One horse town.

[HumorMe]

Have you ever heard that expression?

Living in a small town with one large employer and almost everybody works there is good and bad.

The good part is raising your children in this town. We have a nice stable environment for our kids to learn and experience life. Everybody knows everybody and they seem to care about our town. Every place is just a 3-5 minute drive to get there. Gossip is on the main menu and everybody knows if you buy a new car or add-on to your house. We all seem to experience the same highs and lows each day brings.

The bad part is when the economy suffers, we are usually the first to feel it or in this case the last.

Yesterday and today, 130 high level executives are being laid off or retired early. Some as young as 30 and some who are 50-60. The young ones will find other jobs but the older ones are pretty much left to twist in the wind.

These people were making $100,000+ a year and some as much as $250,000. It seems the most thrown around word in the corporate world is "vice-president." Everybody apparently a VP of something. THe new trendy word now seems to be instead of "vice-president" it's "director." Same shit, different name!

These layoffs have already started their paralyzing effects. People are backing off from the things they need or want. They draw their claws up and wait for a better opportunity. It's called the "trickle-down effect" which sooner or later every self-employed business owner will experience.

I've been self-employed in the service industry for 22 years and I can't recall when things looked more bleak. I hope nobody will look at the conditions and decide to hurt themself. I hope for better times as we all do. Things will get better but getting there is going to be painful for the ill-prepared. I'm glad I watched my pennies when I did!

Have a grat day!

 

[beastboy]

Tough deal....what company is doing these layoffs? It does seem somewhat late in the game to be doing this.

 

[vixenbabe]

Depressing!

Why did you mention someone hurting themsevles over this situation? I found it odd you threw this comment in the mix of your story.

You sure you're ok?

 

[Y_lifter]

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

 

[HumorMe]

Depressing!

Why did you mention someone hurting themsevles over this situation? I found it odd you threw this comment in the mix of your story.

You sure you're ok?

I threw that in there because these layoffs affected such high profile people in this community and the ones who are in their late 40-50 year old range are going to find it tough going to find a job this late in their life with the same pay and benefits. We read about in the papers almost everyday.

I can assure you I would never do anything like that. I've been fortunate enough to put myself in a position that I can ride this out for an extended period of time.

 

[bigschweeler]

All of those people are going to go through a mix of difficult emotions. I know as I was laid off from a $100,000 a year job in late June and have not been able to find work as of yet either. My wife and I have money saved and we can ride this out a little longer, but I'm going to take a job that pays significantly less in September just to have something to do. The boredom absolutely kills a person.

 

[vixenbabe]

Just checkin....

 

[HumorMe]

All of those people are going to go through a mix of difficult emotions. I know as I was laid off from a $100,000 a year job in late June and have not been able to find work as of yet either. My wife and I have money saved and we can ride this out a little longer, but I'm going to take a job that pays significantly less in September just to have something to do. The boredom absolutely kills a person.

Were you given any advanced notice of the layoffs? Were you given a severance package?

The general population knew something was amiss and some layoffs were going to be inevitable. A lot of people thought the layoffs were going to affect other plants and just a few locally were going to be given early retirement packages.

Our real close friend got axed yesterday. A couple of months ago, he presented a plan that the company adopted that will save the company $1.4 million a year. I guess that was appreciated enough!

His daughter is our daughter's best friend and they will more than likely move if he can find something. It's just sad losing friends at an early age but that is minimal considering what lies ahead for them.

Hope he can find something if anything!

 

[bigschweeler]

No real advanced notice, no. In fact I was given reassurance by my boss that if something were to happen they would find something for me. Well that changed in a month or so. I am pretty bitter toward him and feel like he could have given me more notice or at least a friendly warning that this could happen and you may want to start looking now.

I did get five weeks of severance which is better than nothing certainly. I actually got lucky because a couple of weeks later they suspended all severance packages. I know a couple people that were let go after me that got nothing.

It sucks that this has to happen to anyone. All this BS about a jobless recovery is shit. How can it be a recovery if people can't get jobs. At some point this so called recovery will crash as people won't have the money to spend and things will get suddenly very bad.

I really hope that immediately following this recovery there will be more jobs for people or the worst is yet to come.

Sorry to hear about what is happening in your town and to your friends. It certainly isn't easy. I'm fortunate that I'm only 31 and it won't probably be as hard for me as some others.

 

[HumorMe]

No real advanced notice, no. In fact I was given reassurance by my boss that if something were to happen they would find something for me. Well that changed in a month or so. I am pretty bitter toward him and feel like he could have given me more notice or at least a friendly warning that this could happen and you may want to start looking now.

I did get five weeks of severance which is better than nothing certainly. I actually got lucky because a couple of weeks later they suspended all severance packages. I know a couple people that were let go after me that got nothing.

It sucks that this has to happen to anyone. All this BS about a jobless recovery is shit. How can it be a recovery if people can't get jobs. At some point this so called recovery will crash as people won't have the money to spend and things will get suddenly very bad.

I really hope that immediately following this recovery there will be more jobs for people or the worst is yet to come.

Sorry to hear about what is happening in your town and to your friends. It certainly isn't easy. I'm fortunate that I'm only 31 and it won't probably be as hard for me as some others.

That does suck! Times change and so do conditions. Corporate America used to be a friendly environment and a wonderful place to work and retire. No longer the case now.

The big problem I see is the higher-ups making absurd amounts of wages and bonuses and stock options. I guess I was never cut out for the corporate world. I guess my conscience would bother me too much. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing I fired a bunch of people to keep from losing my salary and bonuses.

 

[bigschweeler]

That does suck! Times change and so do conditions. Corporate America used to be a friendly environment and a wonderful place to work and retire. No longer the case now.

The big problem I see is the higher-ups making absurd amounts of wages and bonuses and stock options. I guess I was never cut out for the corporate world. I guess my conscience would bother me too much. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing I fired a bunch of people to keep from losing my salary and bonuses.

Just as companies used to have loyalty to their employees, so did employees have loyalty to the company they worked for. I used to think this way. I used to think that I would be loyal to my company no matter what.

In today's environment companies are no longer loyal to their employees. I have heard of local companies (like MCI and AT&T) that will lay off most of their staff, and then hire new employees to cut on payroll expense. That's really shitty.

So now I will not hesitate to leave a company for another opportunity without even a two week notice. The company won't hesitate to cut you if it will save them money, why should one have any loyalty in return?

 

[HumorMe]

Just as companies used to have loyalty to their employees, so did employees have loyalty to the company they worked for. I used to think this way. I used to think that I would be loyal to my company no matter what.

During WWII, this company was really taking a hit from the economy. The CEO went to the employees and asked them to take voluntary pay cuts and concessions to help the company survive. The employees agreed and all suffered until the economy started rolling again. He promised them significant pay raises and benefits and he delivered. They have been able to fend off unions because they have always taken care of their employees. Employees always seemed to be their first priority. My father worked 43 years there and my mother worked 25 years.

My father retired in 1992 and about this same time, the company started it's impersonal mission. By impersonal, I mean that most everybody knew each other down there. Kind of like a huge family gathering each day. Things have never been the same and employees are nothing but numbers on a sheet.

A lot of young guys down there who have no idea what is made there, now work there and they don't have a clue as to what is going on. I guess I am just bitter right now, since most of the people who were let go yesterday and today are people I have daily or weekly contact with.