Sign in here if you're out of a job come January.

[Lerkfish]

20 year veteran of graphic design, awards out the wazoo: international, national.
will be laid off as of Jan. 1 without another job lined up. I got a nine year old son, so I'm worried about that.

I"m just wondering how many DUer's are in the same or similar straits. More from an anecdotal view of the current economic situation.

(ps. apologize if this is not in the correct forum)

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Not January, in two weeks.

The law firm where I'm working is lacking clientele.

I'm out at the end of November.

[SmileyRose]

2. my job has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel

they just let go 1/3 of their people. They cater to the investor class where I work. I was most kept because I'm relatively low paid and intelligent enough to be trained to do what the higher paid college people used to do. But I see the money coming in the door, and I see that nearly all our accounts are way past due and getting further past due.

I think the business is either going to croak or else they will have to downsize to only the family like it once was.

[mdmc]

3. I will be losing one of my two jobs on 12-31-08

The company can't pay me and the CEO at the same time...

[crispini]

4. I'm already out of a job. nt

[njlib]

5. Not sure when, but it's on the horizon

One of my co-workers ratted me out to the boss back in March/April that I was going to be starting nursing school, AT NIGHT, at the end of July. He called me in sometime in April to tell me he knew and it's been very uncomfortable for me ever since. Last week, I got called in again and asked what my plans were. Well, HELLO, my plan is to be a nurse come January 2010! Long story short, I ended up telling THEM to come up with THEIR plan and that I'd cooperate with them fully. So now, they're going to bring in my replacement to work with me "for a few months", but I think it won't last that long. Once I train my replacement, I'll be dumped.

[SmileyRose]

6. Your post is a reminder not to tell anyone at work anything ever period

15 years ago I confided to someone I thought was a friend at work that my husband had a medication he takes go toxic on him and was in the ICU and would be out of work for months recovering. Since our families are 100's of miles away it was going to be exhausting for me to juggle a sick husband, overtime at work and all the other necessities of living in suburbia. Yet I was grateful for the overtime. In the next couple of months I made a couple of very minor mistakes. I mean really minor, but I'm normally really perfect at my job because I check check and triple check myself. The mistakes I made were things like filing 111300 with 113100 or forgetting to initial a posted receipt in addition to marking it as posted. Really small things.

My boss called me in and let me go because he said I was clearly needed at home. He acted like he was doing me a favor by leaving my family with no income at all. He said my work was still better than just about anyone who's ever done my job but I was getting too tired. The co-worker ratted on me because she thought she'd get my job - which paid 15 cents an hour more than hers. 15 damn cents. The power elite that run this country convinced us that throwing a whole family under the bus for 15 fucking cents is fair game.

[njlib]

12. Yes, I certainly learned that the hard way!

In my case, it was someone over me who I've worked with for years and thought we were friends. She's recently "reasserted power" in our company and seems to have started with me. She had been really dropping the ball for almost two years. Clients started complaining to the owner about her, she was losing clients, and I think this was her way of getting back in his good graces by pointing out my "disloyalty" while confirming HER loyalty.

I'm the sole accounting person, have never taken a full vacation in the 7 1/2 years I've been there, have come in on holidays, when the banks and post office are open, to do the deposit, have worked numerous weekends, stayed late every night until I started school...and they don't understand why I want to do something completely different!?!? My post count might be low, but I've been lurking on DU for a few years now. I've been following closely all the predictions of the shit we're in now and that's one of my main reasons for switching careers and busting my ass to go to night school at the age of 42. It's time for me to actually DO something that makes a difference and maybe have more diverse employment opportunities at the same time. Back when I initially told her about school, she told me it was my mid-life crisis. She just turned 40....and is now sporting a nose ring!

[terip64]

7. Looking for a job in MI. n/t

[noamnety]

8. half in, half out

In January, I'm not out of a job but my hours will be cut to part time (5/7 of my pay, 2 hours less of work each day). This happened once about 5 years ago, I am reacting the same way as I did then. I've asked to keep working full time despite getting part time pay. Last time this happened, it affected the entire staff and the entire staff agreed to keep working full time. I'm convinced it's the reason we are still around today. We did that, working part of the day with no pay, for about 7 months. Then we were all back to full time and that was fine for several years until this coming January. At one point those of us who did that received bonus checks when we were financially more stable - about a thousand dollars as a thank you. It didn't fully cover the lost wages but since it wasn't in our contract and they had no obligation to do it, it was still appreciated.

We don't have the same kind of solidarity now in our reactions to the upcoming layoffs. Generally we are a young staff, and since that time several became parents. So now they have to pay for day care when they are at work, and there's no working for "free" for them - it would actively cost them money. My kid is gone at college now, so I will work a full day and hope that by fall I have full time pay again.

[liberalmuse]

9. I'll find out early next week.

Massive layoffs abound.

[demwing]

10. I was given the responsibility for managing a huge layoff last month

and believe it now as I did then that this was the death toll for my position. I simply have no staff to manage. I
m sitting on a clock that is ticking. Contracts are renewed end of January at the start of the new fiscal calendar. I have no confidence I'll be around after that.

[Berry Cool]

11. There is one small bright light in all of this.

There's someone else who will also be out of a job come January, and a new guy who will come in to replace him.

Let's hope the new guy can do something about all of the rest of you who are out or will be out.