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[JimH]

Line up here to tell your story.

Ours has been tough.  We've had to trim a little.  I've said that going through a recession is like being in a sailboat on the ocean in a big storm.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to heave to.  Wait it out.

For whatever reason, it's seemed a little better the last couple of weeks.

Still have a job?  If not, don't let it get you down.  You've got plenty of company.  It will get better.

[imugli]

I feel almost guilty to say I'm one of the lucky ones in all this but me being busy means mum's and dad's aren't doing well at all...

I work in mortgage collections here in oz and have never been busier. My wife works for an accounting firm that specialise in insolvency work (administrations, receiverships, liquidations) and they have never been busier either - in fact they can't hire people quickly enough...

The amount of houses we are repo-ing at the moment is pretty much unprecedented...

[glynor]

My non-profit announced a "force reduction" late last week (not layoffs because it is not temporary).  All affected people will know within the next 2 weeks or so.  It isn't huge numbers, but around 55 people are going to lose their jobs (about 4% of our workforce nationwide).  They also are cutting back around 300 of our hourly employees to 37.5 hours per week (which is, in effect, a 6% pay cut).

Sweating some bullets until final word comes down...   

[skeeterfood]

I was laid off in August from Hitachi GST in Rochester, MN right before things really went south.  Totally unexpected.  The company had just finally started making money after the spin-off from IBM.  Tried to find a new job (ASIC Design) in Rochester, but nothing surfaced.  Tried to find something in Colorado, but the one interview I had lined up got canceled when Western Digital shut off all hiring a few days before my interview.  I won't move to California, so we ended up moving back to Cedar Rapids, IA to work for a Rockwell who I had left 10 years prior to go to IBM.  We took a beating on our house in Rochester (though it did sell and was more than we owed) and downsized a bit here.  Amazingly my wife also found a new job, though she's already threatened to quit a few times.

I figure my job's safe for at least a year.

BTW, late winter in the Midwest sucks!  Skiing is over, but it's still too cold to do much else.  Come on spring...

-John

[benn600]

Cedar Rapids?  That's where I live.  I know a huge ton of people who work at Rockwell.

Spring?  I like the weather variety.  I was in California this past summer and it sort of misted once for an hour.  Weather is there for a reason--use it, lol.

[rick.ca]

We'd all be better off if more people ignored "the economy." Working on your media collection is an excellent distraction.

[maxxsid]

Here's my story. Really sad and outrageous.  I work for a relatively large semiconductor company with about 9000 people worldwide (california, texas, japan, malaysia).
In Dec 2008 they sent us on an extended X-mas break with 2 extra weeks of unpaid "vacation" - full month. Jan 5th we were supposed to go back to work but were told not to and were put on a "furlough" for additional 2 weeks without pay. Then for 2 more weeks. Then for 2 more weeks. Then for 2 more weeks.Then, they just laid almost everyone off! Without any advance notice, without any severance pay. Nothing! 40% worldwide. 80% at my California site - less than 200 people out of 900 were retained, all managers and a handful of engineers, including me. I am all alone in an office space designed for 25 people.. Original CEO fled (with a $800,000 good-bye check). His successor resigned after 2 days and fled. The third one is in charge now and getting $700,000/year and 1.7M bonus. Market cap of the company is $2M now (with assets totaling close to 5 billion). The stock is trading at 1-2c (a year ago was $15). Last week the company announced a bankruptcy.
An we work 32 hours/week now. Paid for 32 hours that is. Working way more than 40...
Surreal...
I just got an offer though.. will have to move to San Diego but.. heck! change is good!
--max

[cncb]

Original CEO fled (with a $800,000 good-bye check).

And probably didn't lose a minute of sleep over it.  This really disgusts me.  Anyone catch the last Meet The Press where Newt Gingrich was crying over how "Democrats" that were calling these guys (i.e. executives taking outrageous compensation from their failing companies and taxpayers) out for what they are, idiots and crooks, were somehow keeping our economy down by "scaring" people?  Amazing...

[benn600]

Some people don't care who they hurt to get what they think they want or, worse yet, think they need.

[glynor]

I work for a relatively large semiconductor company with about 9000 people worldwide (california, texas, japan, malaysia).

Spansion?  (The old AMD Flash company...)

[maxxsid]

yep.. started at amd 8 years ago...
: (

Spansion?  (The old AMD Flash company...)

[glynor]

yep.. started at amd 8 years ago...
: (

Yeah, thought so.  That bungling was legendary.

AMD on the other hand is finally starting to do better.  They're finally starting to put some good products out again.  The current-gen GPUs are fantastic and they finally fixed the problems with the CPU architecture with the Phenom II.  Hopefully it isn't too little too late.  I've always been an AMD fan (but not to the level of fan-boy).

[glynor]

So... The people affected by the layoffs at my company were notified (and had to leave immediately) this morning.  My department was hit particularly hard... I'm still employed, but out of 10 of us, we lost three (two of whom were my immediate co-workers and only help).

A lot of my friends lost their jobs today.

And, my job just got three times more difficult.

Not a good morning...

[benn600]

That would explain your forum pic.  Good luck getting through it!  Stay strong!

[Mastiff]

I'm lucky so far. I work as a translator/subtitler for television, and so far my paranoia level is only at around 6 of 10.  But that's really good, because my normal level is actually 5! The thing that goes in my favour is that in bad times people need distraction. So movies and TV (like the 30's - a golden age for movies) aren't doing bad at all. So far so good...

But my wife's not able to get a job, so I'm the sole breadwinner. Has been like that since we got the kids and moved where we live now, with a few short exceptions. The longest one was one year. Then her elbows went bad (tennis elbow - pretty common amongst cleaning personell). In the meantime she has gotten papers that means she can work as what's beneath nurses here in Norway, I don't know what they're called internationally. But they do the "hands on" work with elderly and in hospitals. About the same level as a paramedic. She's also taken a few courses so she can work in catering on oil platforms, but nothing there yet either. And with the low oil prices at the moment they're not hiring. Still hoping for a job in a home for the elderly or something like that, though.

So you can say that we're not paying off the mortgage, but at least we can still pay the interest and live a pretty normal life by Norwegian standards. Which is really what we've done the last 13 years or so. No expensive holidays, though. So I'm not banging on the doors of the JRiver company yet. But some day...

Norway hasn't been as hard hit as the rest of the world yet, mainly because we have those huge oil revenues from the Northern sea. Whicv means that our government can actually afford those large packages that are created all over the world without having to borrow money. But it's not going to stay like that forever. And a lot of industrial companies are going bankrupt now. We've lost many that makes parts for US and European cars. And the construction business is going through a deconstruction. (Ha-ha! Funny if it doesn't apply to you...) But state and county jobs are pretty safe. And the projected unemployment rate with the current worst case scenario is 5 % unemployment, which we had in 1994. Still that's probably better than many countries. I feel for everybody who loses their job, though.

[KingSparta]

My Wife Has Worked At Her Job For Over 20 something Years, And Is Still Working, But Some Cuts Have Been Made, And Or Hours Have Been Reduced.

I Have Retired From The Military, And Been Working for The Same Company For 13 Years Since I Retired. They Have No Plans At This Time For Any Cuts, And We Are Hiring A Few More People.

My Company Expects Record Sales For 2009 And We Currently Have A Service Backlog Of $45,000 For This Month. I Am Sending A Guy For A Phys Tomorrow For One Of My Last Openings.

[Griff]

Got my first SS check in Nov. (Early)

Karen got perm. laidoff off at the same time. (10 years service)

The cost of health ins eats up my SS check.

One of my renters (who worked for the same co. as Kar) also got perm. laidoff at the same time. (18 years service)

My daughter, got laidoff at the beginning of Jan. from her job, but she still has some hours at her part time job at the local BP station.

A day after my daughter got laidoff, her transmission when bad in her car.

And so on and so on and ................................................................

[fitbrit]

I got laid off as well as everyone else in the whole (small) company, except 5 execs who were required to try to sell the company. It was a small, highly innovative pharmaceutical company, and I was one of two lead scientists there. All this happened a month before the economy turned sour, mainly because the company's venture capital investors were really stupid. Now many larger companies are eying them to try and pick it up for peanuts, and well below what the technology we produced is worth.
Before that I was an academic researcher doing post-doctoral work. I got fed up having to depend on grants to get paid, with no job security. Most recently I got burned in the private sector, where funding was provided by venture capitalists who can promise you anything, but then renege without consequence. Now I've gone back into academia, but in a university appointment that's not contingent on receiving grants for research. It's somewhat immune from the economy's woes, but if things don't improve within a few years it may knock-on to me. Then again, if things don't improve within a few years, we'll probably have seen Armageddon anyway. I'm a happy camper, finally.

[glynor]

Pharma, eh?  Know The Jackson Laboratory?

[fitbrit]

Pharma, eh?  Know The Jackson Laboratory?

As in JAX, based in Maine? Definitely heard of it; never worked there though.

I should have added that I'm also a personal trainer/life coach (http://www.fitbrit.ca), and I made ends meet over the past few months just doing that. The business was growing rapidly, but the wife and I decided that I should have a full time job for now for security... since we have a 4 week old baby now!

[glynor]

As in JAX, based in Maine? Definitely heard of it; never worked there though.

Yep.  That's where I work.  Just wondered.