and burned through my savings. I was scared but was waiting for the effects of the depression to take effect, which would mean business for me. Since then I've had steady business. Aint like it was but Im paying the bills and keeping the family happy. So we'll see where it goes from here.

 

[Docbrown777]

Uh oh! I just found out today that the company I work for (all 20 of us) is folding and we will all be out of the job after this month.

oh well. I've been saving like a mad man the past year. I'm seriously thinking of buying a motorcycle and traveling across the country for a month or so.

That or become a day trader.

Maybe both. However, that masturbation stuff sounds like a good plan too.

 

[Hoser]

Been laid off since October. Auto industry.
Michigan bites the wax tadpole for jobs right now (we're talking 10-12% unemployment).

Anyone else thinking about moving to a better job market? It's something me and the wife's talked about; not likely with our finances at the moment.

We're also talked about 1 or both of us going bag to school and upgrading our skillsets.

I want to. In fact, it was the plan. Michigan had a 'free tuition for unemployed workers' program that I registered for, but they have me on a waiting list for the waiting list....
The company I worked for screwed up on my unemployment paperwork, so I didn't get any benefits for more than a month, so our savings are screwed up. And my wife is six months pregnant.....

That said, hopefully once the tax return comes in I can go to another state and starting pounding pavement there.

 

[Small White Car]

Michigan bites the wax tadpole for jobs right now (we're talking 10-12% unemployment).

I refuse to believe that someone capable of whipping out an obscure Dave Barry quote will remain out of work for long!

 

[SeerSGB]

Been laid off since October. Auto industry.
Michigan bites the wax tadpole for jobs right now (we're talking 10-12% unemployment).

Anyone else thinking about moving to a better job market? It's something me and the wife's talked about; not likely with our finances at the moment.

We're also talked about 1 or both of us going bag to school and upgrading our skillsets.

I want to. In fact, it was the plan. Michigan had a 'free tuition for unemployed workers' program that I registered for, but they have me on a waiting list for the waiting list....
The company I worked for screwed up on my unemployment paperwork, so I didn't get any benefits for more than a month, so our savings are screwed up. And my wife is six months pregnant.....

That said, hopefully once the tax return comes in I can go to another state and starting pounding pavement there.

Ouch man. Been there: Pregnant wife, no job, no benefits, it's sucks and sucks hard.

We were going to try for our second starting around x-mas, but that's when my wife's hours started going down and I started losing contracts. Now she's looking at either losing her job and not having benefits, or keeping her job, lose hours, and benefits. So we've backburnered having another kid for now.

I tell ya' this recession can really put a strain on a marriage. Especially when there's kids involved.

The there's the jack-holes that think that if you did what they told you to do, you'd have a job the next morning. So sick of the phrase "Well if you just put this on your resume" or "Well you know why you can't get a contract/interview? "

 

[What's his face]

My dad is in the process of being laid off. He knows it's going to happen any day now. They were going to renew his contract but someone vetoed decision.

Recessions suck.

 

[LavianoTS386]

I'm pretty lucky that I have a job that's not often affected by lay offs (Security) I have a degree in communications, and am still going to school. I knew finding a job in this economy in PR would be hard, so I just stuck to volunteering to do promotional work for a local theatre, to build up my resume for when the economy comes back.