How do you feel about your personal financial and job situation?

[mrCide]

I work for a company funded by the Archdioceses of Miami providing many health care and related services, anything from schools to hospitals to nursing to rehab to hospice to cemetery. We're a small IT team and while I'm at the higher level of the team, even our low-ball idiot 'support' person is managing to keep their job. Unless people stop dying or going to hospitals etc I'll be fine. Also I don't think people ever stop donating to the church.

But I got screwed in the housing department (bought in 2006, but with fixed rate) so I'm hoping that smooths out sometime BEFORE I want to have a child.

 

[alchemize]

1) Highly unlikely. In fact, good chance I get an even better job in the next few months. I never assume I'm completely stable, always have a current resume and always work my contacts.
2) Financialy situation: Now that gas has come down, I'm back on budget.
3) I don't know anyone who has lost their job. My brother is having a tough time in his business since nobody is spending much.

 

[skyking]

My job is tied rather closely to the economy, with about a 6 month lag to it. I should get laid off sometime around the first of the year, and may get a little work out of my regular employer off and on until things get going in May. I expect about 15% employment from them for the next 6 months.
No worries for us though. I have plenty of little projects to keep me busy

 

[m1ldslide1]

I'm in IT for a public University - our dept is already small, so I think I'm safe. I got a decent raise this year too, but we're getting the memos that there will be no more hiring or raises for the foreseeable future, and that departments have to start cutting their budgets. I don't really understand that logic however, as enrollment typically spikes during times of recession. Maybe state contributions from the general fund will dip, but that has to pale in comparison to the 30,000 students paying freakin' tuition.

I don't know anyone who has lost their job, but I have a friend in home theater who is pretty nervous due to the slowdown in sales.

 

[Descartes]

We were having some difficulty closing on contracts since clients were a little timid, and almost all of our other clients have resorted to slow pay due to cash flow issues.

Overall though, my personal income took a deep hit but is safely back on the rise. We have two new clients this month alone and engagements lasting to the end of 2009.

So, things are looking good from my perspective. When it comes to my industry, pullbacks are almost positive for some of us; it trims the fat, the real performers stay around and get some growth opportunity.

I have tremendous sympathy for people that invested their careers into a single company only to be laid off. These people have skills that relate primarily only to that company, and the skills do not transfer very well. A lot of people had all their eggs in one career basket.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Martin
I work for a well-funded and well-run startup that's not going anywhere, so I'm not worried at all. I'm planning to take 6-12months off next year to travel and hang out, so even if I did somehow lose my job, it wouldn't bother me.

Though I don't let my rosy situation cloud my judgement.

Seriously? Damn dude, I want to be you!

My employer is up for sale and cutting back on budget and head count. I'm told there will be more cuts but at the moment I'm safe. Things are lean but who knows long term? If things don't improve and cuts go deeper I could be impacted.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Robor

Originally posted by: Martin
I work for a well-funded and well-run startup that's not going anywhere, so I'm not worried at all. I'm planning to take 6-12months off next year to travel and hang out, so even if I did somehow lose my job, it wouldn't bother me.

Though I don't let my rosy situation cloud my judgement.

Seriously? Damn dude, I want to be you!

Are you sure? It sounded cool as a kid, but now as an adult, walking around with a lion's head in place of a human head causes a lot of people to look at you funny.

 

[Schadenfroh]

CS undergraduate student here. I have personally lost about ~$20,000 on paper (have not sold stock) from the 52-week high. Thankfully, the dividends still come that help pay my tuition. I know some people that have lost their jobs.

They are axing people left and right and my father's place of employment (they manufacturer certain goods for new housing starts). My mother "should" be safe, since she works for the government (although she has gotten laid off and then hired back (almost immediately) twice in the past 5 years for the same job). Extended family should be safe, they are all retired, self-employed, or work for a defense contractor.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I'm in the Air Force and the people with the big guns always get paid : )

 

[Moonbeam]

People don't know what they feel.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
People don't know what they feel.

What makes you feel that way?

 

[dullard]

I work two jobs (one regular time, one part time). I do that by choice, since I want to keep my options open. My current financial situation is the same as before the recent financial situation.

The regular time job I recently cut back from full time. That position is vitually guaranteed for 2.5 more years. It is a post-doc position under a government grant with 2.5 more years of funding. Sure, the government could cut the funding, but that is highly unlikely. After that 2.5 years though, things are very murky. Getting new funding has been quite tough recently.

The part time job is a small start up company. If we get some money, it could make it very big. But with the current economy, no one will loan money and no one will invest money. They are all sitting by waiting for things to change. I am highly worried that all the time and money that I've pumped into it will go to waste. I'll likely soon have to go back to full time at the other job and abandon this one.

As for actually losing jobs, the only person I know of is my uncle. He lost a very lucrative job at 3M (quite high up in the chain in Minneapolis) when they shipped his whole department overseas. My soon-to-be sister-in-law can't find any job in the city that she wants to live in. Right now she and her fiancee live in different cities, but both have jobs.

 

[brencat]

Spent over 15 yrs on Wall St and got laid off earlier this year. Still looking around but it's tough -- lots of highly qualified people competing with me for an ever shrinking pool of jobs. We know a lot of people in a similar situation -- mostly financial professionals like me. I'm fine for now since I have savings but am starting to get antsy. Will entertain an industry/career change but am holding out b/c I really like the Wall St environment despite the stress and toll it takes. The pay may never be the same though after what's happened and all the firms that have merged or downsized.

 

[badnewcastle]

I move produce across the country, as long as people eat I'm good!

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Descartes
I have tremendous sympathy for people that invested their careers into a single company only to be laid off. These people have skills that relate primarily only to that company, and the skills do not transfer very well. A lot of people had all their eggs in one career basket.

Are you saying that all people who work a long time at a single company do not have transferable skills? If they were progressing the entire time, should they have just left the company anyway?

 

[mooseracing]

The company I work for mainly does contractor work and we are working on producing our own projects. We have grown about 50% this year due to layoffs from other companies and us getting more projects due to those companies still needing to meet their deadlines.

Being the IT person, and no new hires in IT, my brain is about to blow with all the additional workload.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Descartes
I have tremendous sympathy for people that invested their careers into a single company only to be laid off. These people have skills that relate primarily only to that company, and the skills do not transfer very well. A lot of people had all their eggs in one career basket.

Are you saying that all people who work a long time at a single company do not have transferable skills? If they were progressing the entire time, should they have just left the company anyway?

No, he's referring to only those who have company-specific skills, not everybody who works a long time at a single company.

Example: Bob is great with home-grown app ABC and knows it inside out. He leaves the company and has no idea about any other apps.
Contrary Example: Bill is great with SharePoint and knows it inside out. He leaves the company and goes to another one, pimping his SharePoint skills.

All people at a company gain company specific knowledge, but unless a person owns a company, they should be trying to improve their generic skills/resume as much as possible.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Robor

Originally posted by: Martin
I work for a well-funded and well-run startup that's not going anywhere, so I'm not worried at all. I'm planning to take 6-12months off next year to travel and hang out, so even if I did somehow lose my job, it wouldn't bother me.

Though I don't let my rosy situation cloud my judgement.

Seriously? Damn dude, I want to be you!

My employer is up for sale and cutting back on budget and head count. I'm told there will be more cuts but at the moment I'm safe. Things are lean but who knows long term? If things don't improve and cuts go deeper I could be impacted.

There was a guy in OT that did something similar and wrote about it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2255749
http://www.m-why.com/

It ends up costing you about as much as a new car (plus the cost of not working for a yearish), which isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

 

[ITJunkie]

last week I would voted "highly unlikely" but not now. I am out at the end of the month. No fault of my own according to them "just that business is down".
But I have a lot of connections and will gladly do whatever I need to to keep my house.

I've been through more than a couple of recessions. For whatever reason, this one feels different...harder to read.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
With all the bad news I am just wondering how people on here feel personally about the economy and how many of them have been negatively effected by it.

I work in a nearly recession proof industry so the only way I lose my job is via my own inability to do the job or if the economy got MUCH worse.

Also, since I am salaried my economic situation has not changed one bit since the downturn started. In fact I am in better shape today than a year ago due to changing factors in my personal life.

How about the rest of you P&N nut jobs?

Well lucky for you you anti-American elitist. <Where is the finger emoticon ^ >

It's been clear for quite some time that friends, family and fellow ATers have been losing their jobs and no sign of it letting up.

I hope these "nutjobs" rise up against people like you.

 

[nageov3t]

I'm not super worried about losing my job -- business seems to be doing fine, maybe even better as companies lay off their internal IT staff and look towards outsourcing their web server needs. if people were going to get laid off within the company, there's a super obvious redundancy in the management of my department that's not needed. I'd imagine one of the managers of my department would get fired before they started laying off the line workers. I think the powers that be recognize that I'm the top performing members in my team.

I don't know anyone who's lost their job, but one of my friends who works for Whole Foods seems mildly worried about it and another friend who graduated law school / passed the bar back in the spring hasn't been able to find a job since -- the closest he came to getting one was shot down by a hiring freeze.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
With all the bad news I am just wondering how people on here feel personally about the economy and how many of them have been negatively effected by it.

I work in a nearly recession proof industry so the only way I lose my job is via my own inability to do the job or if the economy got MUCH worse.

Also, since I am salaried my economic situation has not changed one bit since the downturn started. In fact I am in better shape today than a year ago due to changing factors in my personal life.

How about the rest of you P&N nut jobs?

Well lucky for you you anti-American elitist. <Where is the finger emoticon ^ >

It's been clear for quite some time that friends, family and fellow ATers have been losing their jobs and no sign of it letting up.

I hope these "nutjobs" rise up against people like you.

You first!

 

[MovingTarget]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
^ part timers have got it worst. There are NO part time jobs it seems. Unless it is seasonal.

Most places are tightening up on hours and over head and part timers are the first to go.

Also, poorer people with little to no skills are in the worst shape by FAR. When I was in Mobile Al in 2002 during the last slow down we did a mass hire for entry level jobs and got all kinds of amazingly talented people who had been laid off and were looking for anything to help make ends meet. People who were making $30-40k were now happy with $7-8 an hour. Was sad in a way.

Funny you mention that, as this was what I was facing directly out of high school, in Mobile, AL. I was able to land a tech job at a local company prior to going to college, but the tech sector took a nosedive locally a few months thereafter. The market was then subsequently flooded with techies like myself...

Although the local economy did much better once things got going again, this recession seems to be farther reaching. The new steel plant and aircraft manufacturing (damn you boeing) facilities will do wonders for the area, but these changes are pretty slow-moving. Some areas are still still hurting from the closing of the International Paper mill a few years back.

 

[OrganizedChaos]

Not sure how i should feel, my job is dependent on the gambling and airline industries so I'm worried about a layoff, this job is all i have. But on the other hand even with the economy the way it is I'm still ashamed of what I do for a living.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: WHAMPOM

AH huh! Just remember ENRON. Who cashed out before the stock was known to be worthless?

Since I'm buying these shares for dirt cheap, if that did happen I would be out less than a grand.

I guess the issuance of these new stock options is a way to boost morale in light of the layoffs around here.