How many have lost a job in the last 6 months

[bnwitt]

Ok, everyone.  Weigh in on this poll please.

[Frankenamp]

Nope, had my job fer the last 13 or so years. Had to fire someone today. Hated every minute of it, but it has to be done. 'Bout the third person I've fired in my life. Don't go about that lightly.

[RicharD]

I answered yes.  Although I'm personally still employed, I had to lay off 4 of my 6 employees.  Technically, I've lost a lot of jobs lately.  I've actually been low bid on some projects and not gotten the work because others have promised completion in less time.  On the other side of the coin, I've seen projects selling for cost or less, and I'm working with very low overhead and a flippin sharp pencil.  This week I found a company that hired all of the guys I had to lay off.  Only 1 dude bothered to call and thank me for finding them new employment.  Meanwhile, instead of being the boss, I'm back to crawling in attics.... where I belong I guess.
 

[topbrent]

I answered yes.  Although I was not fired, I left.  It has been a year and a half. 

I couldn't take another day of the career path I was in.  GS-10 when I left...would've been a GS-12 by now... 
Good Money and benefits, but the amount of workplace violence and intimidation seriously took a toll on me and my health.  Which is a big statement coming from a 30 year old.  We still bounce at 30...

It has been a tough haul regaining my sense of self and preparing myself mentally and emotionally to get back at the grind.  I have made money by buying and selling gear, fixing a few pro clients amps, building some clients guitars, selling a few of my muscle cars.  I would prefer to keep these things as a hobby, not as the bread.

I just want a job with a company that will recognize the potential I have and allow me to shine for them.

.....and then the economy collapses......perfect timing......! ::)



As a side note, I am grateful for the amount of respect and dignity that most of you carry on this board, as it is inspiring to learn from you all.  The pleasant interactions on this board are definitely a boost.

I am very grateful for what I have though, as there are thousands in worse shape than myself.

With the stress load on those around us, please resolve to be patient and respectful with those that might seem rude or impolite.  For all we know, they might be struggling to keep the roof over their families head.

To cop Tubenit's line...

with respect,

Brent

[Dynaflow]

 I was released due to absentism due to illness, been out of work nearly a year due to gastrointestinal problems which they are just now getting a handle on what I actually have (plus diagnosed with Diabetes just like BB King! :D ). Wife lost her job as a HR person in a pretty large Real Estate firm which was taken over by another company which is heading towards bankruptcy. She's working temp to full position now, but things are month by month, sold my Marshall stack and my Truck, was going to sell my strat but she refuses that I sell any more gear (cause with my band now back together its the only income I can generate). I've been fortunate that Unemployment has been extended several times on both a state and federal level to help keep us afloat and State health insurance has been a blessing. This was new to me, in 35+ years of working I've never taken a dime in unemployment. None of this is a whine or pity party, just want people to know how bad it is out there in lower/middle class land if you aren't so fortunate.  :-\ I pray things will be better and try to keep on the light side of it, but this is one blues man who can really feel the blues when I play it now. Hope everyone else is doing well. Good times ahead (pours a sip of beer on the floor for my homies). :D

Regards,

Dyna

Ps: I share Brent's comment about the people on the forum and how cool they are, keeps my mind off the bad stuff and occasionally by acident I even learn stuff and some of ya'll make me laugh which I appreciate.

[SoundmasterG]

I answered yes because I was laid off in late January. I was the low guy on the totem pole in a 3 man IS?IT shop at a local company and the other two guys were concerned about job security so they wouldn't help me learn the systems. Personally I think the company is going to go under within a year or two. So I'm looking for work again.....I  had been there 3 yeas after being out of work for several years and having to refurb and sell computers and do amp work to make ends meet.

BTW, I saw a mention of middle class.....what middle class.......its gone in this country anyway.....you've got rich, and poor, and thats it.

Greg

[supro66]

I build new Ch47 Helecopters
and repair the old ones
As long as we go to war I have a job



MY TUBE AMP SITE
http://www.geocities.com/insp/SUPRO6420.html

[bigdaddy]

I am retired due to disability, on the job injuries.

I'm 52 going on 80.

My heart goes out to all that are suffering because of this economic problem and are in poor health physically, mentally or spiritually.

It's a bad time.

Honestly the thing that saved my life was building amps and guitars. Without that I would have probably wasted away without purpose and reason to go on.

For those who have helped me in my champ amp quest I thank you.

To those who are in a bad way I offer my friendship and wish for a speedy recovery for our economy and for all the people on this planet a better life.

[Dave]

My wife just lost her job. She was a banker. Imagine that. I am still in the military, but my 20 years are up in a little less than a year. So, I am a little stressed over what is to come. We have decided to go back to NE Texas where I am from. My wife is most likely going to go there in the next few months and start life as a school teacher and then wait for me to retire and join her. It won't be the first time we've been apart, but I am more stressed now than I was when I was getting ready to go to Iraq.

When I was in high school I was tought that when the economy gets really bad, war seems to be the only thing to set things straight. This time it seems that war has contributed to the problem.

But, like someone mentioned earlier, there are lots of people out there who have already taken the knock down punch and are looking for some way to get back up. So, good luck to everyone who is having a bad year and I hope that next year brings better times to us all.

Dave

[jrmintz]

I've been a musician all of my adult life (I'm 55 today!), never had a day job. www.sethglassman.com It's been thrilling and miserable, great fun and incredibly depressing, materially rewarding sometimes and really frightening often, particularly with a mortgage and a kid in college. But I knew exactly what I was getting myself into: a life with no security, and on balance I've been very lucky. I think it's very wrong and unfair that folks who set out to build a reasonably secure life for themselves and their families have been forced, through no fault of their own, into the anxiety I've always known. The one lesson I've learned is that you cannot measure your worth by how much you earn. When you earn a lot you're lucky, not worth more, and when you earn nothing it's hard but you're not worth any less. That thought has always gotten me through the bad spells.

Good luck to all of us!

Seth

[JayB]

My wife lost her job back in November and was laid off before that previously in March. She just got another job and seems to be enjoying it so far; so we're good there. She took a 30k pay cut but she's enjoying it. Then I get the news in February that I will be laid off some where between mid March to the end of April. I get 19 weeks severance pay plus my unused vacation pay. I got quite a huge savings that I put away; that was going to be used to pay the house off. Oh well, such is life. I just hope I can find "something" before all my money runs out so that I can at least bank the extra. Being an ex Army Infantry Soldier I can get a job with the government or a government contractor but that will require going to that peaceful happy place called the middle east. Woohooo, it'll be like a vacation.  ::) Not. Wife said that's not happening.

   Then my Grandfather passes away and then the Daughter and Grandson are living with us now. Life is so fun right now! We're definitely not in Kansas any more. Some days I just stay in the shop for my free time. At least that brings a little extra spending money.

[plexi50]

My post would be exactly the same as Bigdaddy. 52 and disabled thanks to 454 chevy big blocks and heads.  I was an automotive machinist in the 70's-80's. All we can do is pray now for this world to get back to good old common sense values

[harryk]

I lost my MD possession in one medium size automation company 1,5 months ago. I am still one of the minor owners there, but it seems hopeless to sell my shares at the moment with reasonable price. Anyhow my contract provides me a 9 months salary package which helps me to find new ways making my living. I am now focusing building my tube amps (www.bluetone.fi) and I make also service for other tube amps. I hope that I can survive economically with that before I get too old (I am now 53 years with pretty good health ::). Running a 40 people automation company with foreign subsidiaries was these days a pain and it ate all my energy completely. This bad economical situation is global and we here in little Finland suffer also of it. Anyhow I want to thank all this forum members of great support and help when developing tube amps and making world a little better place. Harry

[Animatic]

I am self employed, and so depend on the market, which is fair to middlin.
Being a tourist driven place things are not getting better soon.

But having just done a 2 week tour of Myanmar AKA Burma, this January;
any loses in personal income I may notice, still leave me in a golden place
in comparison to hundreds of nice people I met many along the Irrawaddy,
river valley where that cyclone hit..

I wouldn't DARE gripe after this trip....
I have electricity every day.
No pedaling a bicycle 24/7 in relays to keep the
food cold for the babys.

I don't have to stand up in a hay wagon for 25 miles
of sub-cobblestone roads to go to work digging casava,
or ever-shifting, never-ending sand from river beds...

I'm just blinking grateful for what I got today.

[zach]

yup.  i was working through a temp agency, and just as i was supposed to transition from the temp agency to the company (who has a zero layoff policy. BTW) all temp contracts were terminated.  this was mid december.

i'm a draftsman by trade, and when the economy sucks the need for draftsmen is SEVERELY reduced.  end result is that i haven't seen the hint of a change in my employment status.

so, now i'm an amp builder full time (when i have the orders, that is).  i've got three in the pipes right now, so i guess i'm not doing too bad.  not much of a profit to be made, though.

[tremolux]

Like Plexi50 I spent most of my life (I'm 60) in automotive machine shops everything from grunt to management. Got laid off from that 3 years ago. The steady part time work I've been doing in construction stopped dead in October. Been doing commercial handyman work to get by - plumbing, electrical, sound systems, whatever needs fixing. Thankfully I'm not disabled but sure am discouraged about finding full time work any time soon.

[EW57]

I remember about 10 years ago being about ready to get out of high school & trying to choose a career. I went to a couple colleges & was told how machining was a field where the majority of the workforce was getting ready to retire & there'd be lots of demand with good pay/benefits, I was unaware that the demand would be in another country!

About four years ago I was the lead in a production machine shop that employed seven people, running 24hrs a day M-F, with the average wage of approximately $9.00/hr. Apparently that was too much, as the whole shebang was outsourced to Mexico. 

I currently work in a job shop & I think we've logged <20 hrs of machine time in the last three weeks (max. capacity for three wks time is 240-300hrs).  On the other hand, the floors couldnt be much cleaner... :'(

[bigsbybender]

I quit my Job as a custom welder in August to take a teaching job (which is what I went to college for).  At first I was dismayed because teaching ended up being a substantial pay cut from skilled manufacturing, but about 2 months ago about 40% (about 500 people) of the employees were laid off at that company one of them would have been me.  Now I am technically employed by the State Government Education Agency, teaching Special Education (extreme behavior disorder). I love the job more than any other that I've ever had but it's stressful..I've been sent to the hospital twice this school year by students during their violent outbursts...The pay isn't that great but the benefits are excellent. We worry about state budget cuts affecting us, but I diversified myself in January also doubling as the IT manager for the school so I'd be more valuable to the company as the sole holder to every computer password in the complex. 
Our school's administration does a great job seeing that we are funded. Since regional school districts bus their most difficult students to us, the principal will call the various superintendents from these districts, tell them that we have a budget shortfall and we'll have to send little Freddy back to them due to a budget cut... ;) ...those districts cough up cash in a hurry for us to keep those kids.

I was initially intending to go back to my old factory as summer help (as that is usually busy season) since I have June, July and August off.... but that's not going to happen.

I have been laid off a couple times before...with little savings or jobs to transition to. I feel the pain.

j.

[Ritchie200]

After a life of working my way up from tool and die maker to management, my manufacturing experience is not that diferent.  I was in charge of several product lines - both domestic and international.  Decisions were made over time to move much of this to Mexico, Costa, China, and India.  I had to participate in shutting down two plants in North Carolina, one is Chicago, and two in the United Kingdom.  In total, I had to personally tell about 900 people they were "redundant".  Devastating to several small towns.  Devastating to most of the 900 people.  I can still see every face.  Finally I was told everything I was working on, including all my new product development, was moving to China.  I had a choice of a separation package, or move to the UK.  After working in management in another manufacturing company, and watching them slowly circle the drain of bankruptcy, I started my own biz.  The best thing I have ever done.  The only advice I have is to find something that has a market and GO FOR IT! 

Good luck and hang in there.
Jim

[Greasehorse]

I am also a disabled vet (non service connected at present time). But I am still moving forward with my learning and doing as I can. It is hard coming from a life of doing and remaking my career several tims over my life (55 now) and descending into the valley of medical problems and fixes. Hopefully, I am on the road to as much recovery as I can do. It is a slow road and hope is always a few steps ahead but I want to do better than survive and get by. The amp idea may be a way out of that eventually. I have my first repair job on the bench now waiting for the parts I ordered from Doug to get here. As well as the parts for the 18 watt I have partially assembled. I think that as long as I can make myself look ahead, things will always be on the upswing until Great Spirit takes me to another place. And since I have kids and grandkids, I hope that is a long time. Getting past the mental part of disabled and the prejuidce from other people is the hardest part. Of course laying awake on a table watching doctors move wires through your heart on a tv screen for 9 hours while they try to find and burn the cells that are misfiring on and in your heart is no picnic either. After the 4th time it gets easier. But anyway! So much for the gore stuff. The effects of several head injurys on memory and reading skills is harder on the amp learning path. I have to read small parts at a time and forget a lot of it but practive has helped some and I have read a couple feet of stuff so far and read almost every day. You would be surprised just how much you can get through just using the normal "constitutional" time to read one subheading at a time.And staying long can cause problems. So, problems are just things to face and conquer. We all have them.
   On the other hand, it seems to me that I see some type of coincidental or maybe engineered stuff going on in this financial "crisis" these thiefs have cooked up. First it was a recession with GHB in office, then El Dorado Savings (Neil Bush), then ENRON (GWB in office), then the stock market, then the retirement funds, now the "crash" of the 2000s eating the baby boomers retirement funds - anyway - it appears to me that some big ripoffs are in the cash register and the Bush's eras in office has allowed and facilitated it happening. Could be no connection but somehow I doubt that. Maybe I am just seeing a conspiracy in the thing. And I am an independent voter myself. So I have no party axe to grind on this. Maybe they were just the players when this occurred. I think the greed squad engineered this mess and they are cleaning up big bucks at everyone else's expense. So the job loss deal is just another phase of "Operation Ripoff". Corps could easily absorb this by just keeping their workers and maybe even hiring more on a temporary basis. I think they are culling employees right now and blaming the economy for it. So maybe the job loss deal is an advantage to some getting laid off. Getting out of an organization you don't like may be the best idea...and the Bush family appears to be bank robbers to me..until I get more information anyway! BTW, being from Texas had the effect of making me want to not see them in this light at all. 
But I cannot help calling it as I see it...I'll know I am somewhat right if this goes away real fast.. I apologize if this seems political...not my intentions at all..moderators may remove it if it appears to be that...