how is the work force for you?

[daywane]

Me... I am  tired.
last time this question rolled around ... My company had a differant look on handling it. (recession) we used to work a week or two and lay off a week or two.
now we fired 3rd shift  :embarrassed:
now we work mega over time.
this started in the summer but I will just use Jan to today as a example.


A co worker of mine was grumbling that he has worked more than anyone this year.

He has been going on all month. I got sick of it today.
I pulled up on the PC my clock #
dated start time Jan 1st to Feb 10Th. = 310.76 hrs
his =                                                       326.76
Hmmm ... yep he has me by 16hrs.
we looked into a bit deeper. we both have 100 hrs overtime

we are the top 2 in our department on both shifts.

we was at 10 hrs a day Mon - Fri. 8 hrs Sat and Sun
now we are at 9 hrs Mon - Fri . 8 hrs on sat. Off sun.

I might have to work this Sunday. My machine was over booked this week.

New Employee hand books came out last week. Nothing nice for the worker was in it. Many benefits gone...
Vacation time MUST be requested 1 month in advance
the old rule of if vacation on Friday= weekend off!
  the powers that be!!!! did not think like I do.
I took 1/2 day off. 1 Fri per month till July.
July I get 3 weeks vacation 
I see a simple way to get at least 1 weekend off a month 

[shmokes]

Looking for a job now.  It's the worst time to look for jobs in my industry in like 70 years.  Shrug.  Things will get better.

[javeryh]

My place has been firing people like crazy over the past 18 months.  They have cut salaries and benefits (no more vacation!) for the rest of us.  I'm just happy to have a job but as soon as the market turns around I'm OUT.

[KennethSorrell]

I work 12 hr weekend 3rds and we laid off all the temp and seasonal employees 3 or 4 days after christmas.  So then they waited until all the hard working temps and seasonals probably found new jobs to hire on 70+ full timers.  So now not only do us "regulars" have to probably put up with slack ass, incompetent newbs, we have to train everyone all over again.  Don't get me wrong, having to hire people is a good thing but when we had everyone working smoothly together and having to start over is a pain in the ass.  Overall things are good where I work except the HR Dept and their horrible communication skills.  For example,  they actually posted the wrong open enrollment dates so %75 of the workers missed it.  They have one #?!$@ job and can't execute it worth a _____.  Sometimes I wonder why the hell the "help" gets paid less, when the "help" are the only ones that can do their jobs without an issue.  Then you have the ---punks--- who turn into even bigger ---punks--- after you let them know the way they talk to people will not be tolerated.  For example:  I get to work about an hour early everyday and go outside and smoke and bs with fellow employees.  Well were all out there and out of nowhere some woman comes up to our group, looks at me and says "will you watch your mouth?". Which I have no problem doing, except this woman singled me out and was just real ---smurfy--- about it.  So I said "I guess I can" and she replies, "no, you HAVE to.". Now I usually wouldn't get this pissed off, but when it comes to someone telling me I have to do something, especially when I'm not on the clock, they cross the line.  So I responded "I don't have to do a !#!#!#! thing.  About ten minutes after she walked away pissed off she comes back and apologizes.  But ever since then she been trying to get me fired.  Ha, when a person does the work of 3 or 4 people themselves, you won't het fired because of nothing.  Wow, this post has gotten away from.  Maybe I need a therapist.  Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is things are good.  - the few douhebags.

[drventure]

There's a good article in the latest newsweek (yeah, that's kind of an oxymoron, but whatever) about how research has shown that layoffs are actually quite BAD for companies, yet everyone still does it because everyone else does.

Maybe one day management will get the picture and treat their most valuable capital expenditure properly.

Last place I worked, it was a mandatory 7hr day, m-f, 2weeks paid vac first year plus a day per year you'd been with the company afterwards, and any overtime earned hour for hour comp time. (work 40 hours this week, you can take 5 hours off next week (or whenever)).

There were a few minor things I didn't like about the place, but all things considered, I could never bring myself to quit a gig like that.

Then the financial meltdown hit and their core customer base disintegrated. Company sold at a firesale last dec to keep from simply shuttering. Everyone gone.

Then, and this is hilarious, Last week, i get a call from the company that bought them out. "Can You send us this and that code etc"....Huhwha?

If I'd kept any of that stuff, I'd have been in breach of my employment agreement with the original company! I politely told them that, no, I didn't have any of that anymore, I'd deleted it all per my contractual obligations, but if they wanted to hire me on as a consultant, I'd be happy to help them out. Funny thing was, all that stuff I'd copied up to their servers before my last day with the company, so they'd have it all, but apparently, that server was decommissioned and recycled and was never backed up!

Oi!

[jamesjones626]

I feel lucky to work for a great company that still booming.  Im a machine op work for a masa plant (corn flour).  We have a summer party the company throws for us and a winter party thats catered at a golf course.  They raffle off prizes for employee and usually have prizes left over for there guest.  So far i have won 2 27inch tv's and one 19 inch lcd with built in dvd, and other stuff.  We get xbox 360's, ps3's, tools, money, all kinds of stuff. SO EVERYONE KEEP BUYING TORTILLAS, CHIPS, FROZEN FOODS, TACO BELL, ANYTHING THATS MADE OF CORN FLOUR!!!!!!

[RayB]

Work? What's that? Still self-employed here. 

(Want job security? Get in tight as a service provider to an ad agency. Companies still have to advertise their crap, even in a recession!)

[protokatie]

Work? What's that? Still self-employed here. 

(Want job security? Get in tight as a service provider to an ad agency. Companies still have to advertise their crap, ESPECIALLY in a recession!)

Fix't

[DaOld Man]

Ive been working at an aluminum rolling mill now for nearly 23 years. I have seen several economic bad times, but our plant has not had a lay off since Ive been there.
We make sheet aluminum for the can business. Our primary customers are beer can makers.
I guess it's true: when times are rough, drinking goes up.
However this recession we are in now has touched us. The company is now offering early retirements for staff and management. This does not sound good.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

Here in the UK things are pretty weird. I used to work as a tech in IT a few years ago, but moved into IT Service Management about 5 years ago when the market fell out of IT.

I live in the Midlands, but can't find work up here for love nor money. It's terrible I can't imagine it picking up any time soon either. On the flip side the job market seems to be picking up at an amazing pace down south. I am contacted daily by agents looking to see if I am interested in positions, especially in the South-East.

As a result I work in Hampshire which is about a 2.5 / 3 hour drive each way from where I live. I can't afford to live down there as the wage I get doesn't come close to allowing me to afford a 3 bedroomed house down there so I commute. It's killed my car, it's killing me and its pretty much killed my arcade project stone dead. By the time I get home all I want to do is sleep.

[Frigo]

Things are OK where I live and work - our town has always been somewhat recession proof in years past, and that trend seems to be continuing now, albeit with a bit more trepidation in the air nowadays than before. I mean, there are layoffs, and there are businesses closing down, but it's nowhere near as bad as say, Detroit. Personally, the company I work for (HP) is global, so I don't really think about layoffs all that much, although I hate my job because I can say without any reservation whatsoever, I'm overqualified for it. This is a well paying job for what basically amounts to secretary work, and it's so hard to justify sitting here for 8 hours a day when I know I can be doing something else. Problem is, is that, while there are few lay-offs, there are even fewer hirings, especially when it comes to the fields I'm knowledgeable in.   

[Silas (son of Silas)]

Hey Frigo, I worked for HP for 10 years and HP makes more people redundant than every year most multi-nationals employ. My Linked-In network is about 80% ex-HP employees who got the chop in the last 2 years.

I had an email today from a guy who just left HP and I asked him why he left. Here's his reply. Its pretty much inline with what you are saying. He ended in a job he was WAY over qualified for:

in the last years I moved from HPIT to trade and our jobs were totally different, basically filling in spreadsheets. We were not allowed to touch any hardware/software, do any troubleshooting or anything to actually help the customers. HP have spent huge amounts of effort to reduce costs, by taking away all perks and benefits and morale was at an all time low...

Another ex-HP colleague who mailed me a week or so ago said the same kinda thing:

Most of us just gave up the fight to remain in a position we thought was tenable.   A short while after you left, the management started asking any remaining resources to go back to taking calls!!!.  Many of us, including me had not directly supported an application for a number of years (7 in my case)   When your performance would be based on your ability to take calls and successfully resolve them (and with no retraining in sight) and not really wanting to take a 7 year retrograde step in my career, I decided to move on. 

I moved onwards and upwards at HP and actually left when things were pretty good, but reports from friends told me that in the offices I regularly worked in (Bracknell, Dornach, Houston, Marlborough MA., Palo Alto) things were pretty dire.

[ChadTower]

I've been very lucky this time - the recession has only sort of slowed down my employer's growth.  No layoffs though some functions did get sent to India.

It balances out as I had a really hard time in the .com crash...

[Frigo]

Wow, I didn't know that whatsoever.  

I know it may sound naive of me to think that I couldn't lose my job; it's not so much that I think it won't happen, but rather that if it does happen, then I'd have some foresight into it before it actually does happen. It's truly amazing to think how much talent is going to waste in this place, but on the other hand, I made a comment the other day about how everyone in this building has a job because of their "technical ability," but a good majority of those working here have no idea what something as simple as a RAID array is, much less how to troubleshoot one. This mindset definitely falls in line with your former co-workers assessment of not allowing us to help the customers due to HP's "streamlined process," and it's the biggest reason I'm constantly looking for another job. Again, the problem is that I'm apparently not the only one who feels this way, because what few technical jobs that are offered in this city, they're all ferociously sought after by dozens, if not hundreds, of potential employees.

Plus, working in a call center is never fun...

[AtomSmasher]

The company I'm at has been expanding like crazy since I started here a year ago (almost doubled in size), so I'm not worried in the slightest about losing my job.  However when I started working here, I agreed to a low salary because I had very little professional experience, with the promise of the salary going up fairly quickly when I proved myself.  It's now over a year later and I'm still working for the same absurdly low rate, and any time I ask for a raise they just say "soon."  I have a ton of responsibility compared to when I started and all of my immediate supervisors say I'm doing a really good job, so I know the lack of raise isn't due to poor performance (and I've seen them be completely honest with others who did a poor job).  I recently checked www.salary.com and saw that I'm not only on the low end of the spectrum for my job, but it's so low that I'm not even on their graph.

Anyways, when I hit the one year mark (a couple weeks ago), I again asked for a raise and was told the usual "soon."  That night, as soon as I got home, I started sending out resumes.  I love the work I'm doing and the people I'm working with, but if the company doesn't respect their employee's, then it's time to move on.  Theres not a lot of jobs available in the area, but I'm sure I'll find a new one before too long.

[hypernova]

Been at the same company for over 10 years now.  We hit a downward trend the last two years.  Finally laid some people off a year ago, but business has been good enough to avoid it since then.  No raises in awhile, though.  Took a 10% cut when others were laid off least year.  We've been getting it back in additional checks on occasion as bonuses.  They don't want to commit to the reinstatement of our old wages just yet.

[boykster]

My company has been growing like a weed the past 12 months - exactly 14months ago we had a VC financing deal fall apart that left the company with about 2-3 months of operating capital left.  We scrambled and actually found another investment group who offered more money on better terms and the company has really taken off.  The company has grown by 35% since last year, and my department has grown from 1 (me) to 3, and I have a new position being funded in Q2 of this year.

Anyone in seattle looking for a job in bioinformatics?  If so, send me a PM

[shmokes]

Are you looking for a lawyer/Network Admin?     

[Fordman]

New Employee hand books came out last week. Nothing nice for the worker was in it. Many benefits gone...
Vacation time MUST be requested 1 month in advance
the old rule of if vacation on Friday= weekend off!
  the powers that be!!!! did not think like I do.

You my friend are what is known as an 'Employee At Will'. Which means you are at 'At-Will' of the company and they at 'At-Will' with your employment. They can change the rules as they go and how they see fit. As well, you can just quit the job with no reprisals against you from the company. I personally would never be an 'Employee At Will' because you dont have a say so with your employment. I am A UAW represented autoworker and choose to be represented, which takes me out of 'Employee At Will' status, therefore I have a labor agreement with the company and the company cant just arbitrarily change the rules as they go. Any rule or benefit changes are negotiated and agreed upon by all parties.

The auto insdustry is very volitile as it has been since 2005. No matter what auto company you work for, they all are hurting because of the recession.

 

Fordman

[AtomSmasher]

I have a ton of responsibility compared to when I started and all of my immediate supervisors say I'm doing a really good job, so I know the lack of raise isn't due to poor performance (and I've seen them be completely honest with others who did a poor job).  I recently checked www.salary.com and saw that I'm not only on the low end of the spectrum for my job, but it's so low that I'm not even on their graph.

You realize this is the complaint of every desk jockey in the history of the world, right?

I didn't realize that every desk jockey in history of the world had 99.9% of other desk jockies with a similar job being paid significantly more then them.  Oh wait, thats statistically impossible.

[javeryh]

I just got a call from a headhunter who had a job opening and when he told me the salary he prefaced it by saying "I know someone at your level is probably making more where you are now but this will be a lifestyle move" and then he told me the position was for $64,500 MORE than I was currently making.  I know I'm grossly underpaid but c'mon.  Since there have been hundreds of layoffs here over the past 18 months I consider myself very lucky to continue to be employed (even after they cut everyone's salary by 15%).  I shot him my resume before we hung up the phone.  I'm crossing my fingers...

[AtomSmasher]

Maybe your inability to grasp the point has something to do with your predicament?

Points are sharp so I tend not to grasp them for fear of cutting my hands.

[AtomSmasher]

I just got a call from a headhunter who had a job opening and when he told me the salary he prefaced it by saying "I know someone at your level is probably making more where you are now but this will be a lifestyle move" and then he told me the position was for $64,500 MORE than I was currently making.  I know I'm grossly underpaid but c'mon.  Since there have been hundreds of layoffs here over the past 18 months I consider myself very lucky to continue to be employed (even after they cut everyone's salary by 15%).  I shot him my resume before we hung up the phone.  I'm crossing my fingers...

Nice.  I also just heard back from one of the places I sent my resume to which is a job that pays almost twice what I'm making now, so hopefully we'll both have good news soon 

[AtomSmasher]

Just ignore me, I'm being a dickbag again.  

Genuinely sorry to hear about your situation, actually.  You were kinda living out a fantasy shared by a lot of folks here, I'd imagine.

Heh, no worries.  I really wish I could keep my current job as it is a lot of fun and really cool working on video games, but for the past year I've had to work a second job on the weekends just to keep the bills paid.  Since I can't afford to take any time off, the closest thing I've had to a vacation is I once had a 4 day weekend back in October.  Getting a raise, or at least a little paid time off, at my current job would help with the situation, and even though both are promised to come "soon", I don't really trust the management to deliver anymore.

At least I got to have some fun and managed to get my name on 4 different games, 3 of which I made significant gameplay contributions to, and 2 of which I can be proud of.  Now it's time to enter the real world where I can get reasonably paid for my work and maybe I'll actually have my weekends back

[ark_ader]

Here in the UK things are pretty weird. I used to work as a tech in IT a few years ago, but moved into IT Service Management about 5 years ago when the market fell out of IT.

I live in the Midlands, but can't find work up here for love nor money. It's terrible I can't imagine it picking up any time soon either. On the flip side the job market seems to be picking up at an amazing pace down south. I am contacted daily by agents looking to see if I am interested in positions, especially in the South-East.

As a result I work in Hampshire which is about a 2.5 / 3 hour drive each way from where I live. I can't afford to live down there as the wage I get doesn't come close to allowing me to afford a 3 bedroomed house down there so I commute. It's killed my car, it's killing me and its pretty much killed my arcade project stone dead. By the time I get home all I want to do is sleep.

Its grim in the north of England.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Funny enough i was working for HP in Australia and was retrenched last year.

I was on one of the special service desks and they just moved most customers overseas to their India and Philippines branch and moved the 3 customers who had to have on shore service to another company they just brought out.

It's sad cause im still looking for a job and have a house that will be finished in 3 weeks which means im pretty screwed right now

[Vanguard]

Just ignore me, I'm being a dickbag again.  

Genuinely sorry to hear about your situation, actually.  You were kinda living out a fantasy shared by a lot of folks here, I'd imagine.

Heh, no worries.  I really wish I could keep my current job as it is a lot of fun and really cool working on video games, but for the past year I've had to work a second job on the weekends just to keep the bills paid.  Since I can't afford to take any time off, the closest thing I've had to a vacation is I once had a 4 day weekend back in October.  Getting a raise, or at least a little paid time off, at my current job would help with the situation, and even though both are promised to come "soon", I don't really trust the management to deliver anymore.

At least I got to have some fun and managed to get my name on 4 different games, 3 of which I made significant gameplay contributions to, and 2 of which I can be proud of.  Now it's time to enter the real world where I can get reasonably paid for my work and maybe I'll actually have my weekends back

Video games are what got me into engineering.   I always believed I would either start my own company or work for one of the big ones.  Once I graduated college, I quickly abandoned that dream.   Working on games wasn't' enough of a passion to give up making money and having a life.  The salaries and hours offered by the game companies were an insult.  I'd have been better of not going to college with the salaries most of them offered.  There are several game companies near me EA Sports, N-Space, etc... and after talking to people who worked for these companies its clear that the industry as a whole has a sweatshop mentality.   I chose to go into the hardware side of 3D graphics instead and feel like my decision was a good one.   Any time I open of reqs for hiring, I get 3-4 candidates coming from the major game companies.   They all basically are in the same situation.  They are burned out and disgruntled and ready to give up the "fun" environment for something better.  I've talked to guys who's marriages were on the line because of their work environment.   It's not pretty.

As far as the "getting your name" on things.   You can pick up 60% of graphics cards or  90% of cell phones and you'll be picking up a product that has my name on it.   I actually don't find this to be the least bit rewarding.  I would be happy building any of these products and be completely satisfied If I never saw one on the shelf at BestBuy.  Just pay me a fair salary and give me time to enjoy my family.   That's all the reward I need.

Glad to hear you found out what you're worth.   BTW, I'm hiring 15-30 people.  Job situation is looking good.

[Level42]

Threads like these make me happy again to live in Europe.

I can't see how companies can cut benefits and/or salary at will. Here, you sign a contract and you are both legally held to keeping what you signed to. It's impossible for companies just to change that contract as they want.
They will have to break the contract which means lay-off.
There are only two ways: through court (which is usual for individual lay-offs, or "a couple"), with consent of the employee (I've had that, company offered the same exit-bonus as the court would rule) or "en-masse". Of course companies can go bust too...

I only know two persons who got layed-off due to the poor economic situation.

Our company is still quite busy and actually had a "satisfying" year 2009 (although it wasn't as good as 2008 of course). Nobody is at risk of loosing their job at this moment. In fact , contrary to what the unions and employers agreed to, we will actually get a rise of 1.5% by february, so there is nothing to complain for me.

The lucky thing of our business is that we on one side do new projects (fire alarms) but on the other side we maintain them and the service contracts run for 5 years. Of course some customers get in trouble but we still get in new projects too.