Twelve years at the same job and facing impending layoff due to sequester.

[mick063]

Many coworkers blaming President Obama and much of it is racially motivated. Fox talking points used so frequently that I feel I am watching an episode of Hannity. Group mentality that uses O' Reilly methods to debate. Refuse to listen, speak louder and louder to drown out dissenting opinion,


They don't begin to understand what has happened to us. No clue about the Koch Brothers, Tea Party extremism, Walker in Wisconsin, the debt ceiling held as hostage, the "Super Committee", chained CPI, Bush tax cuts of 2001.....the endless list of events that DUers are aware of.


They don't want to hear and they don't want to know. They live in the bubble universe that gave us alternate presidential polls to Nate Silver. The Fox universe. This is all they know and all they trust.

The vast majority of my coworkers identify this job loss to President Obama. "Obama's tax and spend policy has taken our jobs."

They all pay union dues to the United Steelworkers. We currently work under an expired labor agreement and the "take it or leave it" proposal demands 5% cut in pay, loss of pension, mandatory overtime, increase in health care deductible, and elimination of positions related to worker safety. This was what we were facing before the sequester shit hit the fan.

All of it....."Obama's fault"

This nation is truly fucked.

See ya in the unemployment line. Will be living off of my child's college fund.

[Trajan]

1. As sad as that is ..... and it is ....

We all have had our ups and downs ....

I worked in aerospace in Southern California, where 1,000,000 well paid aerospace jobs disappeared (only to reappear, in smaller numbers, and at lower wages and benefits, in Texas, Alabama and Georgia - Right to Work states)

None of your co-workers cried when those 1,000,000 left the State of California .....

But I still pity your fellow workers in their self demeaning ignorance .... Their families will suffer, and it is thanks to the GOP that this is happening ....

I am sorry about your loss .... I know it hurts .... I've been there ..... I hate rebuilding (again) ....

[n2doc]

2. Propaganda works oh so fucking well

I swear people would go to their graves, starving because all government programs that might have helped them were eliminated, blaming liberals for all their sorrows. Just so long as they can suck the propaganda from the glass teat.

[fromwyoming]

3. Delusion reigns

I was part of a team that brought a number of Ukranian students and professors to the U.S. in 1991. During the course of their studies here, they encountered American accounts of the 1920's Ukranian famines. Millions died. The American explanation, totally supported by empirical evidence, noted that Ukranian farm production had been appropriated by the Soviet (Russsian) government. Ukranian farmers starved so Russian urban citizens could survive. Our students and professors totally rejected this information as merely U.S. propoganda. I think subsequent information has shown that the deadly Ukranian famine in the 1920's was caused by Soviet policies. I came away from this encounter understanding that people rarely understand the events and policies that create their personal conditions but that they latch onto the explanation that seems most plausible to them. In the case of this posting, people with no historical understanding and no interpretation of their own circumstances other than blaming someone they are predisposed to dislike are certain to attribute their misfortune to the person or administration they are predisposed to dislike. We need to figure out ways to educate them.

[JaneyVee]

4. FOX news is one hell of a drug.

[YoungDemCA]

5. Sorry to hear that....

Sound like a thoroughly misinformed right-wing atmosphere that is dominant in your area.

I am reminded of the West Virginia coal baron who FIRED his employees and told them "It's Obama's fault that I am letting you go. He got reelected. Now, pray with me!"

Once again, I'm really sorry about this.

[wyldwolf]

6. the job market is really weird right now

I was given a structured layoff in October of last year. There had been rumors those were coming but when two of my team members, including a manager who originally hired me in 2005, were let go, I knew my time was coming. Since then, others have trickled out and the company is planning to move to smaller facilities.

I was given 30 days notice - during which time I could voluntarily leave - or be released after the 30 day period. I waited out the 30 days and was given six weeks severance at the end of the period. Oddly, when the GA Dept. of Labor called the company, they couldn't get through to my former manager so they were patched through to HR. HR told them I was let go 'for cause' and my initial unemployment claim was denied. I appealed, the DOL did an investigation, and came back and approved my claim, saying HR at my former company was 'mistaken.' THIS after I gave them 7 years. I don't fault them much for needing to shed salaries and downsize but to try and block unemployment claims is unforgivable.

Anyway, I was lucky (in a way) because I had a tidy sum of money from an inheritance the previous year, a semi-thriving side business, and the unemployment checks.

But I was surprised how often my phone is ringing for interviews. Unlike the last time I was out of work for a year in 2002 when NO ONE would call. Recruiters call almost daily, employers respond, I get interviews that I knock out the park, but then I never hear from them again - but I still see the same job listed week after week. I've been submitted for one job at a big telecom 8 times since October. One recruiter told me employers are looking for a 'purple squirrel,' a candidate that doesn't exist. The recruiters are frustrated, too, because companies are opening up positions but are very slow to fill them.

So as my inheritance slowly depletes and and with my unemployment due to expire in April, I've decided to incorporate mine and my wife's businesses into one company and take full advantage of tax writeoffs for home office space, equipment, salaries, etc. We've been itemizing for years now so we might as well make it official.

Right now I have mixed emotions. I really didn't like the last role I'd held for a year at that company, but it paid the bills. I often ask myself if I had a choice of going back or continuing the path I'm on now, which would I choose? I honestly don't know. I do know I'll never be loyal to another company because they're not going to be loyal to me.