Is your job holding up?

[Anton Phibes]

In this economy, it seems I get more bad news every day.  My wife is cut to 30 hours a week for the rest of the year!  I am facing the possibility of a $5 an hour paycut, as I am going to go from skilled labor/line leader to(God help me)...a sanitation worker.  Yes, because production is low, and steel isn't being bought up, my seniority is going to place me cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors at 40 years old.

I am aware that all things pass...but this is depressing. Just wondering if anyone else is a blue collar man/woman facing this nightmare. I just feel like I am watching the death of 'The American Dream' the way our country is struggling.  So now I am going to go watch "Shockwaves".  Because like my bosses..."Once, they were almost human!"

[NekroDave]

Quick answer to your thread title...no.

You're not alone. My regular gig, carpet cleaning, used to bring me anything from $600-1200/week. Now, I'm lucky to get $300 and didn't make a DIME at all last week. There's more to it besides the economy, but having that done is not exactly a priority for a lot of people right now either.

I just got back from my second job, which feels more like my first job at this point, washing dishes back at the restaurant I left for greener pastures over 10 years ago.  I don't really mind the work, but it doesn't pay well as you can imagine.

Fortunately, I don't have many responsibilities to worry about. So while I wish I were further ahead than I am, I know things are a lot worse for some.

[monsterphile]

Nope.  The company where I worked for more than 12 years went belly up on April 30th.  Now I try to take care of my "Honey Do" list daily.  I'll probably try to get back to Ebay selling again to bring some extra $.

Rob

[BlackLagoon]

I messed up my shoulder and got surgery the end of Feb. Right after surgery my company let me go and I hear they are on their last leg. With rehab being over in about a month I'm looking for work as we speak...I'd hate to go from disability to unemployment. I also still have a small side business that I was looking to make my full time gig. Its a REALLY hard time to start a business right now so I'm just taking it as it comes and counting my blessings I was smart enough to get almost debt free before surgery.

Hope everyone going through a rough time financially makes it through ok, keep your heads up guys.

[Fester]

Perversely, my workplace is experiencing an upswing.  After college and grad school and a Masters in History, I did not have the most marketable education in the world.  After a couple of years as a stay-at-home dad (read unemployed) I ended up working two jobs.  I worked running a concession stand at the Spokane Arena and at the baseball park.  I also managed to find work at the local plasma center (I was a donor there for a while).

Production at the plasma center has increased dramatically in the last two years.  My center had 30 employees and we were lucky to have 200 donors on a good day.  In the last month, the staff has grown to nearly 80 and we are averaging almost 400 per day.   Most plasma donors come in twice a week, and can make about $250-300 per month.  And lately, that cash comes in handy for a lot of people.

[coughcool]

I work at Chrysler. Nuff Said. 

[Crazy1van]

The one thing I cannot deny about the military is job security.  After 19+ years of active duty I am set to retire next spring, at which point I will be looking for work for the first time in 2 decades.  I'm rather hoping the market is looking better by then.

My son is still living with his mother at age 20, because he can't land a full-time job, even with a trade school education in plumbing under his belt.  My daughter is working two part-time jobs, but she's gone through more jobs in the last two years than I've gone through socks... and trust me when I tell you that my nails are not easy on socks.

[Scatter]

Nope........ it's not shocking that folks just aren't asking to have pools built or repaired or maintained much these days. Folks who had 20-30 grand to burn installing a pool are now sitting on their money. Folks who need their pools refinished are not as concerned with aesthetics these days. Folks who used to pay to have their pool maintained cut that expense immediately (along with the yard guy and the cleaning service).

I USED to work a second job for the insurance. But now that the insurance has risen to $730 bucks a month for my wife and I, and another $120 per month for Jordan, I can't afford that anymore.

So now I'm working the second job to keep my head above water.

But God has blessed us with a happy, loving monster home (mortgage free) and a couple of cars (paid off), so He's providing in the midst of the storm. If I still had a mortgage and car payments I'd be toast.

[zombiehorror]

Mine is still there but I've only worked about 2 weeks this year and one of those I was being loaned out to another company.  The problem now isn't the work, it's the rain, can't put in streets if it doesn't stop raining.  Even still if it drys out long enough I doubt there will be enough work to keep busy for even a couple of months.

I was giving it until late June and if I'm not steady back to work I'll definitely have to find something, it's great keeping the kids home with me but I'm just eating up unemployment and will be sh*t out of luck come winter when I'm normally out of work anyway.

[ChattyLMS]

I still have both my jobs.  I'm still doing the bookkeeping for my hubby's company.  I'll always have that one.  And I have my real job, subbing.  I have worked more this year than any other.  And we've been able to sock it right into the bank.  I had a setback to the account of $400 for car repairs (the deductible on my stupid accident), and I'll have another $500 setback in July for some dental work.  But we're still doing OK.  The bad thing is that my hubby is considered a supplier to the auto companies.  Business is very slow, but we're not starving.

[Wicked Lester]

 Most plasma donors come in twice a week, and can make about $250-300 per month.  And lately, that cash comes in handy for a lot of people.

Are you serious? Making $ donating! How do I find a place like that? I could use the xtra $.

[Paul L]

Hey Lester, here in IA there's an outfit called BioLife where you can donate plasma for $. Google them & see if they're in your area.

[Wicked Lester]

My company (a major distributor of power tools) took a BIG hit this year. In Feb we lost nation wide 15% of our sales staff. We also lost an entire dept. out of our location here in IL. Then in Apr we were told that our Atlanta branch was going to bite the dust and the warehouse stock moved to another GA location 1/2 hr away. It will be assimilated by our USA manufacturing plant who's production is down by like 40%. Then the first day in May we got shot outta nowhere that our customer service dept and HR in IL was going bye bye. It was a bad bad day. I've been with the company a long time and to see long time work friends come in like it was a normal day and suddenly some of the ladies are crying and packing up boxes...
 One older lady,prob 60 + said to me. $%#(*at*) so after 26 years it comes down to this!
So our location has gone from 40 people in the building to 24 including big guys. I'm pretty sure my job is safe for another 2-3 years anyway especially since we are centrally located and we will as of July 1st be down to only 3 locations.
Even so the expected stellar review was followed by the also expected NO RAISE. Not a problem even tho the health ins. went up. Also my house value has dropped $70,000 in the last 18 mos yet my property taxes have gone UP almost 30% in the last 2 years. My wifes car will be paid off in 3 mos so thats another $300 a month I don't need to worry about..er that I can attach to the CC paymentS or my kids college loans.. It never ends does it?

My heartfelt sympathy to those that are in that WTF I have to survive on Hotdogs Mac & Cheese and cereal and screw the CC bills mode. Did that for many years early on. I still buy a few minor things here and there.

Right now I'm trying to justify to the wife why I NEED a pair of cool Witch hands($40) to go with my Death Studios Swamp Witch mask.
My wife is white collar and makes about 10 G a year more than me. Her dept was outsourced in Mar and she was the only person to be transferred to another dept in the company. Tho she didn't know it til the day after they were told. I can say that it is one hellish feeling to think that you lost your major source of income.
I like how a company uses a simple term like "restructuring" when actually it means "Thanks for all your years of dedication but you don't matter anymore because it's all about a profit so you are now SOL,have a nice life"

[Anton Phibes]

My heartfelt sympathy to those that are in that WTF I have to survive on Hotdogs Mac & Cheese and cereal and screw the CC bills mode. Did that for many years early on. I still buy a few minor things here and there.

Not quite to this point yet...but I did have to borrow out of an already anemic 401k to catch up.  See, I went through all of 2006 and the first 1/4 of 2007 "locked out".  That's a fancy way of saying the union and the company couldnt agree on who could produce a more virile urine flow.  In the interim, no one would hire me because I was blacklisted.  Unemployment only lasted for 6 months at that time at 1/2 my salary.  I wound up living off of my recently paid off cc's for 17 months.  Gas was at its highest rate ever then, my roof tore up, my cars tore up, dryer tore up and wife was fed up.  we thougth when the labor dispute was over we'd get caught up....but it aint happening in this economy.  So now I need to throw up.

[ChattyLMS]

I'm sorry Dr Phibes.  I hope that things get better for you and for all of us.  When you said that your wife got fed up, I hope that doesn't mean she left you.  God Bless, my brother.