Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What's the Economy Doing to You?

My company is closing plants. Some permanent, some temporary. Contractors are being sent off without pay for some determined time. Some of my co-workers are going to be laid off in 2009.

This sucks. There's no other way to say it. It just sucks. I've been trying to be strong, focusing on doing what I can do, and not ruffling feathers. Anytime someone's asked for extra work, I've been saying "yeah, sure", and eagerly getting it accomplished.

But with so much not running, there's little to keep busy. I don't have enough vacation to just disappear until January 2009. I was told I wouldn't be forced to take time without pay.

The whole thing is a total mess. We had economic crises locally, and some of it I'm convinced was due to the Hurricane evacuations. It wasn't our fault the storm blew away some of our sites. We sure didn't do it. It's not my fault Oil prices went through the roof.

If the "shut down, lay off, and close" plans continue to surface, I just might put up the following on our CEO's corporate blog..

Mr X, How's about you take a $1 salary next year, refuse to take your stock options and bonuses, and keep some of my colleagues employed? We don't need much. It sure would be nice if you'd stop running those damn TV commercials about how much you care about people. You might care about clean drinking water in some African country, but you could obviously care less about the US Employees who fund all the research pet-projects you embrace. When the top 10 in management take $1 salary for 2009, then and only then, will I understand why my boss has to choose which of us stay, and which of us go.

No, it's not horse related... Yet. This economy keeps up, I'm going to have to sell Chewie for even less than I already want for him. Crap and double crap!

1 comment:

SunnySD said...

Everybody's worried. The slide hasn't hit here quite as hard (yet), I think possibly because this is a rural state. Agri-business is a bit more stable than some at the moment, at least, and this isn't/wasn't a really wealthy, boom-business area to start with. But.... The college I work for is going to see a bigger impact soon. Endowment got slammed along with everyone else's investments. Students' families are going to be hit with job losses. State schools with lower tuition are going to look more appealing....