OT: my take on the economy 1st hand

[boomo]

not trying to gloom and doom, just wanted to share with you guys how it has affected
my work and give you an idea of how bad it is.

work for osram corp, we make 9005/06 headlamps for about half the cars
in the world, new or aftermarket. for the last 10 years up until oct 08, i basically worked
13 days on and one off. we had regular shutdowns during summer time when we would
use our vacation time, even then sometimes my line ran because we supplied so many lamps.
i was making time and a half sat, and double time sunday and loved all the extra card cash.
that 10 years working almost every sat and sunday, all 3 shifts 24 hrs a day.
In oct, basically after another weekend, we were told no more saturdays and sundays.
well since then, not only has there been no more weekends, people have been asked to take days
off without pay cus the line doesnt need to run, and now they are even thinking of cutting it down to
just 2 shifts, possibly only 4 days a week. only good might come from it, is i think at some point, you guys are gonna be able to get some great deals on new cars. They are stacked everywhere, lot after lot is full to capacity.
sorry for the long read, just my takeon how bad things are. hope everyone here is doing better.

 

[Guest]

Sorry to hear that man, hope you pocketed that extra cash for this rainy day.
I'm in the same boat I work for Caterpillar and we have just laid off people and
we are not working any OT and there is basically only 1 shift now when there was 3

Good luck man I hope thing turn around soon for you and anyone else this as effect

 

[Roy Birchler]

As time goes by more people will be affected. My workweek has been cut from 40 hrs to 32 hrs. and no overtime. My company closed for 1 week at New Years with no pay.
With the govt. printing money like crazy and production down, high inflation is sure to follow. Which is going to hurt everyone even more.

 

[bateson]

Look at the positive Matt, more time for those special "EVENTS" until things turn around! Not that $$ isn't better but it will help the situation!

 

[MOFNY]

Hours cuts here too...

 

[jjj7880]

Everyone should join the military! You don't have to worry about pay cuts/fewer hours, etc. Nah all joking aside, sorry about your weekends getting cut and losing some time at work. Hope all is well for you.

 

[chuckbartowski]

25% work force layoff at my office, and we haven't been hit as hard in AK yet.

 

[archiebunkerjr]

That auto industry situation is crazy. $4.00 per gallon gas is still fresh in everyone's mind. I could use a new vehicle but I wanted to wait until 2010 when the Big 3 came out with more hybrids and electric vehicles (my dad is a retired GM employee and I live in Michigan, I don't dare purchase a foreign vehicle). Now you add the poor economy into the mix and I don't see very many cars being sold in 2009 unless there are deep deep discounts that have never been seen before.

 

[jjj7880]

That auto industry situation is crazy. $4.00 per gallon gas is still fresh in everyone's mind. I could use a new vehicle but I wanted to wait until 2010 when the Big 3 came out with more hybrids and electric vehicles (my dad is a retired GM employee and I live in Michigan, I don't dare purchase a foreign vehicle). Now you add the poor economy into the mix and I don't see very many cars being sold in 2009 unless there are deep deep discounts that have never been seen before.

Go after the Chevy Volt!

 

[pujolsjunkie]

25% of my office was laid off in November. I was one of the lucky ones, but I was cut from full time to 30 hours a week. It sucks.

 

[200lbhockeyplayer]

Nothing wrong with "doom and gloom"...it's the nature of the beast.

That being said, any sort of hour cuts, cut downs in spending, pay adjustments, changes in benefits, etc...are all better than the alternative in most cases which is layoffs.

I completely applaud the management staff with your company in being proactive and trying to work out a temporary alternative to keep everyone working (even with less potential for hours) rather than layoffs. Companies are often times "large families" and if you take care of your family, they'll take care of you.

 

[MOFNY]

Nothing wrong with "doom and gloom"...it's the nature of the beast.

That being said, any sort of hour cuts, cut downs in spending, pay adjustments, changes in benefits, etc...are all better than the alternative in most cases which is layoffs.

I completely applaud the management staff with your company in being proactive and trying to work out a temporary alternative to keep everyone working (even with less potential for hours) rather than layoffs. Companies are often times "large families" and if you take care of your family, they'll take care of you.

Sure doesn't feel like that sometimes...

 

[jacobbocce72]

it's times like these that i'm glad i choose education as my major... that's one job where you can't really get laid off...

-Jacob

 

[200lbhockeyplayer]

Nothing wrong with "doom and gloom"...it's the nature of the beast.

That being said, any sort of hour cuts, cut downs in spending, pay adjustments, changes in benefits, etc...are all better than the alternative in most cases which is layoffs.

I completely applaud the management staff with your company in being proactive and trying to work out a temporary alternative to keep everyone working (even with less potential for hours) rather than layoffs. Companies are often times "large families" and if you take care of your family, they'll take care of you.

Sure doesn't feel like that sometimes...

I'm not trying to imply that all are, however in poor economic times, businesses that stay successful will often work together to find a resolution. Resolutions such as shortening hours, benefits, etc...

The "me me me" internal attitude that permeates some businesses is often times what kills them.

 

[MOFNY]

Nothing wrong with "doom and gloom"...it's the nature of the beast.

That being said, any sort of hour cuts, cut downs in spending, pay adjustments, changes in benefits, etc...are all better than the alternative in most cases which is layoffs.

I completely applaud the management staff with your company in being proactive and trying to work out a temporary alternative to keep everyone working (even with less potential for hours) rather than layoffs. Companies are often times "large families" and if you take care of your family, they'll take care of you.

Sure doesn't feel like that sometimes...

I'm not trying to imply that all are, however in poor economic times, businesses that stay successful will often work together to find a resolution. Resolutions such as shortening hours, benefits, etc...

The "me me me" internal attitude that permeates some businesses is often times what kills them.

Ye I see what you are saying. I'm sure you have more experience with these things than meself.

 

[trolea1234]

Im really surprised that my job so far hasnt taken a hit. I have to work today and probably tomorrow as well. I work for a company that makes pipe for offshore oil rigs. We also make braces for bridges. Luckily we havent felt it yet and I hope we dont. As af now we have alot of work.

 

[theplasticman]

it's times like these that i'm glad i choose education as my major... that's one job where you can't really get laid off...

-Jacob

Unless your state has a huge budget deficit and they start laying teachers off. A buddy of mine is nervous since he isnt tenured yet.

My hours got cut almost 50%

 

[jacobbocce72]

it's times like these that i'm glad i choose education as my major... that's one job where you can't really get laid off...

-Jacob

Unless your state has a huge budget deficit and they start laying teachers off. A buddy of mine is nervous since he isnt tenured yet.

My hours got cut almost 50%

It's really, really hard to get fired in Texas. Not that this is a good thing, because i am planning on being a great teacher, but there are a lot of lousy teachers that just kind of hang around. Plus, as a male middle school science teacher, i am pretty desirable.

 

[Roy Birchler]

To the guys who have had their hours cut. Check with the State employement office where you work. In California there is a program that pays you unemployement insurance for a part of your reduced hours. Most states probably do not have this, but it doesn't hurt to check. I filed my claim a couple of weeks ago and still have not heard from the state on it. Figure that after 40 years of paying into the system, I might have something coming. The HR department at my workplace did not know about the program and the employees had to push them to sign up for it.

Roy

 

[Quenepa22]

No matter what happens, I still think that America is the best country in the world to live in! IMO, the reason that we are in this mess, globally, is because of the greediness of our politicians! I know that corruption will always be in our midst, but, why do we need it so blatantly in lobbyist that feed into the greedy politicians just to sway laws in favor of the lobbyists' employers!

Why can't the politicians truly represent the constituents that elected them. Instead of protecting the best interest of Americans they are busy passing laws that are allowing jobs and companys to move offshore.

Fortunately, I still have a job, but many people in the company I work for have been let go. It is very interesting how this has occured. The company I work for (which I will not name, but is a big player in the American economy) was bought by a group of investors a couple of years back. Suddenly, the offices were filled with people from India being taught how to do the work of the people in these offices. I come to find out that the company has said to their workers that they have a choice to make...1) they could be let go immediately or 2) they could teach their Indian counterpart their position for the next couple of months and then be let go!

The office that used to be pleasure going to became like a "foreign country" within a matter of months! In the mornings, there were taxi's line up at the front entrance dropping off 2 to 3 indian workers.

From time to time, I have to contact different departments for information and I am sorry to say that the language barrier is nearly impossible to overcome!

I am not against folks from other parts of this world having jobs in American companies, but, it seems that our American companies and Americans alike have been sold out to foreign countries.

Our government thinks that bailouts will get us out of this mess and all they are doing is throwing up a smoke screen to the American people in hopes that eventually the recession that we are in will soon end. They really need to clamp down on their own actions as things are bound to get worse than it is already. Yes they can print all the money they want, but it doesn't make a difference when a good portion of America and American businesses are owned by foreign countries.

They need to pass laws that will benefit Americans. My personal feeling is that not one more dime of Americans tax money go to any other financial insitution. Let us remove our 401K's without penalties and place them in accounts that we can control instead of hoping that the SEC will protect our investments from fraud & greed! And instead of pumping dollars into local governments for infrastructure improvements, take these approved billions (or trillions) of dollars and place them into safe education savings accounts for natural-born American citizens to use for college educations!

I asked that our government give Americans a fighting chance to continue to be the best country in this world...invest in your citizens instead of corporations and your own pockets!

Sorry for the long rant, I just could not help it.