Out of work...
 

anyone else? I was officially given my yearly review today at work. I got a 3.50 out of 5. not bad at all. 3 means you do your job 100% so...I did ok. I got a 55 cent raise (per hour). Lame. I'm near the top of my positions "pay scale" so I didnt get much. Sucks.

But, we've also been giving "pre" walking papers. We'll all be out of work come February (after the holidays) unless the economy turns around. And my line of work? It's one of those things where...if MY business folds, other businesses are gonna fold first. So where else can I work? It's odd. I'm sure I'm not the only one going thru this ****.

OUCH :eek:

Start looking now I guess. It seemingly is easier to get a job while you have one.

But, you said awhile back that you buckled down and paid off your credit card debt. So, that is one pile of BS you don't have to wory about.

Also, call a temp agency. They may be able to place you somewhere while you look around.

Finally, this may be the time to head to New Zealand :shrug:

In any event, good luck and I'll say a prayer for ya :nod:

sorry to hear about this, it happened to my hubby twice in 5 years & it hit us hard~
i wish you the best of luck finding something else!!!:nod:~

Yeah...that's what I'm taking it as. A SIGN. hahaha...move to New Zealand! I am havin a harder time convincing the wife. She wants to go, BUT, she wants to do it the right way. I mean that in the sense that...we're stuck with a condo we bought but cant sell. I think its a bad idea to try and rent it out while being in another country, that sort of thing. It's now worth 30,000 less than we paid for it. So we cant possibly make our money back. It's a Catch 22. Bad situation.

Wow - you could rent it and use a broker, just negotiate the fee with the broker/management company. The fee usually is one month'd rent. Also, I looked after a friend's rental property here while she was gone. It was not much work in that I drove by it a few times. She handled all the mantainence work via email - she lined up a guy. Your complex likely has one. You could always call the bank and try to work something out in short sale. Banks are seemingly more willing to work with you now, esp. if you threaten them with bankruptcy or some other situation where they cannot get any money and have to spend tons of money.

As for going, I say go now. Age has taught me one thing, the longer you stay in a situation you want to get out of, the more complacent you tend to become. Moreover, there will always be some seemingly insurmountable thing in your way. You are young and can live on the cheap much easier now than ten years from now.

Yeah its tricky. Our mortgage is $898 a month...but we have a $200 a month HOA fee. so the mortgage is well over $1000 a month. We have a 2 bdr/2 bath place. It's just a good location. BUT, because of the "market"...places literally around the corner are going for less, with no HOA fees. We just got in right at that time before the housing took a slump. So I dont think we can get renters in here...unless its a family of 4 with 3 of them working to split the bills. Just dont see it happening...

We are going to talk to the bank within the next month or two, as we're planning on leaving in February (at least I AM!) hahaha

Hopefully, the bank will be willing to work with you more when they find out you are leaving the country :laugh:

A friend in a similar situation just mailed the bank the keys to the house and a letter saying he surrendered the house to them in lieu of the mortgage. I have no clue what happened though.

Good Luck!

Another reason to choose your next president very, very carefully.

I think your whining is a bit misplaced. At least you have a job now, at least you got a raise. Sure, it's not much, but it's more than you had yesterday. I have never heard of "pre-walking" papers. Are you in sales? If so, sounds like a sales threat to motivate current personnel. If this is true, February is quite a bit of time away to actually have an income and look for other possibilities if you indeed feel your job will be gone in February.

Most jobs are not sacred, nor last forever regardless of your pay scale.

I don't really think it's your place to tell him how he should feel about what's going on in his own life.

Well I really hope everything works out for you.:nod: Sorry to hear about all of this.

Hey Richard,

Oh I know...I guess I was whining a bit. I didnt mean to, just more or less say whats been going on. They told us all in a big meeting that "come February" the head chopping is starting. I work for Geek Squad (now owned by Best Buy). So its not just ME that will be out of work, but many others. They are also cutting heads at the store level (I do not work in a Best Buy store).

And what I really should have said was...what I DO as a line of work...well, I could go Circuit City, or HH Gregg or one of those places. But, if Best Buy is going to fold in that department so will they. Best Buy consistently outperforms other electronics retailers and places as such that offer those services that go with them.

I mean, I could always work for a cable company or something. What I meant by "pre" walking papers was that we've all been given X amount of time to improve (and there's still no guarantee of work come February). What they'll do is out of the 19 of us in the area, the "underperformers" will be cut. (Most likely 8-9 of us based on numbers).

And yeah at least I DID get a raise. It's just that in my 6 years with the company (in total) that I've never got a raise that crappy (on such a "high" review score).

I've been lucky thus far. I work for a homecare agency that's connected with a hospital. Surgeries have been down, and I've been pretty low on referrals. I know they want to keep me, but they may have a harder time justifying it in the future. There was a two week stretch where I was told if things didn't pick up by X date, I'd have to be let go, but things picked up nicely. They're a little slow now, but not slow enough that I'm worried. Still, I've only been there six months, so I'm being somewhat cautious.

Hey Demon.
I'm so glad you understood my post, as I did yours. Of course you can whine, you are entitled. I just wanted you to know how I see it and how thankful we (humans) all should be for having a job right now, for better or worse. Sometimes it's good to get a fresh perspective. I don't know you intimately obviously, but I only wanted to offer something positive to you in my post. Frankly, I admire you for being in the technical field. I think that is a great career choice that is not going away anytime soon. Plus you can do that type of work anywhere in the world. Hell, even start your own technical consulting biz, should you choose (and again anywhere) down the road. I also know you play a mean guitar (I still remember your 'Come' video from years back). Another talent to add to your expertise.

All the best to you.

R.

But it's OK for you to dictate how I should feel and my response? In a public forum no less?
What kind of nincompoopery is this?
I never told him how he should feel, you missed the point of my post.

uh oh I smell a 'time out" coming.:lol:

Let's everyone just chill out now.:lol: I work in the grocery business, and we're unionized so that's a good thing. The other thing is everyone has to eat, so i THINK my job is safe, hopefully...

errr...one may want to wait for foul before blowing whistles. :laugh:

((((brandon))))...hey, everything will be OK...
my advice...do your best...see what happens.

I've been lucky thus far, too, regarding my work - I'm a freelance writer and web designer, and I mainly work in the Internet marketing industry. Things seem to be holding steady right now. Touch wood.

So right now, what I really worry a lot more about is my house. My landlord bought this place less than 2 years ago, and she bought something like 5 more houses in the area at the same time. The economy here has closely resembled the Bataan Death March for years and years already, but I fear it's going to get even worse now.

Your post sounded judgmental to me, and I wasn't responding as a moderator, but just as a person. I apologize though, because it seems as though the recipient understood your intent. I had a long bad day yesterday so my perception could have been off.

I think a lot of us are worrying about our jobs right now, not only in the US. I'm a carpet salesperson, so if people aren't spending/building then they don't want carpet. Our sales have halved in the past couple of weeks. Our store is always the under-performing one, partially because we are the only store in what is almost exclusively a mortgage belt.

Actually had a middle aged lady tell me today that she is looking at selling her house and wants new carpets to pretty it up a bit. She said she hadn't got a lot of money to spend. Up until a few weeks ago she was quite well off but with the sharemarket crashing she's lost most of her money.

Personally I'm kind of glad that I'm ahead on my mortgage and I've saved some money (which was supposed to go towards having a baby next year). My wife works for a government funded not-for-profit organisation so if funding gets withdrawn so does her job I'm sure.

Scary times for everyone - we can only hope that the governments & central banks make the right decisions.

I totally understand. The upside is, you and I worked it out nicely!
Have a splendid Friday.

i have been thinking for the past few years i would like to get my real estate license~ i really think i would be good at it~ but due to what has been going on in the world, i just haven't yet~ i run my own daycare for nearly 10 years now & have been in the business for 20 atleast~ & i live right by a huge airforce base~ i take all ages, but specialize in infants, most daycares won't take kids until they are 6 months to 18 months around here~ & i love, love babies~ so i have chosen to stay doing this & hope to get my license in real estate in the future~ people are always going to have babies, so i will always have wrk~

Smart move, cookie. A fair portion of my client base...well, I suppose I should say "previous" client base now...was real estate agents, and they are all in a panic. I fortunately did not do steady work for any of them and I have other clients right now to take their place, so I am fine, but...yeah. Stay away.

Plus - yay for babies! :blob2:

oooh Brandon...hoping all the best for you...times sure are getting harder..job wise...hope something turns up for ya soon. I'm not exactly in the best of "safe" jobs either, but I'll take it as it comes ( I guess at least I can still go home)..having said that, the best news lately is that I've been granted "unlimited leave to remain", so at least I can stay here now hasslefree, until the kids are grown and doing whatever they want to do...the UK isn't faring much better, thats for sure, things are getting worse.

Build an emergency cash fund as quickly as possible. I can't stress the importance of that enough. Layoffs can hit any sector, any department.

It's also important to create a household budget. Everyone hems & haws about budgeting, but that's the only surefire way of knowing what you spend every month. Write down EVERY expenditure during the month, add it up, & compare it with the income from the same month. What you spend vs. what you earn is as plain as day, & many people find it a real eye-opener.

Oh believe me, we have a nest egg. But I mean, it wouldn't mean a hill of beans if things took a real dive in this country. If that happens, I think we'll just the "hell with it" and be on a plane to New Zealand to seek the good life there (and I dont mean materially). We're pretty frugal...but not in the George Constanza sense...we pay our bills FIRST and then set aside a little amount for savings. Then we allot ourselves "X" amount for the week and try to stick to that. I try to spend no more than $100 a week (gas, groceries, etc)