The cup has passed by me.. for now

[FPAlpha]

So finally we feel the direct effects of the recession.

For months our work volume wasn't that good and it didn't pick up.. our fall business (usually one of the busiest times of the year) was nonexistant and we all got a little worried.

Now our department was called in together to have a talk with our boss.. for the volume we have we are overstaffed. We need to cut 3 of our 8 warehouse workers and one of us in the office will have to be transferred to a different department.

I'm actually lucky that i wasn't laid off directly.. our boss told my team leader that the choice who gets transferred is up to him and if he can't make the choice he will decide and probably will let me go (not because of the quality of my work.. i have good evaluations and my team leader and my overall boss are satisfied with me and don't want to let me go but i'm the newest of the bunch).
The other department is not that bad but we all got used to each other and work well together. It will be a sad day when one of us is gone but luckily there's be a place for him/her so no one is losing his job.. yet.

Now the shitty part was deciding which of our workers will have to go.. i know them all quite well by now, like them all and know their personal background which makes it that much harder.
We have a temp worker in his early 40s who, if he gets lucky, will be transferred to a different department (most likely not) and a young guy who is steadily employed but in the past has made some rather big errors.. he didn't get his contract upgraded to 8.4 hours like the rest and had to remain at 6 hours and is constantly struggling to get by.
The last one was rather easy.. he's the slowest of the bunch, made much ruckus amongst the team and generally speaking was not up to the task so his name fell first.

I feel like shit because in the current economical crisis it's unlikely one of them will find employment soon and because i can't say anything to them until it's officially announced.. probably Thursday

 

[btflash]

i'm a contractor here in new jersey and i have been feeling this recession for over a year now with no end in sight. it very unnerving as there is absolutly no work. i don't know what to do at this point and am worried about supporting my family. there are no job's in the papers , and no one is hiring. personally , i think we are headed for a depression.

 

[Plecostomus]

I'm finding it interesting that more and more of my friends and acquaintances are being let go without regards to seniority. Alot of companies are retaining workers who are content being (for example) a button pushing monkey rather than a multi-class button-pushing programmer monkey who can sharpen tools.

Apparently the logic is its cheaper to retain the non-specialized non-technical not-ambitious workers because you won't have to pay them more at some non-specific point down the road. That's what temps and contract labor is for. You pay the agent a fee, you use the services said victim/contractor and you toss him/her on the curb.

...this sort of nonsense is just making out technical fields even worse. Fucking short-sighted nonsense.

 

[Lookingglassman]

I work for the Army, but all of us civlian employees know our heads will be on the chopping block soon. If Obama pull out the troops in Iraq, then there really is no need for many of the civilian jobs. Why pay us over $40,000 a year to do what a specialist or private can do far cheaper? Well the good thing is I wont have any bills except a hous payment in a month and I will still get my VA disability which will help me until I get another job.