Eight people were laid off from work

[ikojo]

today. Among them a woman who had worked 20 years for the company. This is the thanks she gets.

Another of the victims was a woman in her late 50s or early 60s, who worked so that she and her sick husband would have health insurance. Isn't America grand, where one's access to health care is contingent upon continued employment with a company that provides health insurance.

I hate to see this happen any time of year but during the winter seems particularly cruel. I don't think a lot of companies hire during the winter and right before Christmas.

When asked if there would be additional layoffs one of the VPs said he was not at liberty to say, which IMHO, means yes there will be more.

[Deja Q]

1. It's happening everywhere.

Even government, where people have bizarre misconceptions about how their workers get easy treatment and excess pay and a lifelong soup ticket, are being whittled away, if not eliminated left'n'right.

(I know many Minnesota governmental programs, when you call their numbers, you get somebody in India... Lord knows what we don't know about the DATA being stored over there and I bet there's tons of it...)

[MidwestMomma]

2. How cruel to lay off people right before Christmas

Being laid off is such a kick in the gut at anytime but this time of year really sucks.

I remember 20 years ago, the company I worked for had a big layoff and they had a 'counselor' come in and talk to those that were left. He said the days when you worked for one company and retired with a gold watch were over and not to think that your employer had any loyalty to you.

I was an impressionable 20 something and that really stuck with me.

[ikojo]

3. Yeah the employer is quick to say they

have no loyalty to you but demand absolute loyalty FROM you. Well, no employer gets loyalty from me. I do my job but am always looking for opportunities to learn new stuff and take advantage of any classes they are willing to pay for.

When I talk about the company for which I work it is never in the corporate we (just as I don't say we when speaking of the US).

Just feeling incredibly sad right now.

[Deja Q]

6. B-I-N-G-O-!

Having learned recently of how little my company appreciates me, I've been tempted to walk out. Or swallow my pride, smile, and live while I still have a job because the market speaks for itself regarding us having a viable future.

So far I'm swallowing and smiling, but I might end up spitting in the end. And they know I am valuable. Though I know I too am dispensible; but the glut of fools with silver tongues are more likely to get jobs than the truly talented with "speech impediments".

[Deja Q]

4. A seminar I went to over the summer says that

part time jobs are incrasingly norm, with full time jobs being very difficult to come by. Expected span in a given job is now 5 years max. Benefits are zilch. Pay wasn't mentioned, but we all know that's droppin' too.

I didn't attend the remaining days' worth; my heart was shatted by the new facts of business and how many other people in the class were still lovey-dovey over corporate execs, wanting to meet them so they could learn what it takes to get rich. (which is rather obvious: Get to market with something before anyone else and hype it up. Then use any sleazy method to reduce 'costs' to boost your profits.) These fools need not look at how to make it big but how those who have made it big are squeezing us until we get squished to death.

[ikojo]

5. To become a corporate exec in the US

one must first be part of the class that creates corporate execs. Why do you think upper middle class and rich folks send their kids to private school and then encourage them to join fraternities and sororities? NETWORKING!!! Affluent folks learn how to network and work their connections early in life.

The myth of class mobility is just that A MYTH. In the US one pretty much dies in the class to which one was born.

[tjdee]

7. That's sad.

It can all come and go so quickly.

Makes me think so much more of starting my own business. At least if you're working for yourself, you know things are slow--there's no one to surprise you with a lay off. :(

[xmas74]

9. Which is why I have a few little part time at home businesses

and am trying to expand into yet another.
I have to work two jobs to make nearly the same amount I did just three years ago. Home-based businesses give me a few options for some extra money and I would love to get enough business to be able to work them fulltime instead of my current job(s).

[prolesunited]

8. Is there any way

of proving age discrimination was a factor? And, they probably "needed" to get rid of the one with the sick husband because it was raising the company's premiums. Unfortunately, at their ages, they are majorily screwed.

[ikojo]

10. While there may have been age

discrimination, I think it's not only hard to prove under normal circumstances, a layoff is one way to discriminate in many ways and not face legal repercussions. All the company has to say is the jobs were eliminated, when in reality the work still exists it will be merged in with another job and someone else will have to work twice as hard for the same pay.

CAPITALISM SUCKS!

[DainBramaged]

11. All the employee has to do is retain a lawyer and give notice

of intent of litigation and chances are a LARGE settlement will occur. These scum fear a long protracted lawsuit and public/client opinion against them for laying off "Grandma" is not in their best interest.

Fuck 'em, sue 'em. They hate us, for we are cattle to them.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Don't bet on that

I was one of seven people fired about two years ago from a small daily newspaper. All were over 40, and there were was some greater evidence of discrimination, such as one employee being told before he was fired, "Your old ways aren't going to make it here anymore." Plus, the people hired to replace us were all under 27.

We had a lawyer who specializes in employee discrimination, and it seemed like a pretty solid case. But then things started to unravel (I can't say what — gag order) and we ended up settling for a small amount. Again, I can't say how much, but it was about one-third my annual salary, which was pretty damned small itself.

In a discrimination case, you have to prove the employer's intent was to get rid of older workers. The fact that all those fired were older isn't enough. You've got to have as much supporting evidence as you can get your hands on, and employers these days are too smart — or, their lawyers and HR people are — to make it obvious.

[DainBramaged]

14. Must have been a Gannett Paper?

Just a guess.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Nope

If it had been, we never would've gotten as far as depositions. They would've just "disappeared" us.

It was a small chain in Kollyforniya that no longer exists under its corporate name at the time this happened.



Edit: For the record, Gannett really isn't any worse than any of the other big chains. It just has the worst rep.

[stanwyck]

12. When people say the economy is good

ask for specifics. Ask how many Americans have health insurance. Ask how many Americans have adequate reserves for retirement. Ask how increased gasoline prices, home heating prices, and rising college costs impact family budgets...compared to those measly tax cuts for the middle-class. Not exactly keeping up, right? Sure, the economy is booming for the oil execs. And those feeding off the teats of the military industrial complex. But not for middle America. People who work for companies for twenty years or more could lose their pensions.
And then there's the under-employed.
The people I know who have lost their jobs, and there are many, have found other jobs. But they're less than what they had before. They pay less. And the benefits are less. If at all. Under-employment is pervasive. There are jobs. But they don't pay well. American workers have little clout.
People may demonize unions. But without them, our country wouldn't have built a large, thriving middle-class as quickly. The policemen, firemen, teamsters, teachers, and factory workers organized for living wages, pensions, and benefits.
Now. We're being de-valued. We're being marked down. We're all losing ground. And half of our number are siding with the forces that are causing our decline.
Hard to understand, isn't it?

[Jack_Dawson]

15. 20 years is 10x longer than I've held a job

Not to minimize, but she had a great run.

[nini]

16. The last corporation we were under laid off every Dec

They were bastards beyond belief. Massive layoffs while the VPs were getting clothing and transportation allowances. I'm talking transportation as in buying them a new car every year - which they didn't need to drive anywhere else. Tuition for their kids etc.

I'm so glad we were sold and away from them :grr: